Reveal - Journey from Dining Room Table to First Studio Space

Creative Space Timeline

Since April 2017, I’ve been growing my studio practice as an acrylic painter. During that time I lived with my mother. I started my practice painting on a wall in my bedroom. I hammered a nail into the wall and placed the lip of the canvas on it to paint standing up.

When I moved into my own apartment during the summer of 2018, I painted on a small easel in the corner of my studio apartment living room.

In 2019, my husband decided it was time to move on his interest in therapy and applied for a masters program at PSU in Clinical Mental Health Therapy. We decided to make the move from our Waterfront studio apartment to his dads to pay off our previous college loans and save up for his masters program if he got in. He got in! We also paid off about $27K in my student loans.

The Dining Room Table

The dining room table had become somewhat of an irritancy to me. While it has provided me the space to create and build my practice, it has been limited in giving me the full experience of being in my own space. It’s the same table we eat on and where my husband studies. When my father-in-law is cooking or cleaning dishes, I can hear everything behind the divider wall. When we are getting ready to eat dinner, I have to move all my days work to the back corner of the table. When my father-in-law wants to enjoy his breakfast in the morning while looking out at the babbling creek in his backyard, all my stuff gets moved to the side. I wasn’t happy with the space I’ve created some of my most intimate portraits, and that bothered me.

When I was asked to paint the historic Adrienne C. Nelson portrait for the new North Clackamas high school named after Justice Nelson, I knew I’d need to make the jump and get my own private studio space so I could paint on larger canvases. When I got off a call with the global brand manager of Liquitex to be a spotlight artist during the 2021 calendar year, I felt another nudge to move forward with my own studio space. I’ve been having multiple opportunities and commission requests that working at the dining room table wasn’t a viable option for me anymore. I knew if I wanted to grow my practice, moving my work into my own studio would need to happen.

The Hunt for a Studio

When I started searching for a studio, I felt pressured to join a co-op studio or fancy downtown studio. These options were no less than $500 a month - some over $1000! Some places I toured had amenities I didn’t need for my practice or want to pay for. Some spaces were just too big for where my practice is currently. As someone who just paid off almost $30K in student loans and budgets every month with my husband, I was going to find the best yet inexpensive space I could. That’s when the thought hit me, what if I purchase an inexpensive storage unit and transform it into a studio!?

Thus I started looking for a storage unit I’d feel safe building my studio practice out of. I looked at many options and settled for a 10’x15’ unit, right next door to PushDot Studio where I get all my captures done at. I loved the location and it was right next to the Tilikum bridge if I ever decided to take an afternoon walk. I wanted a space that was clean, upkept, and safe. This met all those factors! I selected the unit online, signed the contracts and paid my first months rent and moved in seamlessly. The space is open until 10pm which would allow me the time I need to paint during the day and work on business - if I need to work on smaller projects in the evening I can always take a night bag of essentials home with me.

So I found myself paying $190/month for a storage unit turned studio space. What a steal!

Studio Design

Coming into the New Year I made it a point to hire off work I didn’t want to do or didn’t feel competent in. Being a perfectionist, I found healing in letting things go to someone else more talented than me in the task. It would free up my time to paint and enjoy my life more.

Creative producer and set designer Jordyn Jenkins, owner of JM Joints, was the first person I thought to bring my empty storage shell into a live, functioning, and beautiful studio space. She took up the challenge and I couldn’t be happier.

I got on a phone call with her to discuss general things I would like in the space and how my current practice was functioning day to day. She noted down my must-haves and dreams for the space. I gave her a budget of $2,500, gave her my spending card, and total creative freedom over the space. What I love most as an artist is the creative freedom a lot of people and organizations give me when painting a piece, in return I give creators and artists total creative freedom in the work they do for me.

After the holidays had come to an end she got to work, in about an active weeks time, she was done with designing my studio! She set a time for me to see the reveal and we settled on 1/24/21 at 2pm.

01/24/2021 - Heading up to the unit to meet with Jordyn of JM Joints and experience the reveal of my new studio space.

When I walked to my unit I began to get emotional. My voice was shaking. I was so happy with what would now be the space I’d be creating in! If it had been up to me, I would’ve come nowhere near this vision. I love the water pump station for cleaning my brushes, the sturdy rolling cart and fold-down couch. The nice big table will allow me to put together orders, spread out and work on my mini paintings, and conduct the business aspects of my practice. The storage space along the west wall will hold all of my packaging materials, canvases, and misc. things. I envision my easel going in between the table and couch - which should be fine with larger projects.

