On My Way: The Arts of Sarah Albritton

Growing up African American in rural north Louisiana in the 1930s and '40s, Sarah Albritton has managed to take care of herself in her own way. On her journey away from the Hell of poverty, abuse, and racism she experienced, Sarah Albritton has expressed herself verbally and visually in a variety of modes: food preparation, preservation, and demonstration, restaurant decor, yard art, annual outdoor Christmas decorations, autobiographical prose and poetry, and most recently, personal experience narratives and painting. This color catalog of her first touring exhibition presents a series of forty-seven paintings (1993-1998), representing significant memories from her youth and symbolic statements of her religious philosophy and spiritual vision. Accompanying the paintings are Albritton's stories as recorded and transcribed by folklorist Susan Roach and edited by Roach and Albritton, along with interpretive, illustrated essays on her arts by the curators.