“Don’t forget what you have. Things change” – Netherlands Black psychology guru Elder Glenn Helberg to me on 20 July 2024.
Painting: #Jermain (Pink Bo)
Artist: Tyna Adebowale
Country: Nigeria/The Netherlands
Display: Amsterdam Museum
Exhibition: Refresh
Year: 2020
Price: POA
Tyna Adebowale is a friend I met in the Netherlands. Funny story: they once met my childhood neighbour, and classmate Mthabisi Phili, an artist from Njube, Bulawayo. Facebook “happened” to pop my name to Tyna, and the rest is this painting of me in the Tyna Adebowale pro-Black palette signature.
That is me, painted twice, on near movie screen sized piece. Intuitive Tyna accurately captured my two-spirit nature. Thanks to a South African friend Bongani Sibeko and The Other Foundation, who in 2017 taught me the concept of being mixed-gender. Mixed-gender, and not sex, because sex and gender are two different things. The pink background is a cherry on top!
A news person, Tyna felt it was important to capture “one of me” holding a newspaper, and of course with the legend ‘Love is Real’ which my African Man absolutely loved.