Sahara Sunset, 2018

Day surrenders to night as the silhouette of two acacia tres stand like sentinels against a blazing sky. The foreground tree reaches upward with distinctive branches, while its distant companion creates a sense of depth that pulls you right into the landscape. 
 
Sahara Sunset came from a deep, almost visceral longing to connect to a place I've never physically been. It's like a visual conversation with ancestral memories that live in my DNA. As a Black woman, I sometimes feel this unexplainable homesickness for a landscape my eyes have never seen but my heart somehow recognizes. Sometimes I imagine how my ancestors must have felt witnessing and existing in harmony with nature before history took the turns it did.
 
This painting is like a bridge across time and geography, and a quiet acknowledgement of a powerful sense of belonging that comes through my heritage. There's something profoundly peaceful and beautiful about accepting this longing as a part of who I am, and letting it inspire rather than haunt me.