“Happiness is sometimes, joy is always.” Angela P. Shenk carries her grandmother’s message close to her heart. She also transmits it in her work, like our cover image, I Am Me, from Shenk’s “Black and Blue” series, named for a motif in black arts: finding joy in the blues. 

“In Black American art, there’s this idea of, you know, like the Monday Blues, that piece, and Black and Blues and some of the Langston Hughes poetry,” said Shenk, the daughter of a concert pianist and opera singer. The message is: “You’re black, you live in this country, there’s some blues about it, but the blues could also contain joy.” Despite any darkness, “don’t hide your light.”

She hopes viewers and readers can find their own light and their own joy. Joy is feeling yourself and knowing – not in an arrogant way – but knowing you’re a human being that’s worthy of love.” 

Next up for Shenk: a polyptych inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights celebrating Shenk’s grandmothers and her mother: the smart, talented women who showed the artist how to keep her own light bright.