Pelican and the Vampire

Pelican and the Vampire is a painting about unconditional love. In the Middle Ages, sailors who watched Pelicans feed their young thought they were feeding them blood from their chests, and this became a Christian symbol of unconditional love. In this painting, the woman represents the Pelican; she is made up of and surrounded by various religious iconography meant to span the breadth of space and time. At her feet lies a vampire, or a demon of ignorance,  finally subdued. It has always been my estimation that women of colour have borne the brunt of racial prejudice worldwide, and I wanted to exalt them to the highest status in the face of such oppression. The woman has finally tamed the demon, succumbs to her charms and sits at her feet as she stands victorious, full of grace.

• Oil on canvas

• 44”x60”

• (2010)

This image was used as the poster image for the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, PQ (2010); exhibited at Michael Berger Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA (2010); the Grand Central Cultural Center in Santa Ana, California (2011); Bash Contemporary in San Francisco (2015); the Halle Saint Pierre Outsider art museum in Paris, France (2019); Matt Namour Gallery in Montreal (2016), Quebec; and Thompson Landry Gallery in Toronto, Ontario (2020).

Related works: Auto Erotic Immolation, Complicated Shadows, Introspection, Nkondi, Sneaky Work at the Crossroads, and Venus Envy.