John Isiah Walton
Yellow Mary
2020

About the Item

There are certain pockets of Black America unique enough to become heritage tourist destinations, at which point they become subject to the Disney-fication of their cultures along with general degradation due to #overtourism as they submit their local development and economies to a capricious, external motor. This painting is meant to draw parallels between two such pockets of Creole Black America found in both New Orleans and the Gullah Geechee areas of coastal Georgia & South Carolina. Not only do the two areas share Gumbo as a signature dish but both have experienced National portrayals in popular culture. At first glance, the cartoon characters in the bottom left bear resemblance to Tianna and the frog from Disney’s The “Princess and the Frog” but upon closer inspection, one can see the character is actually Yellow Mary from Gullah biopic “Daughters of the Dust” and the frog is actually Binya Binya Pollywog from “Gullah Gullah Island”. Yellow Mary guards the grounds of the Hilton Head Islands, an area that once preserved the most Africanisms in the entire US but has now become a popular golf destination where Gullah burial grounds litter the backyards of million-dollar condos. Divert your eyes to the top where you can select your Arrival and Departure dates in just a few clicks! That top square is balanced by the bottom Materia square, where aspects of Gris-Gris, Fire, Water, and a Bottle Tree signify the island’s cultural tensions between elements of Magic and Realism. JOHN ISIAH WALTON was born in 1985 in New Orleans, where he currently lives and works as a fine artist. He attended St. Augustine H.S. (1999-2002) and graduated from Sarah T. Reed H.S. (2003). Walton received an AA degree in 2012 from Delgado College, New Orleans. Walton has been a member of Second Story Gallery (2012- 13) and The Front, New Orleans (2014-2017) Level Artist Collective (2015-Present). He has lectured about his work to the graduate program at UNC, Chapel Hill (2014) & his work was donated to the permanent collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Creator:

John Isiah Walton (1985, American)

Creation Year:

2020

Dimensions:

Height: 70 in (177.8 cm)Width: 70 in (177.8 cm)

Medium:

Canvas,Oil

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century