In a recent exhibition, I showed a series of works titled Motherhood: Sweet, Sour, and Strong, inspired by the West African song Sweet Mother I first heard as a little girl. The song celebrates both the joys and the hardships of motherhood. That duality — its sweetness and its struggles — became the heart of this body of work.

I designed a collection of fabrics using fruit as recurring motifs, each carrying symbolic meaning: pineapple for sweetness, lemon for sourness, and orange for strength and resilience. Throughout the fabrics, I weave the Ghanaian Adinkra symbol Obaa Tan Pa, which represents the “good mother.”

Motherhood: who, truly, is a good mother? If society views motherhood one way from the outside, how do mothers themselves define what it means to be good? From my own experience as a mother, I’ve come to understand that sacrifice alone is not the only way most mothers would like to live their lives. Mothers need rest, gentleness, and the freedom to be fully human.

Dancing Queen in Little Accra is the largest piece of work I’ve created so far — 7 feet by 5 feet. My inspiration is a pair of sneakers created by Nike. In the fall of 2022, as part of Nike’s fortieth anniversary of its Air Force One, the company spotlighted Little Accra, a Bronx community of Ghanaian immigrants, giving a special anniversary edition of Air Force 1’s the same name.

As a Ghanaian immigrant myself, I wanted to amplify the story behind these shoes and join the celebration. I designed a fabric collection for this artwork — the Little Accra Collection — my first fabric collection created for a single portrait, in colors reflecting Ghanaian cuisine, incorporating two Adinkra symbols: Sankofa (learn from the past to influence the future) and Nserewa (wealth, abundance, and well-being).

The final work depicts the hybridity of someone living in Little Accra — African heritage and everyday American life: a woman in an African dancing pose, African fashion styling, wearing the Little Accra shoes, with Ghanaian flag colors and American flag colors completing the story. The piece joins my Joy of Living Series.