CALL TO LIGHT, EARTH RESPONDS
Created in connection with the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Turn Again to the Earth initiative, Call to Light, Earth Responds is an ode to call-and-response music in African American culture and is inspired by Harriet Tubman’s relationship with nature and our innate connection to plants in how we grow, bend, and move in our attempts to thrive. Incorporating elements of Alvin Ailey’s “Revelations” and drawing upon Justen Leroy’s three-channel film installation Lay Me Down in Praise (2022), Vetiver combines their inherited Black ancestry, spirituality, and knowledge of medicinal plants to convey our inevitable likeness to the earth that surrounds us and insists on our growth.
This linocut features a Black Eyed Susan to represent the state of Maryland, where Harriet Tubman is from; Cranesbill Geraniums, used in conjunction with water lilies in a medicinal brew made by Tubman to treat dysentery, a severe diarrheal disease that plagued both runaway slaves and soldiers during the Civil War; and Sassafrass leaves, which were used for sustenance and healing by Tubman, and commonly viewed as a cleansing agent to promote overall health and well-being.
CULTIVATE (journal)
Inspired by my land stewardship and my ancestors’ practice of farming, gardening, and working with plant spirits. (2025)
Available soon at the Concept Store at Blue Light Junction.
Resilience
Resilience is inspired by the spiritual symbolism of Oriental Lady's Thumb (false Indigo) and the energy embodied in vogue/ballroom culture, where everything - love, pain, joy, and resistance - is left on the dance floor. Seen as a way to identify oneself in nature, Vetiver employs their connection with plant spirits to create a mirror for the viewer. The image depicting seeds spreading upon maturation urges that regardless of the adversities one faces, each instance creates ripple effects for opportunities to create change and add our essence to the palette of everyday life. (2025)
REUHSEMBL
Informed by narratives and lived experiences shared by EJ, Boutzie, and Brandon (left to right), REUHSEMBL carries the essence (and faith) of putting oneself together again after dismantling thought patterns, behaviors, and negative perceptions brought on by others, and re-establishing a foundation and relationship with inner and higher guidance to thrive. (2024) read more
T4T
Based off of a photograph taken by King Texas, T4T is inspired by Black trans love and the tenderness that it embodies. (2024)
Seedlings.
(2021)
Earth Dragon Catches the Fire
Earth Dragon Catches the Fire is a self-portrait depicting the artist’s Earth Dragon placements within Wuxing philosophy, which speaks to the five elements of fire, water, wood, metal, and earth. The artwork also offers an ode to Sonia Sanchez’s poem “Catch the Fire”, which the artist interprets as harnessing generational power transmuted from past pains, traumas, and outdated behaviors and beliefs. (2024)
Enby (Iteration 1)
Enby was created out of a need for a visual representation of the gender-expansive human form. Growing up having rarely seen anything like Enby in media or art, the artist created this image for present and future generations. Believing every person is unique in their presentation and identification, this is considered only one iteration and one perspective of a person who identifies as nonbinary. (2022)
Enby (Iteration 2)
(2022)