Jumping At The Sun

In 1925, after moving to new York, Zora proved her seriousness as a writer when she published her first short story, Drenched in Light. It was Zora’s story of how she, indeed, “Jumped At The Sun”, thus fulfilling her mother’s desire for her to try and achieve her full potential.  The journey from Eatonville to New York was long and hard but enriching and fulfilling.

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s Drenched in Light

Jumping at the Sun, 1995
Monoprint
14” x 11”
SOLD

Spunky Woman

Hurston was fascinated with snakes, which was probably why she used them in several of her novels.  In Sweat, Sykes tries to get rid of his Christian wife Delia by putting a poisonous rattle snake in her clothes hamper. Delia escapes from the snake and flees from the house. Later, when Sykes returns home expecting to find his wife dead, the snake turns and bites him. Sykes dies.

Artist’s notes on Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston

Spunky Woman, 1988
Monoprint
14” x 11”
SOLD

Hog-Killing Time

Zora was born in January when the weather was cool and it was hog-killing time all over the country.  “Most people were either butchering for themselves, or off helping other folks do their butchering... It is a gay time. A big pot of seasoned hasslits cooking with plenty of seasoned, lean slabs of fresh-killed pork frying…”  But for Lucy Hurston, Zora’s mother, who was alone and in labor, it was a most difficult time.

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road

Hog Killing Time, 1989
Monotype
14” x 11”

Jonah

“The novel is basically John’s [Hurston, Zora’s father] story. He rises from a life as an illiterate laborer to become moderator of a Baptist convention in central Florida. The seeds of his tragedy are sown early: he cannot resist women, and although he is a powerful man of God when in the pulpit, he is a man among women when the inspiration ends…. Eventually his congregation rejects him, and he dies just as he has begun to understand both his success and his failure.”

Hurston biographer Robert Hemenway, discussing Hurston’s autobiographical novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine

Jonah, 1988
Monotype
10” x 8”

Daddy Had  A Big Lap

John Hurston, Zora’s father, was preacher of a small church in the town of Eatonville, Florida where she was born.  Although he was a good provider, much to Zora and her mother Lucy’s distress, he was known to visit other women.

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s Jonah’s Gourd Vine

Daddy Had a Big Lap, 1995
Hand-Colored Silk Aquatint
14” x 11”

A Family Man

“Jonah’s Gourd Vine is an autobiographical novel, not a document for understanding Hurston’s private life. It is usually dealt with as fictionalization of her parents’ marriage – complete with her father’s philandering, her mother’s steady strength, and Zora’s reaction to them both.”

Hurston biographer Robert Hemenway, discussing Hurston’s autobiographical novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine

A Family Man, 2009
Monoprint
14” x 11”

Out on a Limb

As a child, much to the consternation of her elders. Zora Neale Hurston was always asking questions.  No matter whether her probing made her happy or sad she kept on probing.  In Dust Tracks on a Road, Zora tells of how she sought refuge, after being rebuked by her elders, by climbing to the top of her chinaberry tree, which guarded the front of her front gate.

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God

Out on a Limb, 2009
Monoprint
14” x 11”

Corralled

“…for the last decade of her life she was frequently without money, sometimes pawning her typewriter to buy groceries… In her very last days Zora lived a difficult life – alone, proud, ill, obsessed with a final book she could not complete.”

Zora Neale Hurston – Robert Hemenway

Coralled, 2009
Monoprint
11” x 14”

Oh to be a Pear Tree

Oh to be a pear tree- any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world!  She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her.  Where were the singing bees for her?

Their Eyes were Watching God  – Zora Neal Hurston

Oh to be a Pear Tree , 2009
Monoprint
14” x 11”
SOLD

Crying Tears

“Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine.”… “She was borned in slavery time when folks, dat is black folks, didn’t sit down anytime dey felt lak it. So sittin’ on porches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her….So ah got up on de high stool lak she told me, but Pheoby, Ah done nearly languished tuh death up dere. Ah felt like de world wuz cryin’ extry and Ah ain’t read de common news yet.”

Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale

Crying Tears, 1990
Monotype
14” x 11”

In Love

Hurston’s romance between Janie and Tea Cake, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, is perhaps on of the greatest stories ever written.  It took two unhappy marriages for Janie to mature and realize that she had found her true love in Tea Cake.  He satisfied her emotional and physical needs and gave her the love, respect, and equality she so richly deserved.

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

In Love, 1988
Monotype
14” x 11”
SOLD

Strutting

“Fire!!, was a quarterly ‘devoted to the younger Negro artists’….  It was primarily the creation of a group of energetic and talented people centered around Hurston, Hughes and Thurman who enjoyed shocking the stuffy by calling themselves the ‘Niggerati’.  They met frequently to talk literature and politics, to gossip, and to party.

Zora Neale Hurston – Robert Hemenway

Strutting, 2009
Monoprint
11” x 14”

Voodoo Hoodoo

As part of her anthropological research, Zora participated in many rituals.  She writes, “When dark came, we went out to catch a black cat…. Then we repaired to a prepared place in the woods on a circle drawn and ‘protected’ with nine horse shoes. Then the fire and the pot were made ready… When the water boiled I was to toss in the terrified, trembling cat…. Before day I was home, with a small white bone for me to carry”

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men

Voodoo Hoodoo, 1989
Monotype
14” x 11”

Toe Party

The Toe Party exemplifies Zora’s ability and willingness to fade into and become a part of her research project on African-American folklore. At the Toe Party the girls hide behind a curtain while the men look their toes over.  Then the men buy the toes they want for a dime.  Black folks have long been able to find pleasure and happiness in spite of poverty and adversity. 

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men

Toe Party, 2009
Monoprint
14” x 11”

Fears

“What bob-cat, ‘Lige? Ah ain’t heered ’bout none.”
“Ain’t cher? Well, night befo’ las’ was the fust night Spunk an’ Lena moved together an’ jus’ as they was goin’ to bed, a big black bob-cat, black all over, you hear me, black, walked round and round that house and howled like forty, an’ when Spunk got his gun an’ went to the winder to shoot it he says it stood right still an’ looked him in the eye, an’ howled right at him. The thing got Spunk so nervoused up he couldn’t shoot. But Spunk says twan’t no bob-cat nohow. He says it was Joe done sneaked back from Hell!”

Spunk – Zora Neale Hurston

Fears, 1988
Monotype
14” x 11”

Bob Comes Back

“Spunk is a had-living, fearless community hero who rides the circle saw at the saw mill, the most dangerous work on the job.  He openly steals Lena Kanty from her ineffectual husband, Joe, and dares him to do anything about it. When the store loungers humiliate him, the indecisive Joe takes a knife to Spunk, only to die when the more experienced fighter shoots him.  Freed after a plea of self-defense, Spunk moves Lena into his own home and prepares to marry her. He has not reckoned, however, with the ghost of Joe Kanty, who haunts him, first in the form of a black cat, later as an invisible force pushing him into the circle saw.”

Hurston biographer Robert Hemenway, discussing Hurston’s story, Spunk

Bob Comes Back, 1988
Monoprint
14” x 11”

Tell My Wife

This is a folk tale about a man who refused to obey his wife’s wishes by attending church on Sundays.  One Sunday he was pulled into the lake by a big cat fish who was hiding under a water lily.  “Some folk on de way to church seen him and run down to de water but he was too deep”

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men

Tell My Wife, 1988
Monotype
14” x 11”
SOLD

The Observer

“Jim captures an eight-foot rattlesnake and holds it by its head, calling Arvay outside to witness his virility.... When the snake wraps itself around Jim’s waist and threatens, Arvay cannot move:… ‘And in this terrible danger she went into a kind of coma standing there...’.” Jim is rescued by his faithful black friend.

