Your #Panel61: Shotgun as Artistic Tool

In the final, 60th panel of The Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence leaves us with the words “And the migrants keep coming.” The story of migration is ongoing; what would the 61st panel look like today? Featured below are some thoughtful responses to this question by local artists. Submit your #Panel61 on our recently launched Jacob Lawrence website.

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Panel 61 submission: Mahnaz Weldy, “Humanity in Pain”

Mahnaz Weldy
In this piece, Humanity in Pain, I tried to show that we all are connected to one another, and if we have any conscious, then suffering of others should pain us all. I aimed to not only paint the pain and suffering, but also the human resilience and strength to survive the unimaginable. My work is a combination of acrylic, collage and chalk on canvas.

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Panel 61 submission: Jenny E. Balisle, “America Red, White and Blue.” 39 x 108 in. Colorplan paper and a Mossberg 500 shotgun

Jenny E. Balisle
The America series investigates diverse cultures and relationships between man-made and natural environments. Fascinated by flight or disorientation, I merge together disparate experiences to create new narratives. Colorplan sheets of cover stock sized 25 x 38 inches were brought to a gun range. Using a Mossberg 500 shotgun as a vehicle of mark making, paper was placed on a target seven yards away. The artwork records how patterns of power and inequality can be spread through distance and speed. It re-purposes a weapon into artistic commentary by altering function to explore identity, ideology, and equality. The paper represents life’s fragility and the pellet pattern explores America’s gun culture and military-industrial complex. The goal is to engage conversation on what it means to be American as a citizen and through a global context. The artwork reclaims social justice and questions what is normal. The orientation of the paper has been turned to face the viewer, confronting and asking by what means and price do we secure freedom for all at home and abroad.

Tiffany Jones’s Panel 61

The story of migration is ongoing. In the final, 60th panel of The Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence leaves us with the words “And the migrants keep coming.” The Phillips has invited contemporary artists to continue Jacob Lawrence’s work. Check the recently launched Jacob Lawrence website for additional works to be unveiled in this dynamic curated selection, or contribute your own #Panel61.

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Tiffany Jones, Migration by a New Generation (from unFaded), 2016. Mixed media on wood panel, 16 x 20 in.

Tiffany Jones, Migration by a New Generation (from unFaded)

JIM CROW: 1877–1960’s

GREAT MIGRATION: 1910–1970

Barbershops began defining their Black Space during the turn of the 20th century. The industry shifted from a service to whites into a foundation for the beginning of a black cultural movement. The number of black barbershops increased as a new generation considered the organization and safety of black communities.

Betye Saar’s Panel 61

The story of migration is ongoing. In the final, 60th panel of The Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence leaves us with the words “And the migrants keep coming.” The Phillips has invited contemporary artists to continue Jacob Lawrence’s work. Check the recently launched Jacob Lawrence website for additional works to be unveiled in this dynamic curated selection, or contribute your own #Panel61.

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(left) Betye Saar, Migration: Africa to America I, 2006. Mixed media assemblage, 14 x 12 x 6 1/2 in. Courtesy of Betye Saar and Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA. Photograph by Tim Lanterman for Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (right) Betye Saar, Migration: Africa to America I, 2006. Mixed media assemblage, 14 x 12 x 6 1/2 in. Courtesy of Betye Saar and Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA. Photograph by Tim Lanterman for Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

Betye Saar, Migration: Africa to America I, and Migration: Africa to America II 2006

In 17 mixed media collages and assemblages, Betye Saar (b. 1926) narrates 17 distinctive journeys. By layering carefully selected clues—a gold button, an African mask, a slave ship diagram, a weathered photograph, a pressed leaf, a tattered American flag—she constructs fictional biographies of nameless characters that represent the historical passages of millions. Haunted by memories of Africa or the trauma of the Middle Passage, Saar’s journeys remind us that history is not simply the recording of past events—it is a living, breathing entity, filling the space of our present and shaping contemporary identities.