Gratitude

I want to give me fullest gratitude and thanks to a few people who made this project possible. My husband encouraged me along the way when it came to finding a space to build my practice out of. He listened to my excitement, day in and out, about being able to move into this space. He pushed me to dream big about what I would create as an artist - calming my anxiety of going into my practice full-time.

I’d also like to give my biggest thanks to Jordyn for her creativity and ability to bring life to this space. If it were up to me, there would only be an easel and some water buckets lol. As a new mom and business owner, I thank her husband and all her support networks which allow her to be free to put together projects as special as this.

You can follow Jordyn on Instagram at @mrsjjenkins and her business page at @jm_joints. If you have any design needs for spaces, experiences, or sets, she’s the person you need!

Update (01/26/2021)

I’ve taken the time to start moving in and the space is coming together so much more. The extra little touches I brought in really makes it feel like a home. When I pulled up my storage unit door, I was welcomed by the calmness and coziness of the space. The natural organic lemon all-purpose spray that I had cleaned off the table with still was scented in the air. It mingled well with the lavender deodorizer I sprayed into the space before leaving yesterday evening. Latoya Lovely’s artwork, “Butterfly”, hanging on the back wall greeting me with the affirmation of growth being a beautiful journey. I brought my fully charged BALDR portable power station from home and placed it in the back corner where the cords for the lighting rest. Plugged that in and all the lighting in the room came on - life.

Mother of Judah

Support Beam Residency/Grant Comes to an End

Mother of Judah painted with acrylic gouache and acrylic on 22x30in cold press watercolor paper.

Reflecting back on my experience is a sigh of relief and gratitude. Upon finishing my piece, I accomplished what I set out to do with this residency and grant experience provided by the Regional Arts & Cultural Council, Support Beam Program. My aims were to, 1) create a piece I was proud of, 2) that I personally felt rivaled one of my greatest works yet (Zanele), and 3) stretched my current capacity and style.

Artists that I have greatly been inspired by recently are artists Kezia Harrell (IG: @sugarygarbage) and Travion Payne (IG: @travipayne), who have both inspired the work that resulted. Their ability to manipulate paint of skin tone and the gradients of it are amazing. I just wanted to share some space for my gratitude towards fellow BIPOC artists that inspire me.

My favorite things about this painting are the slight blue of her shirt and the contrast from her beads. How the rockface came out - I was completely terrified with how it would come out but I settled that fear. The interesting necklace of gold wire and diamond ends. The waterfall spray near the left of the muse’s face.

How the Title Came to Be

One question I have gotten concerns the title. Mother of Judah is the first piece I have had titled by the muse. I wanted to provide this opportunity because how significant is that experience for someone not even expecting to be painted? Asia titled the piece out of her experience of being the mother of her firstborn, named Judah. Simple, personal, and a worthy title.

Pick Up

On Wednesday, 10/09/20, Morgan Ritter from the Regional Arts & Cultural Council met me near McCoy Park in N. Portland. She was excited about the piece. I showed her the piece before placing it in a thin black plastic bag to shield from any possible rain in unpredictable Oregon. And, then it was gone - she was gone. I thought to myself…dang I really miss that piece. Part of me thought about swapping it out with a piece I wasn’t too attached to. Then I thought, these pieces are best in a public setting. These pieces make Oregon a better space culturally, historically…when I provide my best work I set myself apart by not doing the bare minimum…I make our community a better place and space to live with the art I create.

Where I Go From Here

Shortly after completing this piece I signed my first district contract in my artist career, which gives me the ability to paint the historic portrait of Justice Nelson and produce the print and panels for installation in the new Adrienne C. Nelson high school, opening Fall 2021.

I was also notified by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art that I was selected among 100 applicants for their Black Lives Matter Artist Grant, which will give me the monies and space to explore a work in regards to Nina Simone’s Strange Fruit song of lynching of Black people in the South and how this looks like to me in the present.

As always, I am grateful for the opportunities that have presented themselves and my courage to go for them, apply, and follow through on my creative practice. In 2021, I’ll be focusing more on the business side of my private practice with a list of goals I am still drafting. With that, I’ll be focusing on strengthening my portfolio, taking no private commissions, and striving towards securing more residencies/grants/and opportunities to get my work out there in the community and world.

