Blessèd be the Peacemakers (Forthcoming)

Blessèd be the Peacemakers, 2024. Acrylic latex on stone and wood, 120 x 25’ Location: The Vault Warehouse, Long Beach, CA
Commencement date: Autumn 2024

The Vault Warehouse is nestled in Cambodia Town, wherein many of our Khmer, Hispanic, and Black neighbors’ lives interweave with people from all walks of life. While sauntering through the neighborhood, one discovers abundant fruit gardens, Baptist churches, and the Spanish murmurings of students walking home from school.

Blessèd be the Peacemakers pays homage to the ones who have landed here and continue tilling the soil, while foraging for nourishment. They sow the seed that bears the good fruit that sustains our communities, and water the crop that replenishes us. This piece pays respect to the ones who labor to cultivate peace within themselves—a peace that then stirs about in our homes, and bleeds out into our neighborhoods, our cities, our nation, our world—this peace that promotes the growth that is necessary in building healthy communities. A Vietnamese boy holds the scales upon his steady shoulders as a dedicated servant of justice.

These children are our very own. Here, they wade in rice patties with their trusted African jacana and Asian water buffalo, as pools of rainwater graze their ankles, and the land is restored under generous skies from which peace pours upon the innocent. Together, they are the stewards of earth, a responsibility that has been bestowed upon them by our Maker. They spread the seeds of peace upon the land. Assisting them in this essential task are their passerine companions—the Vietnamese greenfinch perches to commune with the verditer flycatcher who has arrived from Cambodia; the Eurasian hoopoe, indigenous to the Holy Land, whose resilience has enabled it to fly from the West Bank to the high altitudes of the Himalayas; and the American Robin, whose roots extend to Mexico.

Together, they gather in song that is a collective prayer for peace.