Brown Paper Bag

BROWN PAPER BAG.

BETH CONSETTA RUBEL, VISUAL ARTIST,

B.F.A. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS (ALUMNI).

Beth Consetta Rubel is a visual artist based in Austin. She discusses her upbringing as a mixed race Black woman living in a conservative small Southern town in Texas, and how this informed both her identity and creative work. Rubel’s work focuses on the themes of race, gender, sexuality, and pop culture. This is evident in her current series, “The Paper Bag Test,” where she draws and paints portraits of Black subjects—many of them well-known Black celebrities and public figures, such as President Barack Obama and Richard Pryor. In light of the recent cases of police brutality and state-sanctioned violence against Black men, women, and children, she’s also included portraits of Michael Brown and Aiyana Stanley Jones in the series.

“After slavery ended in the U.S., colorism didn’t disappear. In black America, those with light-skin received employment opportunities off limits to darker-skinned African Americans. This is why upperclass families in black society were largely light-skinned. Soon light skin and privilege were considered one in the same in the black community, with light skin being the sole criterion for acceptance into the black aristocracy. Upper crust blacks routinely administered the brown paper bag test to determine if fellow blacks were light enough to socialize with.” (Nittle, 2018)