Interdisciplinary Permission

You have a right to your wildness

Cykofa Artifacts (2022), Ayana Zaire Cotton. Annual Residents Exhibition (2022-23): Time Machines at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Photography by David Hale.

It was there, in the song, that you had permission to lose yourself and not be wrong. 

— Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019), pg. 59

While in conversation with an old colleague, no. Fellow teacher, yes, and... Fellow sojourner? Closer. Fellow artist? Yes. Last week, while in conversation with fellow artist, Rishikesh Tirumalai, we talked about our paths leading up to giving ourselves permission to claim that word, artist. I talked about how, with the benefit of hindsight, I can safely say my hesitancy was rooted in a full body distrust and fear of what stepping into and embodying that word meant. Trembling at the door, hands shaking as I struggled to grip the key, terrified of the wildness it would unlock and the uncertainty that was waiting on the other side…for years I stood at the portal, frozen with terror,…