Our Profile Picture

The profile picture will change from time to time based on the group's preference. The current profile picture is an image that was created by Synthia Saint James, entitled Brilliance. I thought that this was a good representation of the group because it pictures mainly women/femmes, and a few men/masculine/butch characters. One of Saint James' trademarks is the lack of facial characteristics in her paintings. I like this aspect of her work because it allows the viewer the luxury of imagining facial characteristics for the figures.

Saint James includes multiple hues and hair colors to denote racial difference and age. These people gather together and look up to a woman with grey hair. At the bottom of the image are smaller figures, young people who also look up, but there is also a girl holding a book, who seems to be glancing up from her reading to listen. This is what I think our group is about, respecting our feminist foremothers and communities of origin, but also engaging in our scholarly work. What the image does not depict, is the immense struggle that it takes to do all of that simultaneously. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail.

Finally, I like the title of the piece "Brilliance" because it defies Western notions of brilliance and intelligence. Western philosophers, of the dead white man variety, have long touted that brilliance and intelligence are individual pursuits to be cultivated alone--solemnly, but this image illustrates that knowledge, brilliance, and intelligence are created in the context of a community. This way we do not forget that we are not here solely for personal advancement, rather we are here to advance the cause of social justice, in our communities and around the world.