Ferrari Sheppard's 'My Name is Sarah' is a beautiful mystery.
Much like jazz, its possibilities are infinite.
Kristina Kay Robinson, poet, writer, and multidisciplinary artist wrote about the resonance of My Name is Sarah, 2021 and Ferrari Sheppard's work in the context of our latest release with Swizz Beatz, ‘Long Live Jazz!’
Jazz is the eternal union and juxtaposition of tradition and innovation, autonomy and harmony. One of the sacred musics of Black Americans, jazz's influence on both American and world culture at large continues to reverberate. My Name is Sarah by Ferrari Sheppard is an evocative expression of this union via his distinct perspective on portraiture. A working meditation on Aunt Sarah, the first woman of Nina Simone’s, “Four Women,” Simone’s lyrics provide the template for Sheppard’s figure. Both song and painting are enigmatic compositions that are minimal and yet striking in their detail. The painting is at once straightforward and also opaque about Sarah’s true identity. My Name is Sarah is a beautiful mystery. Much like jazz its possibilities are infinite. Sheppard’s complex multiplicity of strokes and linework offers each its independence while working in unison to create the painting’s universe of form. Sarah is strong as the song’s lyrics and her pose in Sheppard’s painting suggests. Sarah has known pain and yet the flower on her ear, the gentleness of its pink, also tells us that Sarah knows beauty–that Sarah is beauty itself. The 24k gold leaf on Sarah’s garment, its solar like presence, a reflection on the value of inner radiance.
My Name is Sarah was completed in the winter of 2021 in Los Angeles California. The painting was included in Sheppard’s solo show Dark Bodies, Bright Crest with Maruani Mercier Gallery in Brussels, Belgium. It was selected as the cover art for the reissue of Long Live Jazz by the album’s curator, the legendary producer and owner of the Dean Collection, Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean. A triumph in its ability to synthesize and concretize the more abstract elements of music and identity, Dean says of the work, “This is the perfect combo between ART & Jazz. Ferrari is a creative force to the art world. His work makes you feel something special! It moves your soul & mind. Jazz is a creative force to music. When these two come together it creates healing, love, peace and fun times. Long live Art & Long live Jazz.”
— Kristina Kay Robinson
Kristina Kay Robinson is a poet, writer and multidisciplinary artist from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her writing has appeared in Art in America, The Baffler, The Nation, The Massachusetts Review and Elle among other outlets. She is a 2019 Rabkin Prize recipient for Visual Arts Journalism and currently serves as New Orleans editor-at- large for the Atlanta-based, Burnaway magazine.
