Atmosphere (Poetry Rug), c.2023

“Rest is resistance.” - Tricia Hershey of the Nap Ministry

We All Dream features a woman roughly in the shape of a mountain range who sleeps soundly on her side. From her hips flows bodies of water that empty into a large pool under her thigh. Along the length of her dress grow various deciduous and evergreen trees. In the sky above her sits a lone full moon. Below her on an overlook, another woman, with her car idling beside her, looks on in observation.

We All Dream was inspired by my residency in Wyoming, US through the Tongue River Artist Residency in partnership with The Pittsburgh Foundation for their inaugural collaboration. The painting specifically references my experiences traversing up the Bighorn Mountain ranges to have time and space to think and create. A specific range of mountains resembled a woman lying on her side, which made me think of the natural imperative to rest that many of us felt pressured to reject. Representing even the mountains themselves as beings requiring respite encourages us to think deeply about how we deprive ourselves of this need.

I would be remiss to not acknowledge the incredible teachings of Tricia Hershey of the Nap Ministry, which allowed me to begin thinking of rest through a different lens as a Black woman.

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas.