Emergence is a self-portrait created through graphite, dried flowers, honeysuckle, eucalyptus, repetition, and movement. The drawing depicts me mid-scream, with mushrooms, plants, and butterflies emerging from my mouth. Together, they form a visual language for stimming and what it feels like to inhabit my body as a Black, Caddo, Mexican, queer, trans, disabled, survivor.
In a society that demands silence, composure, and assimilation, this piece honors expression without apology. The scream is not only sound. It is rocking, pacing, breath, stillness, joy, grief, sensory processing, and release. The mushrooms reflect unseen mycelial networks and the ways we emerge when conditions allow. The butterflies hold transformation, transition, and freedom.
For me, the story of “America” includes the bodies and ways of being that have often been hidden, corrected, or excluded from public life. Emergence insists that disability is not something to overcome, but a source of knowledge, connection, and possibility. This drawing is both a sensory map and an act of self-determination. It asks what becomes possible when we are allowed to exist fully, move freely, and return to ourselves.
