Washboard Stories

painted washboards hanging on a wall

 

 

The 20 washboards in this series were created to illustrate courage, cooperation, perserverance and freedom. To create the illustrations on the washboards I had to do extensive and often painful research into the past. I studied slave narratives and historical documents to better understand the story and to be able to retell it as a painting. I felt it was necessary to include as much historical documentation as possible because this was not my story but the story of a people. I did not want to ficitonalize it but I wanted to make it biographical. Surviving in a slave system required a great deal of courage but to escape from slavery required not only courage but also help and cooperation from others. Maintaining freedom strangers and friends. The washboard represents the concept of getting something clean by laboring over it. This was the kind of perserverance that brought about the emancipation of people of color. These painting present a sanitized version of a dark and awful story. No painting, documentary, movie or book can truly tell all the horrors of slavery and the attempts to find freedom, but it is my hope that these paintings will remind us that with courage, cooperation and perserverance we can achieve freedom from any form of bondage and aid others who are locked in personal or forced slavery. A washboard is symbolic of making something useful of something socield and dirty. It has to do with recycling clothes so that they can be used over and over again. To keep freedom alive, the story must be told and retold. It must be recycled and applied to our daily life. This journey must never be forgotten, the path in the forest never lost, the lessons learned never forgotten.

The Underground Railroad Freedom Center is home to an expansive collection of stories and artifacts focused on the journey of African Americans in America. This exhibit by Mikaila Favorite illustrates the “courage, cooperation, perseverance” that was so vital in securing freedom and eventual rights for the African American people. Each washboard in the exhibit tells a different story, each board depicts a different plight or triumph.

This is a picture of the exhibit label for the “Washboard Stories” at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

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American historyartartworkcincinnatiCincinnati historyExhibitfreedomhistorylocal historyNational Underground Railroad Freedom CenterOhioohio historyslavery
By art, fall 2018, local history, museums & exhibits, PH Wild