Update on my Support Beam Residency

What Has Been Going On in my World

This week has been long! And with a long work week I feel like I didn’t meet the goals I had for this painting. I made a pretty ambitious goal: Finish my support beam painting by today, Sunday 11/29/2020. At first I was disappointed with myself, but with some soul searching I’ve come to peace with my ambitious goal, and am aiming to complete this piece by Tuesday/Wednesday. That should give me enough time to take it to PushDot Studio for rush captures, and back in my hands for drop off at the Regional Arts and Cultural Center by next Monday. Very tight timeline.

As you may know if you read my last blog post, I am currently working with Multnomah County as a program technician - assisting families impacted by COVID-19 with their energy and heating bills. This week was a peculiar week, one where I constantly had to validate my existence to the people I was trying to serve. So many clients didn’t believe who I was, which made it harder to help them. I became used to forwarding them over to the Multco reception desk or our main energy email to validate I was indeed who I am, there to help, and not a scammer. Aside from that, I had a few clients that have been utterly traumatized by COVID-19. One young man couldn’t concentrate on his call with me, was hyperventilating, and ultimately hung up. I did my best to separate and null my feelings from what I was experiencing at work this week and not taking it personally, but it was hard. Validating my existence as a Black woman this week was challenging, more so than any other time I’ve had to let someone know I was in the room and had feelings/dreams/etc too. And by no way am I not understanding as to why there is mistrust when I reach out - It’s just sad that so many in our community are mistrustful and or have been harmed or scammed in the past.

Day 3 - Just Paint

After work I would go home and could not concentrate on my painting. I didn’t have a break through until last night - I just needed to paint. If I didn’t, and let me work week or intimidation of the piece continue to get me, I would never finish it. By this morning I had a plan with moving forward on the painting - I would finish outlining the rocks and then make a basecoat of solid colors for different parts of the background. I was most intimidated by how much rock was in the painting.

11/24/2020 - I painted the sky and started outlining the rock faces.

Once I got to this point in the painting (above), I felt like I would be most comfortable with it if I got at least half of the background done. So, all day I spent painting, aside from taking a couple of breaks for lunch, an afternoon walk, and dinner.

11/29/2020 - I finished painting in the rockface of the waterfall.

11/29/2020 - Painting after finishing the left side of the background.

Aside from paintings I do of the ocean, I haven’t attempted many waterfalls, so this was both fun and challenging. Once I added in the greenery of the shrugs and grass peaking up from the rocks, I was in love. I feel like my progress has begun to produce fruit!

As I look at the piece, I think I’ll go back in and blend a touch more grey into the stones and silver to make them reflect a bit. Once I am done with that I’ll work towards completing the entire background tomorrow night. That way on Tuesday I can focus entirely on my muse’s portrait!

Some Techniques

I am in love with the way the waterfall came out. In order to get the bubbling of the water, I took my blue muddy white and pooled it in water on the palette. From there I took a medium sized brush and put it in my water jar before coating the brush in the watered down white/blue mixture. Then with my finger I flicked the brush onto the painting where the falls created jumps in the water. I should’ve took an up close photo!

My Music Playlist

I listen to all different types of music, but this is what I listened to in this particular week:

Practice by DaBaby

Moonwalking in Calabasas (feat. Blueface) - remix by DDG

Said Sum by Moneybagg Yo

Laugh Now Cry Later (feat. Lil Durk) by Drake

Iced Out Audemars (feat. Lil Wayne) by Pop Smoke

YUUUU by Busta Rhymes, Anderson .Pakk

Floating (feat. 21 Savage) by ScHoolboy Q

For the Night (feat. Lil Baby & DaBaby) by Pop Smoke

That’s Tuff (feat. Quavo) by Rich The Kid

Final Thoughts

I am charged up and look forward to next week. I might be behind on my original goal with this painting, but I feel confident on finishing it by Tuesday evening. I am excited for what it will come out as when finished. Stay tuned!

Starting my Support Beam Residency/Grant Painting!

Day 1 - A New Opportunity

Last night my husband left to celebrate his mother’s birthday, which gave me the space to create the foundation of a painting that I believe is going to take my practice to a new level. There is a level of focus and patience within my practice when I am granted the funds to create freely, which gives me the agency and space to put so much more into my paintings. Something about this piece tells me so…that it will be treasured and loved by those who see it for many years to come.

