Liberty Street in Autumn: The Weight We Carry, The Hope We Grow

The bricks beneath my feet were cracking, breaking under the weight of the buildings they were meant to support. Scattered across them, dead leaves clung to the last remnants of autumn, their golden edges curling inward. And yet, through the fractures, small green clovers pushed their way to the surface—thriving in a place they were never meant to grow.

That moment, captured in a single photograph on Liberty Street in Savannah, became the foundation for my painting Liberty Street in Autumn. The layers of color, the exaggerated perspective, the light catching the shine of a leather boot—every element speaks to the weight we carry and the hope that refuses to be buried. Like the clovers, femmes and marginalized communities continue to rise through the cracks of a system designed to hold us down. This painting is about resilience, about noticing the overlooked, about redefining what is possible—even in the most uninviting spaces.