The Artwork of the Month's activity and label focus on a single work in the Walker's collection and provide entertaining art experiences for young people. You can see an activity with the ArtsConnectEd image viewer or download the PDF file to your computer. Use the Prev/Next buttons to move between images of the PDF and the actual file.

About the Artwork

In her work Lorna Simpson often pairs words and pictures to make us think about different ways a story can be told. A simple tale with a beginning, a middle, and an end can be easy to follow, but if you mix up the order of the words and pictures, another story unfolds. Counting lists a number of years, hours, bricks, and hair characteristics. The artwork also shows a woman whose dress is stitched in a traditional African-American pattern, an old brick smokehouse, and braided hair twisted into a bun. By placing these elements together, Simpson creates a work you can “read” in many ways. Your own experiences and imagination help to connect the pieces into a story that is part fact and part fiction.