I want to give a heartfelt thank you to the Regional Arts and Cultural Council for selecting me for their 2nd Round of Support Beam, which is RACC’s new Public Art Initiative out of the impact COVID-19 has had on artists in Oregon. To score highly among 200 applicants and be selected along 15 other artists is a feat worth celebrating over. This opportunity wouldn’t be possible if the Federal CARES Act hadn’t given additional funding and approval to and for RACC to move forward with this second round of support - so again, I am grateful.

Through this residency/grant hybrid, I am required to create one piece of work that will be acquired into RACC’s Public Art Collection - which will rotate throughout city buildings. Because of the way funding was laid out, I have been given a shorter work period - I must be done with my painting by the beginning of December. In recognizing that the shorter timeline may add pressure to our art practice, on top of everything else going on in our community due to COVID-19, RACC wanted to make the process as supportive and nourishing for us as possible, so gave us the ability to release a painting to them that we may have painted since March 2020. While the pressures are very true for my situation, it’s 11/22/2020…deadline is in a few weeks...I am working a full-time job with overtime...in a job assisting families who have been impacted by COVID-19…so having the mental and creative space to create a new piece was initially too much for me to comprehend.

When my husband left last night I took a nap with my bull terrier. I took a break and rested. I had just finished an 8 hour overtime work day and a quick hike into the forest for some forest bathing. I gave myself the ability to rest on what I would do with this residency/grant hybrid opportunity. Would I let go of a piece I had created during the pandemic, or create something entirely from blank canvas.

11/21/2020 - Forest Park trail via Newberry Trailhead. About 30 minutes in on a late afternoon hike with my husband.

My Responsibility as an Artist

I woke up from my nap and went to the dining room table. My father-in-law was watching television in the living room and Nefertiti was still in the bed snoring. I cleared the table and brought out two watercolor papers with sketches on them. Something tugged at me, telling me not to use them…I was using them to build my portfolio before applying to a BFA program. I put them away and brought out some papers I hadn’t used on a project yet. I decided to use 22”x30” cold press, high white, 100% cotton, archival papers with deckled edges from the Blick Premier watercolor paper collection. I slid one of the 10 sheets from the plastic sheath out and placed it on the table.

I thought about how funny of a situation I was in. How embarrassed yet amazed I was with this big opportunity, yet my studio is my father-in-laws dining room table. For those who don’t know, my husband and I lived in our first studio apartment together back in 2018, shortly after getting married. In 2019, he decided to go for his masters degree and began taking the pre-requisites for a masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. He envisioned helping youth and families on a deeper level than what he does currently as a Youth Essentials Coordinator Manager at REAP, Inc. We packed all of our stuff and moved in with his father to lessen the burden of rent and pay off all our debts (mostly my school loans), so we could pay for his degree out of pocket ($54K over 3 years). In the last three years as a practicing artist, I haven’t had a dedicated studio space bigger than the corner of a room. Recently, I decided it was time to finally work towards funding a studio space for myself to practice.

About a week ago, I purchased a space I would make my studio and hired JM Joints to design the space and bring it to life. I am excited to see how owner and creative producer, Jordyn Michelle (now Jordyn Jenkins), creates a space and everlasting experience for me to practice my artistry in. Until then…I’m at my father-in-laws dining room table. I felt bad for being embarrassed, then thought this would be a great opportunity to highlight the fact that not every artist is at a point in their lives where they can afford a private studio or loft space to practice. Every artist starts somewhere…I mean even the studio space I purchased is a $186/mo 10’x15’ indoor storage space that needs some TLC to bring out its full potential and make it comfortable to work in. One day, who knows where I will be with my artistry, but if I do become an Amy Sherald one day painting the next Michelle Obama, people can look back at these blogs and see where I started.

So anyway, I stared at this piece of watercolor paper on my father-in-laws dining room table. I had made up my mind and decided I was going to make a piece from blank canvas. I wanted to take this opportunity and fully run with it. I didn’t want to skirt away from the pressure of completing a new work in less than two weeks. I felt like my responsibility as an artist was to use these funds to its fullest potential through the opportunity to create a digital residency/blog for all to see and paint a piece of a local Black woman, which would be acquired by RACC for their portable works collection.