Hurston biographer Robert Hemenway, discussing Hurston’s novel, Seraph on the Suwanee

The Observer, 1994
Monoprint
14” x 11”

As They Watched

A burst of thunder and lightning could be heard outside the house as the storm raged and the waters began to swell. Tea Cake and Moter stopped shooting crap. Janie, Tea Cake and Motor huddled closer and stared at the door. Six eyes were questioning God as their eyes were watching God.

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God

As They Watched, 1988
Monoprint
11” x 14”

The Gilded Six-Bits

“A young Eatonville wife, Missie May, is seduced by a traveling lothario whose main appeal is a gold watch charm. He promises her this gold coin, but at the moment of submission they are discovered by her husband, Joe. The cheapness of the affair and the tarnish of the marriage is represented by the coin left behind – instead of a ten-dollar gold piece it turns out to be only a gilded half-dollar.”

Hurston biographer Robert Hemenway, discussing Hurston’s story, The Gilded Six-Bits

The Guilded Six Bits, 1988
Monotype
14” x 11”

Arvay Meserve

“The novel is about Arvay Henson Meserve , a women seemingly very different from Zora, whose life is defined by her marriage; Arvay is a woman searching for herself, trying to overcome a deep feeling of inferiority that leaves her believing she is not worthy of her strong, handsome, ambitious husband.... Jim, on the other hand, plays cruel tricks on Arvay, has no respect for her intelligence, and abuses the unusual power he holds over her.”

Hurston biographer Robert Hemenway, discussing Hurston’s novel, Seraph on the Suwanee

Arvay Meserve, 1988
Monotype
14” x 11”

Running To Freedom

In her novel, Moses Man of the Mountain, Hurston makes the identification between captive blacks in America and the children of Israel in Egypt. The exodus of black slaves, running to freedom with the help of Harriet Tubman, can be compared to Moses leading the children of Israel across the Red Sea into Egypt.

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Moses, Man of the Mountain

Running to Freedom, 1988
Monotype
14” x 11”
SOLD

Crossing Over

Zora, truly one of the most gifted and talented writers of our times, spent a period of wandering after her mother’s death while in search of self, a place of belonging and academic excellence. The pain, loneliness and anxiety that accompanied her quest were not uncommon to many artists, as well as to Moses: “The soft murmur of sandals and bare feet kept up in the night without a moon as Moses and his hosts moved on.”

Artist’s notes on Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Moses, Man of the Mountain

Crossing Over, 1988
Monotype
11” x 14”

The Runaway Church, 1988
Monotype
14” x 11”
SOLD

Mothers

“‘This is law. Hebrew boys shall not be born. All offenders against this law shall suffer death by drowning.’
So women in the pains of labor hid in caves and rocks. They must cry, but they could not cry out loud. They pressed their teeth together. A night might force upon them a thousand years of feelings. Men learned to beat upon their breasts with clenched fists and breathe out their agony without sound. A great force of suffering accumulated between the basement of heaven and the roof of hell. The shadow of Pharaoh squatted in the dark corners of every birthing place in Goshen. Hebrew women shuddered with terror at the indifference of their wombs to the Egyptian law.”

Moses Man of the Mountain – Zora Neal Hurston

Mothers, 1988
Monoprint
14” x 11”

Enclosures

“Then Africa has her mouth on Moses.  All across the continent there are legends of the greatness of Moses, but not because of his beard nor because he brought the laws down from Sinai. No, he is revered because he had the power to go up the mountain and to bring them down….That calls for power, and that is what Africa sees in Moses to worship.  For he is worshipped as a God.”

Moses Man Of The Mountain – Zora Neale Hurston

Enclosures, 1989
Monotype
14” x 11”

The Catfish, 2009
Hand-Colored Transfer Drawing
36” x 24”
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

A Treasure Chest of Tales, 2009
Hand-Colored Transfer Drawing
24” x 36”
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE