Siyafa, 1970s Oil on canvas 96 x 70 inches Collection of the Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi 2014.16.40

After becoming acquainted with the writings on Africa by Isak Dinesen and Alan Paton, Hood developed a sympathetic fascination with both the writers and the African Continent. Although she did not spend any time in the country outside of Northern Africa, she completed a series of paintings exploring her impressions of the nation from her readings, what she gleaned from other research, and her limited interactions with Africans who migrated to Houston. 

This painting from her African series is one of four with the title of Siyafa, which In the Bantu language group, often means “we die. “Hood was no doubt familiar with naturalist Charles Darwin’s (1809 – 1882) theory that Africa was the cradle of all humanity, which he articulated in his 1871 book, The Descent of Man. With this series of works, Hood links to this while also equating Africa to the death of the self (or ego). This transformation of the psyche, explored in Eastern Religions, Jungian psychology, and comparative mythology, is something she consistently endeavored to achieve. In this painting, she paints a central core of three bands of color, with fissures breaking free at the left to represent her growth and transformation and a hopeful, luminous shard of yellow that pierces through the center of the painting, and at the edges of her hard-edged forms to symbolize spiritual awakening.