The Muse

But what would I create? I looked through my Pinterest board of Black Women. I looked through my saved Instagram posts of Black Women who inspired me to paint. I looked through my liked Instagram posts and saw something, I saw her, and stopped scrolling for a minute. I had liked her post because it was so real for me. She was talking about her writing, and how she stopped writing because she hated the feeling of needing to write a certain amount of times each week and month, to post to Instagram. She talked about how social media can pressure her to please other people…this “pull to fit a certain aesthetic or system in order to be successful”. She said, ”Who cares about algorithms, likes and dislikes. Create because you want to create and do whatever makes you happy…”. I agree, people, especially creatives, should create without the burden of pleasing others.

I thought about our relationship - I had met her for the first time when she was selected as Roosevelt’s 2012 Rose Festival Princess. I was Benson high school’s Princess. After that season, we had lost contact and went off to college. Years later, I’d find us attending the same church and within the same circle of friends and associates of Black millennials in PDX. We had reconnected on Instagram a little bit ago and its been pleasant to see her growth as a Black woman.

I looked through Asia Greene-Rhodes profile and considered two photos from the same post. She had different hairstyles with beads. Of four different pictures, I liked the composition of the first and last, but decided to go with the latter due to the softness of her face yet unyielding demand from her eyes - there was a story to be told. Why paint her though? Because she, like every Black woman in Oregon, deserves to be a muse. We deserve to have our stories shared and beauty displayed. Each painting I create honors the raw vulnerability, self-love, and visual voice of Black woman. She’s been sharing her vulnerability and poetry for many years…it just felt right to me. In this piece she is strong and reserved, yet open. I put myself in the shoes of the person looking at this painting a year from now, in some Portland building. What would their thoughts be? What were mine? It would be an amazing opportunity to see artwork depicting a Black woman, even more so a PDX native I could relate to. When I painted Zanele for the Portland Building, I had the same thoughts. What little Black girl is going to one day visit the Portland Building and look up at this painting with a Black woman adorned in this beautiful African dress for her wedding day. How proud of herself and beauty she must then feel to be represented on these walls within the whitest major city in the USA? Thank you Asia for inspiring me to paint this newest work.

The background was sourced from a trip to White River Falls State Park in Wasco County, Oregon. The falls represent the fluidity of my current life. 2020 has been an interesting year. One of many wins and defeats, self-love and self-doubt. With the pandemic in March, I decided it was time to leave my steamfitter apprenticeship for something different (wrong timing, but it is what it is). I went into bricklaying and then shortly after was on a job where I was sexually harassed and assaulted by a co-worker. I made the decision to leave construction all together and use my degree in business to go back to white-collar work. I found meaning in helping families impacted by COVID-19 get much needed assistance and resources. Now I work for Multnomah County doing just that. There have been many times throughout this year where I have had anxiety through the roof with decision fatigue and analysis paralysis. It’s gotten worse as I battled with myself on finding and staying in a full-time job or going all in on my studio practice.

The falls of White River makes me feel so small. The world around me feels so big and grounds me in the present moment. I love the bits of greenery jutting out from silver white rock crevasses. I feel challenged with the wilderness around me and felt it would equally challenge my hand and eye when painting.

The Process

I collected my reference photos and began sketching into the night. By the time I looked up at the clock it was 1:30am, but I was almost finished with sketching. When I looked over the sketch I was in awe. I had a range of emotions, as I do with all the paintings I sketch. My husband walked through the door and we spent the remainder of the early morning soaking in the jacuzzi, drinking champagne…me telling him about how excited I was about this new piece and the residency/grant overall, and a folded piece of paper on the bookshelf that had just come in the mail - stating that Sade DuBoise Studio is now recognized in the State of Oregon. He listened to my excitement, my fears, my everything…until 3:30am. Then we retired to the bed…I had to get up and finish the sketch the next morning.

We woke up at 1:30pm. He started doing homework for his masters program and I sat down at the same table to finish the sketch of my piece.

11/22/2020 - Me in front of a 22”x30” sketch of Asia Greene-Rhodes, muse of latest work by Sade DuBoise, funded by RACC’s Support Beam program.

11/22/2020 Up close sketch of latest work by Sade DuBoise for her Support Beam residency/grant. Muse Asia Greene-Rhodes, a local PDX poet/writer & wife & mother.

11/22/2020 - The studio space I am working with. Sharing it with my husband as he works on his masters degree and work at REAP, Inc.

11/22/2020 - A shot taken of my unorganized studio space storage. Different papers, cameras and film for an upcoming Artist Spotlight with Liquitex, a puzzle in progress I’ve been making from scratch, unfinished and finished paintings, my printer for shipping labels, gesso, paintbrushes, palette papers, etc.

