On her instagram account, which has gained a following of over 13,000 followers worldwide, she shares about the PUSH series: “Push is about pushing back, through and up. This one (Push Back, the cover image) in particular is of my son. When I paint in general it comes from a very spiritual place. Here I wanted to, in a way, speak over my son’s life. Black men lives, Blackboy lives, that they could go from ‘hands up, don’t shoot’, to pushing back... and not necessarily with a fist. You know, that’s the story.” Continuing the conversation about the piece “Push Back”, she adds: Let’s talk about painting history, and painting our people into history. Telling our stories and sharing our experiences. Also, permanently placing each other in the view pointof future generations. In this painting, which has spoken to the drive and determination of many, my son is captured. His tattoo is in honor of my father, his grandfather and best friend. So, my father’s spirit is definitely present there. (...) There’s so many layers of documention. A truth is, all of this, all of the storytelling, will likely mean much more to my son’s children than it does to him and so forth. That’s what we are out here trying to do. We are trying to record history. This print holds my son, my father and his courage, my friend and his talent, it holds HIV, it holds equality, it holds -fight for what is right- it holds a piece of me. My dear artists, keep writing history. Not content with simply using huge canvases and filling them with explosions of colors and imagery, her art sometimes also bursts out of that format and into the frames where she continues her compositions, as you can see on the piece to the right, where a shirtless, empowered woman leans against an almost fluorecent brick wall, as if coming out of the equally colorful frame that, surprise, is also the brich wall but now filled with candid roses and colors. Pulling from her Fashion Design background, Serena is known for also wardrobing her muses with clothing she has designed to support the story being told. Heavy, painful, on-point, pertinent conversations of race and social conflict among other injustices are juxtaposed with colors and images that represent hope and serve as an invitation to keep the good fight going. Her admiration for the youth and community was nurtured during the decades Serena spent teaching art and poetry at more than a dozen schools and non-profit organizations throughout Philadelphia and neighboring states. 48 www.reddoormagazine.com
ISSUE # <strong>23</strong> - LANGUAGE 49