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that are responsible for a number of African American artists leaving this country to take up residence elsewhere.

Although the methodologies of artists such as Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden have been documented, most other African American methodologies and influences have remained relatively uninterrogated. Historically, visual artists on the whole have been virtually neglected in the annals of literature, and I am hoping that my work will be a first step toward bridging this gap. It is imperative that the lives of these artists which I have interviewed be documented, so that our generation of Black artists will have yet another source to examine the issues that are unique and not so unique to us all. It was on my show that Jacob Lawrence reflected, "...we as a group, we've had that (ability to laugh) and I think this is what has enabled us to survive. This strength...".

On another note, too often is the methodology and philsophy [[philosophy]] of a particular artist overlooked or downplayed due to the artist's race within the American artistic community I want to explore the duality which is inherent to the African American Artist, drawing not only from my interviews with them, but also from pervious publications such as Against the Odds: African American Artists and the Harmon Foundation (New Jersey: The Newark Museum, 1989); Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art, 1800-1950 (San Francisco: The Art Museum Association of America, 1985) and Lynn Moody Igoe's Two Hundred-fifty Years of Afro-American Art: An Annotated Bibliography (New York and London: R.R. Bowker Company, 1981).

As an artist myself, I have had special access to the interviewees which enables me to present very candid interviews and a highly informative dialogue to the reading public. Each artist interviewed has been a personal friend of mine; they are artists and like me,