The View: Final Look

Sabreehna S. Essien, MPH

It has been an amazing journey to manifest The View. In my reflections today, I came to the aha moment to the final added components of the piece.

The View: Final Paint

When this piece was first primed, l looked at the canvas and saw birds…very distinctly. However, I decided not to focus on the birds and kept painting without acknowledging the birds. The message of my Ancestor who took her final look at her homeland before being catapulted into the atrocities of the Atlantic Slave trade speaks volumes.

The bird totem speaks to the freedom and strength of mind of my oppressed Ancestors. The song that came to mind was the old Negro Spiritual “ I’ll Fly Away” which speaks to ascending away from the pain of body and soul to a Heavenly home where there would be no sorrow or separation from those you loved so dearly.

The final unique component of this piece is the tribal mark on her neck which denotes this woman, this ancestor of mines, she was from a noble people.

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Published by Sabreehna S. Essien, MPH

A Native to the Pacific Northwest, Sabreehna is American with Kenyan descent. Sabreehna holds a Master of Public Health and is a small business owner. She currently studies Marriage Family Therapy at Northcentral University and graduates in 2024. Sabreehna is a wife and mother of two boys. Sabreehna enjoys a good book, travel, fashion, nature hikes, and time with her husband and children. Sabreehna dreams of building schools, health clinics, community centers, and affordable housing in rural parts of Africa.

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