Cider Ellison

Cider Ellison

Floyd County

Lady Emergence

Artist Statement: My hope for a Just Transition is one led by women of color who are supported and uplifted in that role. My vision is one where the land and the people are front and center and one where we make color from toxic sludge. Every facet of my piece is intentional. The painting is done on the surface of reclaimed birch wood and is painted with primarily oil paints created from an Ohio/Mississippi mine pollution cleanup project (Gamblin’s Reclaimed Earth Pigments.) The copper leaf work is also a nod to the sizable role copper plays in renewable energy efforts as well as the history of Appalachian copper. 

2020. mixed media (oil paint, copper, on birch)

Lady Emergence
Lady Emergence
Chokecherry Work

Artist Statement: Chokecherry Work. 2020. is a piece surrounding the joy, hurt, growth, and harm I've experienced.

This work is like

Unripened

Chokecherries


A promise of something 

Wonderful

And nourishing


The berries are brightest when you can’t eat them, though

Bitter and biting out of season


This work is the food,

Yes

And it is the medicine,

Yes

And I am grateful, I promise


But it can be the poison, too

If you’re not careful


I’ve been asked before to uphold white supremacy in the name of green energy

To ignore ecofascism when it sits at my table


The seeds carry toxins, you see?


And I 

I want to teach you to pound and sun-dry them

To neutralize the cyanide

Make them good, make them safe

This work doesn’t deserve to be discarded


Are you patient? Am I?

The berries are hardest to find when ripe

Not showy, but finally sweet


We can make wine 

And syrup


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Cider Ellison
About Cider Ellison

Poet, visual artist, community organizer, and activist based in Eastern Kentucky.