2.22.2019 | GREENVILLE JOURNAL | 33
COMMUNITYJOURNALS.COM
COCO HARRIS visual artist
n story by MELODY CUENCA | photo by WILL CROOKS
Presented by
Storytelling resides at the core of artist CoCo Harris. Growing up in Atlanta, she always felt a strong sense of story in the South. While Harris’ art involves writing, photography, and collage, she ultimately tells a collective story across all her platforms.
family’s history since slavery. “As an African-American, to me it's very important to tell these stories,” she says. “I try to use my art as a tool, as a visual to graphically show some of our history.” Erasure of this piece of American history is what Harris fears. “It's really a shared history; it's not just
“It’s my story. It’s other people’s stories of who we
black history,” she says. “What happened to us is such
are,” Harris says. “But, it's all to share this piece of
a part of who we are right now today — all of us in this
humanity so we can understand that it’s really all only
country.”
one story — and that's our human story.”
Compassion is the driving force behind Harris’ work.
Keeping a diary her entire life, Harris grew
“I would love people to empathize with our collective
accustomed to looking for patterns within herself and
American story and to understand this one niche, or
the world around her. This shapes her art, which she
this one slice that I'm telling, and understand how it's
considers visual extensions of her life.
actually a bigger part of this American pie.”
“Like the diary, my artwork actually aims for more
In
Greenville,
Harris
would
like
to
see
personal nature,” Harris says. “I try to get close to the
underrepresented persons included in the city’s growth.
bone with my projects.”
“It's really important that we remember who we were,
For one collage, Harris uses photographs to show good and bad things that have taken place in her
where we came from,” she says. Harris' work can be seen at www.cocoharris.com.
