The Gulf Stream (After Winslow Homer)

Stacy Lynn Waddell is a mixed media artist who lives and works in Durham, North Carolina. She based this work on a famous painting by American artist Winslow Homer. Waddell’s art often explores African American experiences, history, and how the past still affects people today. In this work she changes Homer’s original painting by removing the African American man from the boat. This creates an empty space that becomes the main focus of the artwork.

Waddell uses unusual methods to create her art. She burns and marks paper and fabric to make dark shapes and patterns. This process creates faint images that seem to appear through the surface of the artwork. She often adds photographs, glitter, rhinestones, and gold-colored details to make her art look both old and new. 

Many of Waddell’s works explore events from history, such as slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, a time when people worked to gain equal rights under the law. Her work includes symbols such as boats, ships, water, and people wearing old-fashioned clothing. These images help connect viewers to the past and encourage them to think about how history still affects life today. 

The missing figure is an important part of this artwork. The empty space in the boat reminds viewers of people whose stories have often been left out or forgotten. By changing a well-known painting, Waddell encourages viewers to see history in a new way and think about how art can connect the past to the present.