Artist Sabrina Nelson displays her work, answers the question, "Who is Medicine?"
Students meet with artist, activist, and educator Sabrina Nelson as she presents her artwork
Sweet Marjoram, Ginger, Lemon balm and Coriander.
These are some of the healing herbs that represent the family of Sabrina Nelson in her art exhibition, “Who is Medicine?”. Her gallery is open for viewing in the Baber room of the Park Library until March 2.
In the exhibition, portraits of Nelson’s family are penciled alongside the different herbs.
Nelson chose the pairings based on her perception of the person's role in the family and what herbs correspond with their horoscope signs.
“Who is medicine, to me, means who are the people in your family that you feel are a part of medicine for you?” Nelson said.
One of the first pieces upon walking into the exhibition is a medicine cabinet.
“When you look in a medicine cabinet, the first thing you see is the mirror,” Nelson said. “So you are your own healer. You are your own medicine. That's what this is about.”
Inside of the cabinet sit old glass bottles with herbs and dried flowers, yellowed medicine papers and motivational quotes about healing the soul. Nelson collected medicine containers from antique shops and picked flowers for the exhibition from a lavender farm in Saugatuck.
“Maybe we should revisit the way our grandparents or grandmothers healed us from their kitchens and their bathrooms,” she said.
Students had the opportunity to chat with the Detroit-based artist, activist and educator about her exhibition on Feb. 8.
Dressed in a colorful robe speckled with small Frida Khalo's, Nelson stood in her embroidered red boots with a clear heel. Wooden bracelets dangled on her wrist and even the bottom of her shoes were patterned in florals.
Nelson has had a career in art for 32 years, but said she's been an artist all of her life. Some of her artistic motivation, she said, comes from spirituality, music and poets like Rumi.
Before “Who is Medicine?”, Nelson created an exhibition called “Why You Wanna Fly Blackbird?”
“From that series,” Nelson said, “I was thinking about the death of black and brown children and mothers who have to bury those children from deaths, typically murder.”
Nelson said "we are all sick", because we continue to live through a racial pandemic as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
After her “Blackbird” series and the sudden and unexpected loss of her father to COVID-19, she wondered, "how do we heal ourselves?”
For Nelson, the answer is family.
“I consider all of them medicine, and I haven't lost a sibling or child,” Nelson said. “So I've been blessed in that way.”
Busy lives have scattered Nelson and her family all over the world, but they still make time for each other on what they call 'sibling Sunday' - A day designated to catching up with one another and for Nelson to share her artwork.
“I was posting the pictures as I was working on them," she said. "They were all like ‘Oh, okay, that looks good'. My baby brother was like, ‘You better fix my hairline'."
Nelson said her family provides her with humor and love, that is her medicine. She said art is not only her language, but also her armor and weaponry against she believes is wrong with the world.
“This is my superpower, if you will,” she said. “If you could claim your superpower, what would it be? And what would you do with it?”
