ASU professor's exhibition now showing at Joseph Gross

"That painting's so good I like to lick it," Beverly McIver said of her painting, "Vulnerable One."

The painting is one of a dozen now showing at McIver's solo exhibit, "Life is Good," at the Joseph Gross Gallery until Nov. 9.

The paintings in McIver's exhibition are self-portraits - not of her physical state, but as she exists emotionally. The paintings depict a black woman wearing black-face in a variety of different activities, from love-making to a simple enjoyment of a moment in time.

"I'm interested in making artwork that makes the viewer aware of their own vulnerabilities," McIver said. "Talking about issues that are difficult to talk about - like loving others, somebody who's different from you and for those people who are engaged in loving people who are other, it's sort of an affirmation that that's okay and it's beautiful and that it's real."

McIver said she hopes that her paintings will help the viewer confront racism.