Allison Janae Hamilton, a 40-year-old artist based in Chelsea, Manhattan, draws inspiration from her family's roots in rural Tennessee. Her collection, which consists of over 1,000 artifacts ranging from family photographs to historical documents, serves as a powerful homage to her heritage. By digitizing ancestral records and keeping family memories alive in her studio, Hamilton integrates these elements into her artwork. Notably, her recent exhibition features celestial paintings that reflect the essence of her family's legacy, revealing a profound connection between her past and present as an artist.
When everyone has been born and passed away on the same land, you have just a massive amount of artifacts, she says.
There's a frequency I'm able to tap into just by being surrounded by them while I'm working, Hamilton says of the images.
The shape of clouds in one painting, for example, echoes the silhouette of a group photo of her family in the studio.
I began digitizing copies of ancestral records... letters, yearbooks, handwritten recipes, all stored in boxes and albums on the property.
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