What is Soul?

I had a fantastic idea for a project this week, HAD being the operative word. After listening to the Spiritual and Gospel songs on loop for a couple of hours, I was at a loss for ideas…

How do you portray something as heavy and culturally loaded in an artwork? What is soul?

I’m running back to the idea of warmth --but it’ more.

Light

Struggle

Vulnerability

Centeredness

Something ephemeral

Does this mean you have to struggle to have soul?

Something so raw it hurts

Soul is shrine

Soul is goose bumps

Soul is energy

I’ve been running in circles with these ideas. I don’t think it can be visually portrayed in one attempt –no good art ever is.

For this weeks project, I’m building on last week’s themes of light, shadow and negative space. Baby steps. I think I’ll work with text and a favorite quote from this week’s readings

Two arguments:

“You are black, which means you live too close to the sun. Black is evil.”

“ You are white…which means you live too far way from the sun. You have no color…no soul.”