James Everett Stanley (b. 1975, Waltham, MA) lives and works in Wellfleet, MA — he received a MFA from Columbia University and is an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He is an Assistant Professor of Painting at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His work is part of the permanent collection of The Studio Museum in Harlem.

I never met my great-grandmother Ma’Dea. But the way my mother talks of her, of all the women up the line of her blood, makes me believe in reincarnation, if only for a moment. Makes me see that the women before us left something in our genomes. A way to see out.

When looking at those old images, I feel a sharp pang of sadness. One that I can't even call saudade.

“I have been thinking so much about that mother tear and also the refuge of our home now, the wellness of the children. What makes that possible?”

Rockville Mural by Esteban del Valle