Murray State University’s Department of Art and Design and University Galleries hosted an annual lecture as part of the Patricia L. Summerville series in late August with guest artist-in-printmaking Delita Martin, whose exhibit “Sometimes My Blues Change Colors,” in the Clara M. Eagle Gallery through Oct. 27.
Martin said she hoped to pass on to students some insights into being an artist and encourage young artists that they can pursue art as a full-time career and find success.
“One of the things that I stressed to the students was that it is absolutely possible to have a thriving career in the arts. I wanted to express to them that you know being engaged in the art community, looking at other artists, following their path can be kind of like a blueprint for them,” she said. “They glean off information from other artists that they can incorporate into their practice to help them to develop their career.”
Coming from a family of artists, Martin was surrounded by a variety of mediums. She said she had known that she was going to do something artistic since she was 5 years old.
“According to my parents, they affectionately referred to me and introduced me to friends and family like, ‘Hi, this is our baby daughter and she's an artist,’” she said. “I'd go get my coloring sheets or whatever I was working on, but there was never a plan B. I always knew that I would go to college and pursue the arts –- Texas Southern University, in particular. Dr. John T. Biggers founded our department, and my father studied under Dr. Biggers. So it was kind of a natural progression for me to go [there].”
Martin said that drawing was her entry into the arts, as it was something she would do with her father in his art studio.
“My father and I would, you know, go into the studio and we would work sometimes on weekends. Drawing was really big in my family. But I got to a point where I was thinking that, you know, I'm drawing and there's nothing else I can do in the world of drawing, and that's totally not true,” said Martin. “Printmaking was the next natural evolution for me. And although drawing is my first love, printmaking was kind of like an evolution of drawing, so I just switched out the pencil or the charcoal for a carving knife or a litho crayon.”
After learning the basics of printmaking, Martin said she wanted a more authentic experience and sought to create something new.
“I firmly believe in learning the rules to break the rules, that's very important. So once you understand the traditional processes and how it was intended to or previously this the process for printing,” she said. “ Yeah, break all of those rules.”
While she identifies as a printmaker, she said she brings a lot of different skills to her toolbox, and that these elements are used to tell a story through art.
“I very much bring in drawing. I bring in paintings. I have stitching elements in my work. So there's all of these tools that I have in my toolbox that I bring into printmaking,” said Martin. “And even though I identify as a printmaker, I think it's important to tell a story. And whatever I need to tell that story, those are the elements that I bring into the work.”
One example of this is her mixed media exhibit “Sometimes My Blues Change Colors,” which she said was inspired by African sculptures and cubist works by Pablo Picasso. Martin used a combination of printmaking, drawing, painting, collaging and hand-stitching to explore African American women’s identities beyond stereotypes.
“So my work at its core is about reconstructing the identity of African American women…You look at media today and even historically, these are women who have been marginalized, who have had to deal with stereotypes,” she said. “What my work does is offers a different narrative, and what I believe to be a truer narrative of the community that I grew up in among Black women.”
Martin said there was a particular interaction with her exhibit that had an impact on her. She said that moment was when she knew she was reaching people in the way she desired.
“I had an exhibition and this church group came and there were probably about 15 older men and women and this little old lady walks up to me and she grabs my hand and she has tears in her eyes and she says, ‘I want to thank you, because you are showing us in all of our beauty, our lips, our noses, you know, our hair, our curly hair, our dark skin, and you've made us beautiful,’” she said. “And at that moment, it really confirmed for me that I was doing what I was meant to do.”
“Sometimes My Blues Change Colors,” is on display at the Clara M. Eagle Art Gallery on the main campus of Murray State University through Oct. 27. It is free and open to the public.
