Giving thanks

Alma W. Thomas, “Wind Dancing with Spring Flowers” (photo: Yantar Yoga)

During COVID art has been consistently my escape, so something I’m deeply thankful for in this Thanksgiving season are all the museums and galleries that reopened (and hopefully will stay open). I’ve recently had a chance to visit a wonderful exhibit of works by Alma W. Thomas at the Phillips Collection, aptly titled “Everything is Beautiful.” Born in Georgia, she was a long-time DC resident and the first Black woman given a solo show at the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art at age 81. She graduated from Howard University and for many years taught art at Shaw Junior High School, while making her home at 1530 15th Street NW her artistic refuge. Although she developed the characteristic brush stroke style she is most known for late in life, she created many amazing pieces like the one I’m showing above.

I find Alma’s exuberant use of color and almost hypnotic lines simply mesmerizing. Her paintings evoke space, nature, sunlight, and sky. Every one of them transforms a moment she captured into an impressionistic memory the viewer can now powerfully connect with. She once said, “Through color, I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness, rather than on man’s inhumanity to man.” Indeed, even among turmoil and suffering of this life, or what Buddhists call Dukkha, her paintings focus on and spread a pure, powerful sense of joy. It’s not a fleeting moment of joy, but something more fundamental - an attitude, an outlook on life very much in line with the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu’s philosophy in The Book of Joy.

The sense of joy and gratitude are inextricably linked and they reinforce each other. So thank you, Alma, you are a true gift to us all!