Serafina Harris

Curtesy of a friend

Native Philadelphian, Serafina Harris is the current part-time intern at Brandywine Workshop and comes from a family of artists extending from sculptors to musicians. Serafina Harris is also the secretary at the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia. Her primary focus is to study art. She took an interest in art ever since she was a child, and has attended arts programs starting in the 8th grade with Mural Arts, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts after school program. She studied at  the Grand Central Atelier in New York and the Arts Student League and continues to study part time at Studio Incamminati.

Serafina Harris, Church of the Advocate Mural

Overarching praxis statement:

The way I work is disjointed, but mostly out of the blue. I do not plan my paintings, my paintings are constantly becoming what it is; the shapes of brushstrokes form shapes that form pictures and scenes that can come to a sense of meaning about life. This is why I work in layering. This is how I paint because I am in a hurry and do not feel comfortable yet with planning paintings, and since I am lazy and do not want to plan, my improvising has gotten very good. (This I either have to work on, but when I have a painting planned out ready to do, I am quite disciplined). However, this is why what I’m thinking is important. how I am feeling, what is happening in my life. this all guides what I am painting. This is why I study. This is why the work that I make and want to continue making is  grounded in a moral imperative for the freedom of human beings.  I wish it to be propaganda for humanity.  My art comes out of the will to do right for other people, to be honest and speak truth. It is the will that occurs because I wish to right the wronged. I strive because my people are striving, and suffering, some bending; some withstanding the ills of society which are war, imperialism and poverty.  My art is in response to the moral climate of today, which is to dehumanize, ostracize, and humiliate black people. My art  is grounded by this fact.

Curtesy of the artist

Current art and/or research interest:

Based on my theoretical development, I wish to study colorimetry to develop what I am doing with my palette.

Curtesy of the artist

More about the artist: HERE