All of a sudden there was this perfect storm of discovery that led to the discovery of roots and women and men who practice magic and can affect certain circumstances in your life.” I also discovered root stores and spiritual supply stores. “I started to make connections between all these religions and philosophies and the way they transformed in South America, the United States and the Caribbean. ![]() And then she made her first trip to New Orleans. There she developed an intense interest in voodoo. Stout’s career took a turn when she moved to Washington in 1985 and discovered the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American Art. Its liquid amber shadow is as lovely and mysterious as light bouncing off a lake. A painting of a small brown bottle, for example, endows the vessel with importance, making it come alive like a nkisi. Her skills in trompe d’loeil realism play a significant role in “Conjure Woman.” They enhance the power of objects while underscoring magic by tricking the eye. Trained in painting at Carnegie-Mellon University, Stout initially launched her career as a realist, influenced by painters Richard Estes and Robert Cottingham. Growing up in Pittsburgh, the granddaughter of steel workers, Stout first became interested in African beliefs at the age of 10 when she encountered a nkisi, a traditional wood statue from the Congo basin believed to contain spirits, while taking art classes at the Carnegie Museum of Art. The show was curated by Mark Sloan, director of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston, where the show debuted before coming to Atlanta. More than 60 works are on view, including paintings, drawings, video, hand-blown glass, mixed-media sculpture, prints and installation. Just opened at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, “Tales of the Conjure Woman” takes us into Fatima’s fictitious world to explore hoodoo, a voodoo-like practice covertly observed in some African-American communities throughout the United States. Mayfield is a healer who consults with the spirits, gives advice and uses roots, charms, oils and “goofer dust” (graveyard dirt) to help people. ![]() It’s a selfie but also represents Stout’s alter-ego, Fatima Mayfield, an herbalist and fortune-teller. This black-and-white photograph, titled “Listening to the Voice of a Spirit,” depicts a moment of attunement to a spiritual world. Her head turns to the left, her gaze focusing on something remote and undefined, something we cannot see. She stands in front of bookshelves that are jammed with texts and topped with carved African statues and apothecary jars containing herbs. One of the photographs in the exhibition " Renée Stout: Tales of the Conjure Woman" depicts the artist lost in thought in her Washington, D.C, home.
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