From Me in Her to Her in Me
Irene Delka McCray
November 17th – December 30th, 2023
McMahon Gallery
Opening Reception
November 17th, 2023 from 5:00 – 8:00pm
“Can we imagine that at the essence of human being is an insistence upon being witnessed – by others, by gods, by the cosmos itself – and that the inner force of character cannot be concealed from this display. The image will out, and the last years put the final finish to the image.”
These paintings and drawings reflect on my mother in her final months with Alzheimer’s. The work honors and explores the metaphysical journey we took together, her leading and I following, extending my life backwards in favor of her long ago, and reflecting the reversal of trust, from me in her to her in me. Even with a lifetime of witnessing the strength of my mother’s character, it’s her end years that impress me the most.
This work also serves to encourage public visibility of our elders and opposes the cultural dismissal of “the aged”, which, among many other injustices, was brought to light during the COVID pandemic. The sluggish and indifferent response to the evident vulnerabilities of elderly citizens in care homes has prompted me to paint and draw my mother from memory, imagination, and photos taken of her through the windows that separated us throughout the lockdown.
To think that elders are insignificant in a world that is so consumed with productivity and usefulness is simply unjust and offensive. Longevity is its own state of being: holding meaning and discovery in layers of lasting. As the old fold into themselves, they assist in the outward expansion of those around them, connecting us with lost threads of a cultural past and presenting for us what and who we arrive out of.
The beautiful and complex profundities of wizened old flesh seem to me to take on a likeness to leaf veins, so I make those pairings in some of the drawings. The layering of imagery returns her, in my mind, to the expansive mystery of nature and the “all”.
Exhibition Resources
About the Artist
A Boulder, Colorado native, Irene Delka McCray earned her BFA from Colorado State University and her MFA degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She taught for seven years at Santa Fe Community College and three years at Santa Fe International Academy of Art. During her time in New Mexico she studied in earnest Archetypal Dream Work with Ann Yeomans, whose treatment of psychic imagery continues to impact her paintings and drawings that arrive out of the soul realm of human experience. McCray, now retired, taught at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design for twenty-three years.
McCray’s paintings and drawings of the figure and cloth have been exhibited widely, primarily in Colorado, New Mexico, and California. Her work is in the Denver Art Museum’s Permanent Collection and the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art in Denver. Other exhibition venues include the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, CO, the Center for Visual Arts, CO, Boulder Center for the Visual Arts, CO, Pacific Grove Art Center, CA, Oakland Center for the Arts, CA, Kansas City Arts Coalition, MO, and the Museum of New Mexico. She is a former member of Pirate, a Contemporary Art Oasis, CO, and was represented by Sandra Phillips Gallery, CO.
Public Programming
Black Futures in Art: Guided Tour & Talk With Curator
Join us for an evening of reflection, dialogue, and shared imagination as part of Black Futures in Art 2026, marking the fifth year of the exhibition. The event begins with a guided tour of the exhibition led by curator Adderly Grant-Lord, starting in the McMahon Gallery and moving throughout the exhibition spaces. The tour will be followed by a seated conversation in the Boedecker Theatre with Dr. Danielle Hodge and Adderly Grant-Lord, exploring the exhibition’s themes, its wider cultural impact, and the evolving legacy of Black Futures in Art over the past five years. The evening will conclude with audience Q&A.
Tickets are free but reservation is required due to limited capacity. Event duration is approximately two hours, tour will start precisely at 5PM!
About the Speakers:
Dr. Danielle Hodge is an Assistant Professor of Communication, a 2024-2025 Andrew W. Mellon Civic Engagement and Voting Rights Teacher Scholar, and the 2024-2025 Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) Faculty Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research employs a critical race theoretical approach to identity, culture, and language, and bridges Communication and African American Studies to examine how systems of oppression are discursively reproduced, maintained, and resisted. Her work can be found in the Journal of Multicultural Discourses, Critical Discourse Studies, Communication Teacher, Communication and Democracy, and the Journal of Applied Communication Research.
Adderly Grant-Lord is a visual artist and curator whose work centers joy, lineage, and the lived experiences of Black communities. A recipient of the Boulder Chamber’s 2024 Women Who Light the Community honor and the 2023 Best of the West Readers’ Choice Art Award, she is the founder and curator of Black Futures in Art, now in its fifth year. Grant-Lord has exhibited widely across Colorado, serves on the NoBo Art District board, and is currently an Afrofuturist curator and featured artist with the Museum of Boulder.
Participating Artists: Adderly Grant-Lord, Adri Norris, Clifton Henri, Gedion Nyanhongo, James Dixon, Lydia Carlis, Louise Cutler, SaToro Tafura, Sir James McArthur Cole, Thomas Lockhart, and Zin Maisiri.