Donnie, 2023 - Framed in Black Wood

DA'SHAUNAE MARISA
Donnie, 2023
9 x 11 inches framed
Vintage studio portrait embellished with dried flowers
Signed by the artist 

**If you are interested in commissioning a similar work by the artist, please reach out to Sarah Haimes at sh@forfreedoms.com**

A Cleveland, Ohio native Da'Shaunae Marisa (b.1996), is a multi-disciplinary artist based between New York, Cleveland, and Los Angeles. Da'Shaunae uses her work to communicate the beauty and complexity of Black life in America and around the world. Her work explores the nuance of the connective threads between multiple generations and trauma. She intends for her work to inspire a greater sense of awareness in all humans alike. Marisa uses her lens in an intimate light while still grounding you to reality. The artist’s work has been featured in National Geographic, The New York Times, Aperture, Time, and Google, among others. Her commercial commissions consist of collaborations with Google, For Freedoms, Target, and SnapChat, among others. 

Marisa explores themes of life and the preservation of death through the ways we return to nature. Humans are a product of nature and yet, often, we center our lives outside of nature. In this Ancestral Triptych, Marisa examines this concept as well as explores the similarities of human life to flowers by taking the most adored parts of the natural world and overlaying them on studio portraits of her ancestors from the 1920-60s. 

“I clip flowers grown from concrete in my neighborhood mixed with bouquet flowers that embody the energy I feel from each portrait. By collecting flowers from various locations, my process not only highlights the fleeting brilliance of life similar to the blooming phase of a flower that still holds beauty as it declines, but acts as a reminder not to judge beauty based on its origin. Some flowers will hold their color as others fade, a visual metaphor for the few aspects or parts of a person we choose to keep alive and preserve after their passing. While the subjects are my ancestors, these works can be viewed as an altar for the ancestors of all people of color.”  

 
Marisa was a part of the most recent cohort of For Freedoms Fellowships including Converse’s Hear Her Here, promoting the work of Black femme creatives, and Google's Image Equity Fellowship supporting early-career image-based creators of color in the US and the expansion of a more equitable field of fine art. 

Marisa notes “My values align with what For Freedoms stands for in regards to seeking expansion by presenting ideas through art to allow the collective to receive to expand on themselves. We are both building ideas from the world we imagine to create.”

For Freedoms is excited to support our fellows through sales and community-building opportunities; artists will receive 50% of the net proceeds of sales of their artwork. 

PLEASE NOTE: 

• This work comes framed and will ship within 3 weeks of your order date.
• International customers are responsible for all duties, taxes, and VAT fees.