She Stood So I Rise (2025)

Watercolor, Archival Collage, Gold Leaf, Embroidery, and Ink on 3x4 feet paper.

Ella Louise Clark Williams, my maternal Great-Great Grandmother, and her sisters had photos taken of them in 1904, at the Kaufmann Portrait Studio, Downtown Pittsburgh. I think about what may have been happening in the Country as she stood, with regality, posing for a photo.

Through my genealogical research, I have found that she was a resident of Coraopolis, PA - which makes me a 5th generation Pittsburgher. (If you look closely, the collage is of Sanborn maps of that time, where she lived). She was the mother of a Tuskegee Airman. She stood tall so I could rise.