“It’s just therapeutic to paint,” said Christine Whaley, also known by her painting moniker of Melosa Basquiat. Whaley paints under this moniker as a tribute to her late cousin, Jean-Michel Basquiat, a famous painter from the 1980s who created works which drew on Basquiat’s “own Caribbean heritage; a convergence of African American, African, and Aztec cultural histories; classical themes; and pop cultural figures including athletes and musicians.”
On Thursday April 28, Whaley, along with her husband, Gerald (who is an artist and a filmmaker), visited SUNY Old Westbury to give a presentation on her work, which was inspired by the paintings of her cousin. Also present at the presentation were the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Old Westbury, and the director of the art gallery.
Christine started off her presentation by talking about her inspiration for painting, Jean-Michel. According to Christine herself, she never really got to know her cousin, and felt a hesitance to paint earlier in her life, as she didn’t want to have comparisons with Jean-Michel. However, Christine found herself learning more about her cousin over the years, discovering murals of him in New York, and discovering some of his artwork, which she became obsessed with analyzing and trying to figure out what Jean-Michel was truly talking about and trying to convey.
Although, Christine herself admits that she, to this day, has never truly figured it out. “I’ve been trying to figure out what he was saying (since I was a little girl), and I still haven’t figured it out,” Christine said. Despite that, her art discoveries were enough for her to find her calling, so she switched from being a construction project manager to an artist, just like her relative. Her artwork became the next (and main) focus point of her presentation on Thursday.
Some of Christine’s paintings include works like the Image Bearers series, which, in the words of Christine, “represents couples who are bearing their image and living their life to bear the image of God.” These include a painting of Christine and Gerald, which is the first painting included in the series.
Christine’s personal favorite painting was said to be a painting of Harriet Tubman, which depicts the late black activist with a wound on her head that she received when she was young, and holding a shotgun as a staff as a comparison to Moses. Other works included paintings like ICNY (Christine’s first painting), Love Wins, and I Am a Human Being.
These works and more can be viewed at Christine’s personal website (melosabasquiat.com), as well as on her Instagram pages @mindofmelosa and @melosabasquiat) and on her Facebook profile (Mind of Melosa).
