ARTIST STATEMENT
Portraits of Nature
I’ve always been drawn to Nature’s enchanting beauty, from the cicada’s gossamer wings to majestic, sky scraping treetops. My childhood, much like those of others’, was enhanced by playing outdoors. It is yet another myth that Black people don’t like the outside.
Enjoying the outdoors can be anything from loving your backyard to climbing Mt. Everest. Nature has a calming effect. Nature is liberating. Nature is recalibrating. Whether it be the perpetual busyness of life or change of the climate, something eventually dims the light of the firefly. We forget to slow down to appreciate what Nature wishes to show us.
Black women have always paid attention to and tended to Mother Earth. We fed thousands from Nature’s table out of survival and a love of community. We fled to freedom by navigating swamps and reading the stars. Today Black women influence environmentalism by introducing unique perspectives to fields ranging from fashion to ecology. It’s not just about the environmental hazards we’re exposed to. We see the beauty that is us. We see a world that is possible to create.
This portrait represents the ties that bind us to one another as we ground ourselves in Nature’s beauty.
© Natalie Jackson