The reason I paint is to understand the world that’s hidden from me. It’s the same reason I read texts about critical race theory, queer theory, and feminist theory. To learn about a world that’s bigger than mine. To hear other people’s experiences that are different from mine, that mine affect, and to challenge what I think I know.

I live inside a narrow frame that quietly reinforces itself by showing me a world built for people like me. Learning how connected and similar we are can be scary—it means facing what we don’t always want to see in ourselves, including our own ignorance. Which often presents itself as anger toward others.

Those texts open perspectives I didn’t grow up with. They speak to lives I don’t know well but am entangled with. They show me what I don’t usually see, and reflect back how I’m seen. They help me understand how my world is shaped and how it shapes others. And they help shape the kind of person I want to be.