On this Easter Sunday, I give thanks for what it is in the human spirit that welcomes the concepts of resurrection and reconciliation. I made this painting with my dedicated models Annie Jefferson and Mona Reeves during a period of a year and a half. In serious moments, we talked about the Emmanuel AME massacre in Charleston. William Faulkner wrote “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past,” in his Southern Gothic novel, Requiem for a Nun. Our American past we must actively shape with hope into a better life today.