While creating the 2023 exhibition "Beyond the Whitewash" in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I collaborated with a group of talented Oklahoma-based artists and art workers. Working alongside this multi-generational and racially diverse team led to a paradigm shift in my perspective. For over a year, the curators, collaborators, and I met regularly to make decisions, allocate funds, and discuss various aspects of the project. Our meetings included in-depth conversations about race, class, and gender as we supported each other in navigating past and present traumas. As a result, we formed a close-knit community emphasizing self-care and kindness. During this time, I was invited into communities that are typically off-limits to white people—spaces where spiritual practices are embedded in the culture and ways of living. After completing my three-year tenure with the Tulsa Artist Fellowship in 2023, I relocated to Providence, Rhode Island, set up my studio, and started a new series titled "Notes to Myself." As a lifelong atheist, I have always approached the concept of god with deep skepticism. And yet, because of my experiences in Tulsa, I feel compelled to explore questions about the possibilities of spirituality in my current body of work.

Then came Trump.