High Tide Muse is a cosmogram referencing systems of knowledge across both material and spiritual worlds. This work features screenprinted and hand-painted images of an early 20th century woman, drawing on my textile-based printmaking practice and the Wayfinding series (2022–Present), an ongoing series that endeavors to visualize and understand what our Black matriarchal ancestors experienced and examine how their survival strategies hold continued relevance in the present day.

For the past several years, I've been interested in the work of surfacing information through the making of textile pieces and quilts that incorporate ancestors both real and imagined. I hold a deep understanding that history repeats itself and the times we're living through are not without precedent. I've made several works in the Wayfinding series that contain mirrored and collaged compositions of archival photographs, and I refer to them as cosmograms, as the images form a map or a meditation to be studied and reflected upon. These works are inspired by the Bakongo cosmogram, the continuity of human life is symbolized by four points, or the four moments of the sun: conception, birth, maturity, and death, or a return to the spiritual world.

When making this piece, I thought about the changing seasons and tides of our times, and how some look to us for answers because of our propensity for foresight and vision. High Tide Muse speaks to this position we tend to hold in times of uncertainty. We've seen this over the past several years, particularly with Octavia E. Butler's oft-quoted 1993 novel Parable of the Sower, which begins in 2024 and predicts many events of our current reality with stunning accuracy.

High Tide Muse represents a curiosity about how events will continue to unfold, the roles that we each play, what we choose to contribute and what we choose to keep amongst ourselves.