Swamp Stories is a group of textiles centered around a fictional landscape inspired by the swamps of Louisiana. In this imagery, there are black female figures that are posed in swamp landscapes, as surrounding waters rise around them. The scenes invoke

mythic and folklore elements that speak to the stories and histories of my birthplace of Louisiana. The pieces allude to the passage of time, also present in references to Baroque and Renaissance portraiture. As always, there is an element of ancestral and spiritual presence within the surrounding figures and speaks to the persistence of past energies, stories, and lessons that hide in the backgrounds. These are meant to serve as reminders of the past as we watch our present and future unfold, specifically as it relates to the ways our landscape and the inhabitants within it, must find ways to adapt to a changing world. Water is a central figure in most of my work, including this series, and serves as a reminder of the transformative and migratory nature of water, as a force that shapes the land and simultaneously submerges it’s history.