"I wanted her soul to prosper"
Love and honesty in Shantel Miller's portrait of her grandmother, Sybil.
Portrait and still life painter Shantel Miller explores the inner lives of her subjects, and in her new show “I’ve Been Trying to Reach You” (at Anderson Yezerski Gallery through March 23), those subjects are the matriarchs in her family and the women in the church where her mother preaches.
Shantel’s work looks at the intersection of public and private, the roles culture and community play in subjective experience, intergenerational wisdom and grief, and the healing that comes with making.
“Sybil” portrays Shantel’s grandmother. The painter’s mother and grandmother are both Jamaican. She is Canadian. She wrote in an email that Sybil had some reservations about the portrait.
“Initially, she wasn't impressed with how I chose to paint her mouth pointing out. But I reassured her that I paint as I see it and that her expression is common to older generations of Caribbean folks,” wrote Shantel, who received her Master of Fine Arts from Boston University in 2021 and lives in Markham, Ontario.
“We also spoke briefly about the waterfall symbolism,” Shantel continued. “I commented on the power and force that waterfalls carry and asked her what holding a waterfall in her hands made her think about. She said it means she has to hold on tightly for life. “
Like many portraitists, Miller started with a photograph.
Shantel writes: “Sybil” begins with an idea I had during church service. My mother was preaching and the image of my grandmother holding a waterfall came to mind. I quickly took notes and kept it in my thoughts waiting for next steps to carry out the vision.
I began Googling images of waterfalls in Jamaica and arrived at two options, The Blue Hole and Dunns River Falls and printed out copies of both.
Some time later, I told my grandma that I wanted to take a photo of her and invited her to wear her Sunday best to church the following week. We connected after service and I asked my her which waterfall image she preferred. She chose The Blue Hole. I taped it into the cover of a used gift box and asked her to hold the box cover to her chest.
I wasn’t concerned with the activity going on around her as it was after service and people were socializing. These details were edited out some brought back in later as I wanted the focus to initially be on her.
My initial attempt at recreating the image is this little study on Arches paper.
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