Mindscape Prints
Richard Mayhew is a 96-year-old artist from New York. He is best known for his landscape paintings that he calls “mindscapes.” They are colorful, emotional and often imagined. What do you notice about “Indigenous Spiritual Space (Ser. No. 7)”?
Mayhew is inspired by the constant growth and recycling he finds in nature. He also sees these qualities in his Shinnecock, Cherokee Lumbee and African American heritage. For Mayhew, making art helps to heal “the long trauma that Black and Native communities have experienced.”
This particular “mindscape” may exist only in the artist’s head. The title could also refer to a state of mind or even a physical location. Indigenous spaces exist all around us here in the United States. The Georgia Museum of Art is on Eastern Band Cherokee, Yuchi and Mvskoke land. Imagine who might have lived on this land before you. How do you feel thinking about it? Do any colors come to mind?
For this project, you will use food coloring, baking soda and vinegar to make a work of art about somewhere real or imaginary that is important to you.
Richard Mayhew (American, b. 1924), “Indigenous Spiritual Space (Ser. No. 7),” 1993 – 94. Oil on canvas, 33 1/4 × 37 1/4 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; The Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection of African American Art. GMOA 2012.139.
For this activity you will need:
- vinegar
- baking soda
- food coloring
- paper
- a rimmed baking sheet
- a paintbrush
To make your mindscape:
- Imagine a place. This can be somewhere you would like to visit, somewhere from a memory or your home. How do you feel there? How do you imagine other people feel there? What colors do you associate with those feelings?
- Pour ½ cup of vinegar into different cups. Add a few drops of food coloring to each cup. Mix until you’re happy with the color. These will be your paints!
- Pour baking soda onto the baking sheet. Use your paintbrush or fingers to push it around so that it forms ridges that represent your landscape. What designs do you imagine?
- Quickly pour one color at a time onto different sections of your pan. The vinegar and baking soda will get foamy! Try not to shake the pan or the colors will mix.
- As soon as possible, gently place a piece of paper on the bubbling surface. Lift and flip it over to see the print of your mindscape!