Louise Cutler is an award-winning Fort Collins-based artist, poet, teacher and the founder of the Beauty of Blackness Fine Art Show in Fort Collins. Her works include paintings, gilding and sculptures, and her show, “We Are Still Watching,” will open at Greeley’s Tointon Gallery of Fine Art on Friday, Jan. 19.
“‘We Are Still Watching’ makes us look at our past through the eyes of those who have gone before—Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks—among others who had their faith to guide, strengthen and direct them,” Cutler says. “They held onto the hope that things would get better for their children and future generations of Blacks. This exhibit is not just for people of the African diaspora but also for all who have fought and are still fighting against injustice and freedom.”
Cutler says that the exhibit grew out of a piece of art she created a few years ago entitled, “Screams of the Blkman.”
“There was something about one particular image of Heuy Newton (founder of the Black Panther Party), where just his eyes were uncovered, and they stood out in this piece even after I had completed it. It was as if this one person was looking out from the shadows to see how far we had come with what had been started.”
It was an image that spoke to her, and two years later she returned to the artwork and created “We Are Still Watching.”
“Researching old historical photos along with rediscovering the history behind them, I was able to connect past, present and future, and it was not pretty. I found out that there was so much missing from my/our history lessons,” she says.
Thirty 12-by-12-inch historical photo montages emerged from her research, along with six repurposed hanging door panels exploring man’s inhumanity to man, and one hanging installation based on “If You Shoot Me Will I Not Die?”—a revision of a famous line from “The Merchant of Venice.”
“We Are Still Watching” invites us to reflect on our past, examine our history and change the world around us. It reminds us that we have hope in something greater than ourselves. The exhibit—free and open to the public—runs through Feb. 23. The Tointon Gallery is located at 651 10th Ave. in Greeley.
