"Golden Time of Day" (2012) by Zeal Harris, which was shown at Inglewood Open Studios

I visited the hills of the Dons which overlook the Westside, to talk to painter Zeal Harris about Los Angeles, the African-American experience and her talent.

What I like about Zeal’s work is that it embraces African-American culture. It is
“just black” art. It’s not a literal interpretation; it is a satirical view of the African-American experience that is about African-Americans.

Zeal’s work airs just enough dirty laundry to ruffle the feathers of those who believe in the talented tenth theory of how to be African-American. “My work is like second-person autobiography. I’m talking about other people and they are telling me about themselves,” Zeal.

Many of Zeal’s paintings feel like plays.

“I’m using the literary device of the personal experience narrative. It is a literary device on one hand, but it’s used in anthropology as well.”

Zeal’s work is a restrained and dignified middle finger. It makes you want to say,
“Pardon me,” and then you excuse yourself for being insulted, because it couldn’t have meant that or maybe it did.

Some in the art world feel as if Zeal’s work is too simple, too literal, too folksy and perhaps just too damn black.

That’s the riddle for black artists and writers. Do you want to “limit” yourself by being just black? Is it limiting to be what you are? How black should you be? Should the black experience be the punch line? A conceptual art project in a hair salon with a smiley face?

Is that the only way the black experience should be done in fine art?

African-American culture as the bizarre and grotesque: is that more arty?

Is that more academic?

There are many people who aren’t going to get the depth of Zeal’s work because they don’t get America. Anyone who gets America in regards to race is going to get Zeal.
Zeal and I exchanged “Why don’t you just hang out with black people?” stories. There is a weird phenomenon where if you talk about race issues people feel as if you’re wasting your time being educated. You should just apply for black people grants, teach children and be an artist that way. No need to try to sell your work, because you are black. Owing to things like affirmative action, grants, public art and Obama you should be able to do anything you want without leaving black people land, i.e., south of the 10 freeway.

It’s redundant to just talk to feminists about feminism and it’s redundant to talk about
institutional racism just to black people. Yes, occasion- ally it’s productive, but art isn’t about safety. It’s about disturbing the balance and shifting power and perceptions.
“Zora Neale Huston is one of my idols. She was one of those people who walked the line between the folk and the academia. I relate to that experience,” Harris.

I talked to Zeal about New Orleans since she had some paintings with that theme. It’s my favorite place in the United States. It is also a place where there is a prison called
Angola.

“New Orleans was the first time in my life that I felt was really in the South and it was a metropolitan experience. I wanted to move there. I felt like I had opened up the closet in Narnia. I just did not want to come back home,” Zeal.

New Orleans is an interesting place. It’s very African-American, very French and very multicultural. It’s southern hospitality and cosmopolitan. It’s a place that has many faces and they all are wearing way too much make- up. It is also a place of secrets. I was told to never go to the Ninth Ward or the cemetery when I visited New Orleans.

Zeal tried to visit the Angola penitentiary and was told by her escort in New Orleans:

“It’s too far. You’re not going to have time to go. And you don’t want to go out there anyway, because there’s nothing there but swamps and alligators.”

Like Zeal’s paintings, New Orleans is loaded. You think you’re just in any little southern town, but you’re not. It’s the American experience in a sauna with the kind of jazz that isn’t comfortable back- ground music, but an alarm with a melody.

Our complete story hasn’t been done on canvas yet. Zeal Harris is painting the other part of the African-American experience.