Watermelon is the prompt for Februllage Day #13. “Imaging A Widow’s Watermelon Salvation” is the title of my collage.
I decided to use a black and white photo of my great-great grandmother Millie Ann Wathen Gartin and her children (includes my great grandfather frank Louis Gartin) as the base of the collage. I used Canva to change the background to an AI-generated background of a farm. Several watermelon graphics are added at the bottom of the collage.
Before I created the collage, I imagined my great-great grandmother Millie Ann growing and selling watermelons to support herself and her children after her husband and my great-great grandfather George Spencer Gartin, a farmer and Union Army soldier who fought during the Civil War, was killed by a man with an ax in 1886.
She was the daughter of Felix Wathen and Mary Sylvia Hayden Wathen, enslaved people of African descent. She was born in March 1854 in Lebanon, Kentucky. When slavery ended, she was still a young girl. Although I don’t know the type of labor she and her family performed during slavery, I used this collage prompt to imagine that they might have grown and sold watermelon after they were freed. In case you didn’t know, once African Americans were freed, many grew, ate, and sold watermelon. It became a symbol of freedom and economic independence.
YOUR INVITATION
Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter as you reflect on the question below.
1) What symbolized freedom and economic independence to your loving + wise + well ancestors?
Ananda Leeke 