This week on The Modern Art Notes Podcast, artist Renée Stout gives insight to Legba and the Pearl Gourd, one of two works by her in the Sheldon exhibition Person of Interest.

In Legba and the Pearl Gourd, Stout paints an allegorical portrait of hoodoo, an African American form of spirituality grounded in African Yoruba deities, Caribbean vodou culture, and Christianity. Here, Stout references Papa Legba—a guardian spirit of crossroads who is both trickster and transformer—to emphasize the complexity of decision making.