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Ebony Marshman
Ebony Marshman
The Interludes: An Installation of Inner(re)visions
February 11, 2022 – March 27, 2022
Art as the manifestation of things imagined has always had the capacity to thwart constructs of “what is”, to reveal “what is also”. Inner(re)visions, relates to my relationship with my imagination, and what results of me centering my own gaze in my work and practice while navigating externally constructed realities. These paintings have come to be in a time that has been notable for its persistent isolation, yet the moments depicted here transcend loneliness. Each piece is its own respective contemplation of self, circumstance, ritual, reverence, prayer, and feeling. These self portraits are solitary, yet connected to scene and circumstance beyond what is depicted for the viewer.
What is also? In my art I often utilize paper, relating my painting practice to a constructive communion with self and spirit, much akin to journaling. Like journal entries, these paintings document moments in my life and imagination. Rather than rendering intricate settings to relay time and place, all of the information documented in my paintings reside in the flesh of my brush strokes, my use of color, and my technique. The rendered visual cues of: sighs, extended gaze, and the work of my hands, are all subtleties of narratives otherwise not shared. These depicted moments are the “between” moments and show what is happening between twisting, washing, and reading. Between disappointment, and on the journeys back to self. These moments are interludes.
In this installation, these moments of interlude become the main event. They are anchored in exploration of self, but what is self without lineage, connection, and Earth? The backdrop of these varied scenes are the breadcrumbs that lead me back home. The sounds of the breeze, and birds, and the Black feminist and womanist texts of my foremothers, are the threads that both stitch me back together, and create more room for me to expand into as I become more of myself, which is perhaps to become more of all.
The selected texts and verses from Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Toni Cade Bambara, all relate to nature and divinity, and self as nature; divine. In this lineage, I am continuing to explore what results of slowing enough to contemplate messages carried by breeze, the theater of birds, the roots and bloom of plants, and the wisdom of trees.
Ebony Marshman, The Interludes: An Installation of Inner(re)visions, 2022
Bio
Ebony Marshman
Ebony Marshman is an artist and early childhood educator that believes imaginations must be nourished. She received her BFA in Painting from Western Kentucky University in 2013, and M. Ed, in Montessori Education from Loyola University Maryland in 2016. Since completion of her Masters, Ebony has worked in Washington D.C. as a teacher in public Montessori schools.
In her art, Ebony frequently makes use of paint and paper. She relates to her practice of painting as a constructive communion with self and spirit much akin to journaling. Her most recent solo exhibition, Inner(re)visions (2021) at Western Kentucky University featured works from various bound collections of paintings that she refers to as “paintbooks”.
Ebony is 2013 recipient of a Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist Enrichment Grant, as well as a 2013 Jack E. Lunt Scholarship courtesy of the WKU Art Department. She has been the recipient of numerous scholarships to study abroad as well as a WKU Office of Scholar Development Lifetime Experience Grant.
Raised across the South, Ebony connects to her roots by connecting to the love and legacy of Black folx, who have had the audacity to joyously create while navigating life on this land. When she is not painting, Ebony enjoys grounding in nature, learning alongside children, and freedom dreaming.