Valerie Maynard pools strength from spiritual and political sources. Metonymic impulses move her to recognize us as our first mothers and first fathers and incites her to combat injustice. Her art centers on the spiritual and rouses the political. This is the Church of the Picket Line. There is salvation in this signifying art of Maynard's, but deliverance sometimes comes with a price too dear for the faint of heart. To stand before Maynard's art is to be riveted before a mirror that will not lie. If you come to it with less than truth, your journey will be like an avalanche of rock and you will be torn limb from limb. But, there is a corresponding reward: the opportunity to remember yourself, and this time, you will not forget your heart, your soul or your mind. Witness the business of moving bodies to action by stirring intrinsic selves.

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Speaking in tongues: The folk voices of painter Valerie Maynard