harvest, magnitude, & bond

insights into my latest & largest neon painting yet

“That time

we all heard it,

cool and clear,

cutting across the hot grit of the day.

The major Voice.

The adult Voice

forgoing Rolling River,

forgoing tearful tale of bale and barge

and other symptoms of an old despond.

Warning, in music-words

devout and large,

that we are each other’s

harvest:

we are each other’s

business:

we are each other’s

magnitude and bond.”

(From The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks (Library of America, 2005).
Copyright © 1970 by Gwendolyn Brooks.)

it’s been a long while since i’ve taken on commissioned work, but last October, a collector of mine reached out and asked if i’d consider creating a neon painting for her and her family. when she did, my thoughts immediately turned toward a desire i’d had for nearly a year to create a neon text-based work that referenced Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “Paul Robeson”. Robeson was a Black singer, artist, and activist who was also blacklisted in America and Hollywood for his criticism of the United States’ foreign policy as well as his commitment to civil and human rights and international peace during the McCarthy/Red Scare era. Brooks celebrated his life and leadership upon his death with this poem; the final lines have gone on to become well-recognized and highly referenced, especially in community organizing and activist spaces and movements.

Paul Robeson, 1942, photo by Gordon Parks

i’ve referenced these lines before, in the titling of another painting from late 2023 (“gwendolyn brooks is correct, we are each other’s harvest, business, magnitude, & bond”), but i remember at the time seeing the words harvest, magnitude, & bond as individual, brightly colored flashes of neon text in my mind’s eye. each word blinked on and off, one after the other, in a rhythmic fashion, as if synchronized with music.

gwendolyn brooks is correct, we are each other’s harvest, business, magnitude & bond, 2023

while i’d always envisioned creating a neon based work referencing this literary text, knowing just the small amount of information i had thanks to previous conversations with her about her family, some of her experiences as a mother, and what she values, i felt this particular idea would be well-suited to her family specifically. i shared the poem, my idea, and why i felt these words were appropriate for her family, asking her to trust my vision for the work. she agreed on both the idea and the desired size. i ordered the canvas from my folks over at DoubWorks, and then i reached out to my friends at Lite Brite Neon to see if they could help me bring my vision for the text portion of the work to life.

the blank canvas immediately after delivery from DoubWorks

it took some time to get the painting itself completed, as well as to settle on the design. early on, i thought just having the words was sufficient, but as time went on, i felt the pull to add something more, although i initially wasn’t sure what would make sense to include. then one day, while Austin was taking a break between his school lessons, he pulled out his sketchpad and markers and joined me at the table where i was thinking through the placement of the text. i had my handwritten samples of each word spread out on the table in front of me, and as i moved them around in various configurations, Austin asked me to tell him about the piece and why i’d chosen those words. i shared the poem and a bit about Paul Robeson with him, even watching a few clips of Robeson singing. i asked Austin for his thoughts on how the words should be placed and then had a thought: what if he drew something simple in response to the words and we added that as a finishing touch? we talked it out, and in the end, he settled on a flower growing out of the dirt, because he said both the words and the painting reminded him of our garden beds last summer. this made me incredibly happy, as did his drawings. he did a few iterations and then chose what he felt was the best and likely easiest one for LBN to make into neon. i sent scans of his drawing as well as some notes about it and my desired text placement to LBN; when they sent me a series of final renderings to choose from and approve, i think my heart nearly exploded with delight and a sense of pride.

the next step was to choose a color for the neon itself. i went into it thinking that the color that was selected for the rendering was the perfect choice, but once the color wheel was lit up in front of the painting in my studio, i wasn’t quite sure. while it was easy to narrow it down to just two colors, i found it quite difficult to make a final selection. one color was perfectly suited to the golden base color of the painting, giving me the warmth and sensation i feel when i think of the word harvest. the other was slightly different in tone; it would’ve worked fine, but ultimately i went with the former.

once i saw a photo of the actual finished piece just a couple of weeks ago, i just…quietly sobbed for about 2-3 minutes at my desk. while i didn’t anticipate having such a strong reaction to not only seeing it in its finished state but to also see Austin’s own artistic creation rendered in neon light underneath text sampled after my own handwriting, i couldn’t even help nor contain myself. the tears began to flow hard and fast out of my eyes instantaneously. i just sat there soaking in the visual, a bit incredulous that it was real. it also felt whole to me; looking at it elicited a sense of celebration, love, unity, and a groundedness i tend to feel in both in my core and the bottoms of my feet when i am thinking of my family and our bonds with each other. i attribute that sense to the inclusion of Austin’s flower. it’s simplistic, sure, but the impact is layered and fills me with a range of emotions and memories.

i don’t quite know yet if i will use these words again for another neon-based work, but i’m so pleased to see this iteration of my original vision for this literary reference take on this form. a family is the perfect home for this one.

many thanks to Austin for working with me and adding his own touch to this work, as well as to the team at Lite Brite Neon for once again adding their craftsmanship, creativity, and literal breath to this. in so many ways, they feel like family to us, too.