There were several months when I did not paint. The prospects of our nation’s future looked dim. Everything I had experienced and learned since George Floyd’s death seemed to be in danger of losing relevance and of initiating change.

Our presidential election was looming, and I was losing my passion. The images in my head were blurry and dark. I had an idea during this period to paint the evolution of Nazism. I was going to depict Jim Crow as the Pied Piper leading others down an ugly path. Hitler was right behind him, copying and utilizing the Jim Crow era laws and policies of segregation and hate. Then behind Hitler, came the white supremacists of today. An angry mob screaming to go backward to the good old days was marching in step to the beat of hatred’s drum. Just as Isabel Wilkerson had described in her book “Caste”, I envisioned the same destiny for our nation. It seemed we might be on a dark road to the past.

Then things changed. We had a new candidate for the president of the United States. I wanted to paint Kamala Harris by emphasizing her genealogy and her joyful spirit.

Of African and Indian descent, she epitomizes the nation we could be–a formidable mixture of cultures, backgrounds, beliefs, and abilities: a nation which reignites its torch which our Statue of Liberty proudly displays.

My hope is that my brushstrokes and markers have left some paint on your hearts. That they have told the stories we must hear and that they have portrayed hope at the same time.