Amid the protests of June, I was asked by my employers to develop a mural to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, to show how we cared about this cause.
Now, I am a white woman with privilege, so I wanted to approach this with respect and humility. For my inspiration I drew upon the wisdom of Maya Angelou and her poem Still I Rise, which I painted the iconic line across the top of the mural in red, white, and blue to demonstrate how it is patriotic to stand up for human rights in the face of systemic and overt oppression. I was also inspired by the artist Basquiat, and his crude and expressive style, and used colors inspired by his palettes. And, though not in the original design, I added concrete later beneath the roses, due to a coworker commenting on how it reminded him of the Tupac poem, The Rose that Grew from Concrete, and naturally thought that was a brilliant insight.
This mural was a form of meditation. I started by printing a list of as many Black folks as I could who have been killed by police brutality, or killed by the American government. I couldn’t fit all the names in the background.
This piece was intended to show hope, not division in this place we call home. From adversity beauty can form, and it is through the hard struggle we can find ourselves closer, if we do the hard work to get to that point of conversion.
Media: House paint and acrylic on wood.