Harmonia Rosales is well known for her piece "The Creation of God." This can be considered a recreation or even updated version of Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam." Rosales depicts God as an elderly and graceful Black woman surrounded by Black angels, an illustration of the birth of humankind. Since she neglected to portray God as the typical white male in the common narrative of Christianity, she received much backlash. (Note: I choose to capitalize every race but white as a form of decolonization.)
Many disagreed and disliked this image of course for the very reason of the uncomfortableness established in U.S. society of Black women in positions of power. I appreciate Rosales' dedication and passion in this piece and that she doesn't feel like she has to explain herself. Many times, people of color, especially women of color, are expected to educated those uneducated on issues of social justice and cultural literacy, when it is in fact, not our job. I admire her resilience and her lack of interest in the colonized mind's perspective and she is a model for those who create art not with the intent to please but to bring attention to marginalized communities' true narratives.
This painting is... breath taking. I think art can elicit reactions that are emotional and not necessarily within a repertoire of written language. Its hard to describe how I feel about this. It's like the imagery is so familiar yet somehow it seems to represent a completely new possibility. The originality is not the concept that god could be a black woman, but in the way that this art so thoroughly undermines white male hegemony. Its a little disorienting to take popular iconography, like we've seen other Latinx artists do, and alter it for the purpose of expanding its possibilities. I think its a reminder of the instability embedded within power structures, yet the beauty of simple ideas to overthrow centuries of oppressive practices.
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