Description

Created in 2016.
The figures in this piece are unsung pioneers of South Carolina and of America. The story behind its creation is compelling. The Gullahs are descendants of West Africans who were forced to the colony through the trans-Atlantic slave trade. While painting American Gullah , artist Sonja Griffin Evans was inspired to include many symbolisms in this masterpiece to tell an amazing mesmerizing story. Each subject in the painting spoke to her; telling her of the secrets that lies within them; passing down to her, a Gullah descendant, a story in traditional African storytelling form.

American Gullah is akin to Grant Woods American Gothic. It depicts a Culture Hero: A mythological, but yet real character who changes the world by inventing or discovering something. The figures in the painting understand that they have been gifted a talent to calculate formulas, labor and build the dangerously complex system for inland rice cultivation in the Carolina Rice Coast. They are truly Carolina Gold .