Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe

 

Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe

 

This Worl is Not My Home


A smiling, naked brown woman sits on a detailed bench against a light blue background; she holds a white birdlike creature next to which text reads, “This world is not my home.”

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Object Details


Artist/Maker

Nellie Mae Rowe, American, 1900–1982

Date

1979

Medium

Crayon, marker, colored pencil, and pencil on paper

Dimensions

16 3/4 x 19 5/8 inches

Credit

Gift of Judith Alexander

Accession #

2003.167

Image Copyright

© Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe/High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

Description

Rowe approached the end of her life with spiritually inspired optimism. “I feel like I’m growing stronger because I’m serving the Lord, and I thank Him for everything. Letting me stay here this long, living down here on love and land, for this world is not my home. My home is on high and I’m going to reach it one day,” she said. She began to visualize this heavenly future especially in works from her final year of life in which she said goodbye quite explicitly.