Surprises and Writing this Journey

I genuinely love surprising others. When Zanele saw her painting for the first time, her joy had shown me the true purpose of my practice. When a lot of women see themselves depicted in my paintings their emotions make me happy with my work. I have no clue how Asia is going to react when she sees the sketch I’m about to post. I hope she likes it!

Writing is somewhat of a challenge for me, but I hope this blog helps other artists and creatives express themselves more vulnerably and openly. I hope it shows that we don’t have to have it all together. That we may be a work in progress as well.

Rest and the Movement Forward

Did You Engage in #BlackOutTuesday?

I came back from #BlackOutTuesday to BS - to say lightly. Why are black people policing other black folk? Why the need to call out black people who decided to engage in the social media campaign as sheep?

Whatever the reasons black people decided to engage or not engage, whether they followed every task listed out or not for the social media campaign- we as a community shouldn’t jump down the others throat. Let your fellow black people BE. We’re already tired, stressed, and at our wits end without bashing other kinfolk for silencing their social media and posting a black square.

Engaged in Rest

For the day, my husband and I decided it was a well needed time for rest. We needed a damn nap! We needed to clear our mental to plan out our part in the resistance. My husband took the day off from work and we slept in. We woke up and went on a hike through Hoyt Arboretum. We spent the day with social media off and gave very little response to emails, post comments and messages.

An Opportunity to Make Something Great

During our hike we turned on our recorder and had the space to bounce ideas off one another for a series of posters we would create. Before heading to Hoyt Arboretum, my husband and I dropped off Black Tears to PushDot Studio to be captured. The amount of out pour and support from the piece deeply moves us. Last night we decided we would invest $1,000 into making 11x17 in poster prints to hand out to community members. For us, art is a visceral reflection of these times and our experiences. We wanted to provide these posters to protesters and community members as appreciation for their sacrifices, dedication, and time to the work of demanding justice for the deaths of hundreds of black men, women, and children by police brutality and racist vigilantes.

Right before we made it to Hoyt Arboretum I got an unexpected call from late senator Avel Gordly. This woman saw the first fruits of my artwork while I was a middle school child. She supported my work then and this moment wasn’t any different. I was able to pour out about my vision for these posters and she in turn gave my husband and I $1,000 for printing of the 2020 Black Tears poster. Speechless! I could cry. In turn I decided to gift her with the original piece framed.

Appreciation

I give deep appreciation to PushDot Studio employee Drew for working on the first A Never Ending Plight poster, 2020 Black Tears and donating his expertise and time to setting up the font and file format for printing.

I thank and give appreciation to my printmaker and friend Jeanette for donating 10 limited edition giclee prints of 2020 Black Tears, which I will have for sale in my boutique. Without Jeanette, my studio practice would not be where it is today. I thank her so much for her donation and support as a friend and ally.

I also want to take the space to thank Avel for her continued support of my practice. I’m still speechless and humbled at her generosity and love. I thank her for supporting the younger generation so we can continue the work needed in our communities.

New Piece Added to Resistance Works

Today I worked on a new piece. She is called Nina’s Fruit and speaks to what I wrote in my blog yesterday about her call to artists reflecting the times in their artistry. I’m deeply moved by Nina and have found myself singing her version of Strange Fruit regularly. Her haunting voice echoing through my mind as I reflect on the modern day lynchings of black bodies.

I didn’t want to paint the horrors of dead black bodies in my piece however, so I searched for strange fruit on Pinterest. I found a problematic poster titled “15 Weird & Exotic Fruits to Hunt Down” by Food Republic. It made me think about black people being labeled as strange fruit during lynchings. I placed a vine with the different fruits of Africa against a red background.

I hope you like and enjoy the second piece to this series. The original, posters, and limited edition giclee prints are now available in my Resistance Works boutique.

Nina’s Fruit

Gouache, Acrylic, & Paint Pen on Watercolor Paper

“They treat us like bad investments, strange fruit ripe in the streets”

— Anderson DuBoise @adduboise

How You Can Support

If you would like to support my studio practice as my husband and I get ready to pass hundreds of posters out to the community, please feel free to purchase artwork from my boutique. I have 10 limited edition 2020 Black Tears prints available below. Here is the poster we will be giving out to the community!

You can donate here: