In my piece My Sister's Keeper, I aim to examine notions of care and intimacy through moments of simplicity and stillness. The figure on the left is caressing the head of the figure on the right, while the figure on the right is exhibited with a crochet needle in hand. These gestures of care are highlighted through a child’s hand pointing from the bottom right register of the painting, drawing the eye towards these moments of familiarity and closeness. Being that I work within the guise of portraiture, I am most interested in the way the Black body and Black life is portrayed through this modality. A moment of care between sisters, unaware of the viewer, allows the subjects to engage each other with a degree of familiarity. Although the space in this space is left slightly ambiguous, the feeling of home is conjured through placement of pillows and light. As my work often engages with themes of family and spirituality, specifically in relation to how the people that came before us are represented. Although there are no direct references to photos, the depiction of light allows for a reference of our loved ones that we put on our walls. In a further exploration of spirituality, I chose to name this piece My Sister's Keeper, referencing the biblical reference to holding each other in love and the importance of communion. I am not interested in positioning these figures as political, but rather celebrating the mundanity of everyday tasks, which in turn humanizes them.
