Earlene Cox | America’s Enduring Burden
VIRTUAL ARTIST TALK
In this webinar, Earlene shares some of her pieces of art and the inspiration behind them with the hope of enlightening others on the enduring impact slavery has had on the African American experience and how it has shaped the culture of America.
*This webinar was originally aired September 10th, 2020, 7 - 8 PM Eastern Time via Zoom.
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Earlene Cox
started ceramic art later than most - only 15 years ago - after a distinguished career as a lawyer and corporate executive. Her journey is one of both preservation and determination. She had the strength of will to try to change her personal life’s trajectory through art. Her fear: Alzheimer’s, a dreadful disease that disproportionately impacts African Americans and a disease with an all too familiar history in her own family. She started to sculpt what came to mind and the theme that kept coming through in her work related to the African American experience in the United States.
The enslavement of my ancestors reverberates through my ceramic art. I feel their pain of inequities both large and small. It is a pain that is manifested in America today. It has shaped my life experiences including my ceramic art. “America’s Enduring Burden” is my ceramic testament to the enduring burden and vestiges of slavery.
-Earlene Cox
Earlene Hardie Cox
is a lawyer and a former executive with IBM. From 1996 until she retired in 2001, she headed the firm’s international tax group, and led a team of lawyers and accountants who managed the company’s tax-related issues/transactions in over 80 countries. She continues to practice law part-time, in addition to being an investor, sculptor and art collector. Since 2008, Earlene has advocated using clay art as therapy to combat Alzheimer’s. Through her affiliation with the Westchester (NY) County Chapter of the Links, Inc., she created a clay art program for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients at the Wartburg Nursing Home in Mount Vernon. NY. In 2017, in recognition of her work, the Hudson Valley Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association named Earlene an Alzheimer’s Champion. She is a juried artist at Clay Art Center in Port Chester (CAC), NY where she has a private studio. She is a current board director at Clay Art Center, and was previously the treasurer there.