Mixed media mosaic, used vigil candles, mirror glass, ball chain

This piece changes as you get close; you become a part of it. As does the environment. This piece has infinite reflections, refractions, and reverence. How am I making ripples and following the abolitionists who came before me? How do we connect as beloved community and instigate and create liberation? Harriet Tubman left us a map. Harriet Tubman Drip on Me.

and Wangari Maathai Prayer Wheel, to Create Compassion and End Suffering

Marla McLean

Mixed media Prayer Wheel, Kinetic Sculpture

$1000

Wangari Maathai tells a parable; the forest is consumed by fire and all the animals run out and watch it burn. Except for the Hummingbird, who flies back and forth persistently using its tiny beak to stop the fire one drop of water at a time.“We’re constantly being bombarded by problems that we face and sometimes we can get completely overwhelmed. [But] we should always feel like a hummingbird. I may feel insignificant, but I don’t want to be like the other animals watching the planet go down the drain. I’ll be a Hummingbird; I’ll do the best I can. “

I created this prayer wheel because the world is consumed by war, racism, injustice, and environmental degradation. Wangari’s life offers a model, map, and mantra. I want people to engage in turning the Tibetan-inspired Prayer Wheel clockwise. The ritual sends out compassionate well-being to end suffering. A tactile reminder that we will collectively create a world of justice and love by each doing our small drop. I will be a Hummingbird. Om Mani Padme Hum.

Environmentalist, Visionary, Human Rights Activist, Greenbelt Movement, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai tells a parable; the forest is consumed by fire and all the animals run out and watch it burn. Except for the Hummingbird, who flies back and forth persistently using its tiny beak to stop the fire one drop of water at a time.“We’re constantly being bombarded by problems that we face and sometimes we can get completely overwhelmed. [But] we should always feel like a hummingbird. I may feel insignificant, but I don’t want to be like the other animals watching the planet go down the drain. I’ll be a Hummingbird; I’ll do the best I can. “

I created this prayer wheel because the world is consumed by war, racism, injustice, and environmental degradation. Wangari’s life offers a model, map, and mantra. I want people to engage in turning the Tibetan-inspired Prayer Wheel clockwise. The ritual sends out compassionate well-being to end suffering. A tactile reminder that we will collectively create a world of justice love by each doing our small drop. I will be a Hummingbird. Om Mani Padme Hum.

Wangari Maathai, Environmentalist, Visionary, Human Rights Activist, Greenbelt Movement, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 1940-2011

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Hummingbird parable and Mkuyu, African Fig Tree

Mkuyu, African Fig tree

Sometimes grief takes a beautiful form.

This piece was inspired by the Gregory Porter song, Liquid Spirit. I experienced this song being performed as I simultaneously mourned the loss of my dad and celebrated my birthday. It was a wave of release, music flowing, crying, and clapping. It was a wholly/holy human sensory human moment when my understanding of life as being immersed in joy and pain became clear. In my studio the repetition of cutting and placing the pieces was healing as well. Listen to the song. Make this piece your story too. “Get ready for the wave/ It might strike like the final flood/the people haven’t drank in so long/the water won’t even make mud/After it comes/it might come with a steady flow/ Grab the roots of the tree/ Down by the river,/fill your cup when your spirit’s low/Clap your hands now”

mixed media, mosaic, Black Lives matter, Fight the power, upcycled materials, fine art, assemblage art, recycled materials, tile. Darnella Frasier, Public Enemy, Art and Music

Fight The Power, (Public Enemy) 

An homage to Darnella Frazier, the teenager who filmed the murder of George Floyd.

Mixed media mosaic with vintage camera, tiles, glass, used vigil candles

19.5” x 19.5”

mixed media, mosaic, Black Lives matter, Sankofa, upcycled materials, fine art, assemblage art, recycled materials, tile, Nina Simone,  Art and Music

Sankofa/New World Coming (Nina Simone)

Se wo were fi ni

Wosanka a yenkyi

Go Back for what you have forgotten

Mixed media mosaic with vintage camera, tile, glass, used vigil candles

19.5" x 19.5"

mixed media, mosaic, Black Lives matter, Fight the power, upcycled materials, fine art, assemblage art, recycled materials, tile, Valerie June, Desmond Tutu, Art and Music

Call me a Fool (Valerie June)

“Do your little bit of good wherever you are. It’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” Desmond Tutu

Mixed media mosaic with vintage camera, tile, glass, used vigil candles.

19.5" x 19.5"


This piece glitters and a rainbow made of tile catches your eye all while reminding you that the audacity to believe in the power of change and love 

in the midst of injustice and hatred is a superpower

Prayer Wheels, Mixed media art, mosaic, Black Lives Matter, Lotus mantra, 4 Little Girls, compassion

Prayer Wheels to End Racism and Create Compassion

Mixed Media prayer Wheels with mosaic

36" x 11 1/2" x 4"


The four little girls painted on the wheels are Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise McNair who perished in the racist terrorist bombing of The 16th Street Birmingham Church in 1963. While working on this piece, another act of racist terrorism occurred, the Charleston Church Shooting. In response, I added the names of the eleven victims.

There is no more room to add the expanding roster of names and faces taken from this earth through violence rooted in racism.

Turn the wheel to counter the political spoken and unspoken effects of hatred and racism.

The mantra, Om Mani Padme Om, (Lotus Mantra) 

Just as a lotus grows forth and pushes out from the mud, may I emerge out of the current culture of despair and violence. May I rise into beauty and compassion.

May I act on this.

Rise up.

Prayer Wheels, Mixed media art, mosaic, Black Lives Matter, Lotus mantra, 4 Little Girls, compassion

Prayer wheels to End Racism and Create Compassion

Prayer Wheel to End Racism and Create Compassion (detail)

Mixed media art, upcycled art, recycled art, Tyree Nichols, Altar, Monarch Butterfly, Mother Earth, Mother, Mom, prayer
“Mom Mom Mom”
A Healing Altar.
Mixed media deconstructed chair with votives
In memory of Tyree Nichols and his last words.
Inspired by the Migratory Monarch and the people and trees in Mexico 
where they find Sanctuary.
Inspired by Mother Earth/Pachamama.
Inspired by the the art of Guayasamin and his Church of Humanity in 
Quito, Ecuador that honored those who passed fighting for social justice.I used to sit on this deconstructed chair as a child. My Mother called itthe captain's chair.

"Mom Mom Mom"

A Healing Altar (detail)

“We will not be silent,” In Honor of Malala Youfsazi

Acrylic, paper, pen, mosaic, beads, repurposed toy bus, repurposed wood tray

There are great heroes and saints that walk this earth. One of them is the very brave and young Malala Youfsazi. Shot by the Taliban on a Pakistani school bus for advocating for girls education at age 14. She represents a courage and selflessness that the earth sorely needs. I began this piece as a vigil right after she was shot. She miraculously survived, and continues to risk her life speaking for those who are unable to, or too scared too.

Mixed media mosaic with used altar candle, keys, recycled materials, glass, tile, acrylic painting.

Created in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Inspired by the ferocity and power of women worldwide and Beyonce's song, "You won't break my soul."

Open and Trust Your Third Eye

Mixed media painting on canvas, glass, repurposed fruit bin

There but for the grace of God go I

Mixed media, photography, mirror, in vintage cheese boxes

Mixed media mosaic with ceramic, bicycle wheel

In remembrance of my student Shalita Middleton, who beat the odds through forgiveness, therapy, and education,  only to be randomly shot by stray bullets on a campus college in Salisbury, MD far from her DC neighborhood considered dangerous.

Using Format