Touch in the Spirit of Love | Dr. Gary L. Lemons

What

Dr. Gary L. Lemons is a professor of African American literature and Biblical studies at the University of South Florida, Tampa campus. He has a B.S.E. degree in Studio Art, M.A. and Ph.D. in English, and an Advanced Certificate in Museum Studies from New York University. Over the years, he has been awarded three postdoctoral fellowships—two from the National Endowment for the Humanities and one from the Rockefeller Foundation. He is also an ordained minister. His book publications include—Black Male Outsider, a Memoir: Teaching as a Pro-Feminist Man (2008); Womanist Forefathers, Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois (2009); Feminist Solidarity at the Crossroads: Intersectional Women’s Studies for Transracial Alliance (2012); Caught Up in the Spirit! Teaching for Womanist Liberation (2017); Hooked on the Art of Love: bell hooks and My Calling for Soul Work (2018); Let Love Lead on a Course to Freedom (2019); Building Womanist Coalitions: Writing and Teaching in the Spirit of Love (2019); Liberation for the Oppressed: Community Healing through Activist Transformation, A Call to CHAT (2022); The Power and Freedom of Black Feminist and Womanist Pedagogy: Still Woke (2022).

“I am a Black abstract painter. Conceptually, my paintings are rooted in Africentric colors and patterns. I believe art should inspire all people to connect to the liberating power of communal love. Touch in the Spirit of Love is a series of paintings that graphically illustrate the value of love for all humanity. In an imaginary, spiritually enriched context—this series calls all people together to see each other reaching out to one another through the touching of their hands. The hands in my paintings connect people together to express hope for the life-saving power of love committed to community-building. As envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., hope for a “beloved community” can be realized when people actively join together to show love for social justice. Overall, the paintings in this series visually challenge people to see the need for loving wholeness in mind, body, heart, and soul. Hands of different colors touching each other in this painting series artistically demonstrate the power of love rooted in freedom for all people who have been historically oppressed.”