Artwork / Archives / Apple Pie / The Next President (African American, Chandra)
The Next President (African American, Chandra)
2007
acrylic on denim
34 x 31 inches
I asked each of the participants in Apple Pie to write something about what it means to be an American. This is Chandra’s response.
I never think about what it means to be an American. That term does not fit me; it is too small, too limiting. To do so would require me to divide myself into pieces-categories.
My name means “Moon Shining Bright...”
You see, as an American I am considered a minority but as the moon I am bright, a heavenly body—full, complete, and endowed with a godly light and subtle power, limited by no one, controlled by no one—shining.
When I painted this portrait of Chandra, the next President was Barack Obama—the first exhibition of Apple Pie was in September 2008, right before he was elected. But this painting was more a commentary on the status of Black women in America than a prediction for the election’s outcome. Ten years later, I painted the 45th President of the United States, a greedy and spiteful individual who made things more difficult for Black women and for marginalized populations in general. Here he is represented as a Tiki torch and here he is shown as a Hello Kitty kind of persona.
