Root Of Laughter Artist Statement
Artist Statement
By Alicia Armstrong
In Humanities class, we learned about the reconstruction period following the Civil War. I have based my project off the New Orleans massacre in which Black men wanted the vote and were attacked by a white mob, killing 238 people, 200 of which were the Black Soldiers. My assignment was to construct an historical narrative. I chose to portray my narrative in a screenplay in the same format as William Shakespeare. My play consists of two acts, stage directions, and background information on the Reconstruction Period. The play is seen through the perspectives of the two female black and white protagonists, Jenny and Ellis.
I have titled my screenplay “The Root of Laughter” which is based off of one of my favorite authors, Mark Twain. He stated that “The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow.” The closing laughter between Jenny and Ellis symbolizes the deep sadness at its root.
I have brought my artistic interests into my project by painting three canvases portraying the five main characters in my screenplay. In my paintings, I have used dark blues and greens to emphasize the emotional impact each character brings to my narrative. Notice how the skies don’t have any light colors. The live characters are isolated in my paintings while the dead characters blend into to dark colors of the sky.
The small painting is of Jenny, the newly freed slave girl who works for Ellis and Marcus Kinley. Her striking green eyes tell her story of the perseverance and difficult obstacles many young black girls encountered during this period. She stands out from the darkness and wears a yellow dress to symbolize the light that she brings to the world around her and emphasize her importance in the story.
The larger painting of a woman is Ellis, Jenny’s friend and former master. She has tears in her eyes to portray the sadness that she can’t express in the play because of her husband’s abusive relationship to both Jenny and her. In the background, you will notice a ghostly face right behind her. This is her son, Levi, whose death is the turning point in her own perspective in the story. He is behind her to symbolize her pain and connection to him.
The other large painting is Mr. Kinley. He is portrayed in a red shirt to emphasize the bloodshed that he has caused. He has a tint of red in his eyes to show the hate and anger that he holds in his heart. He represents the white male farmers that couldn’t accept the outcome of the civil war and were still pro-slavery. Behind him, in the clouds, is Ashton, Jenny’s brother, the first black man that Mr. McKinley has ever actually killed. He is in the clouds to provide a sense of ghostly reminder of the price both men have paid for the painful reconstruction following the war.
Both my play and paintings represent the confusion, anger, violence, and sadness that haunted both black and white people after the Civil War. In part, it represents my own anger towards the hatred and senseless deaths in our American History.