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“Fire in Her Eyes” by Jennessa Burks (American) - Acrylic on canvas / 2020 - Worcester Center for Crafts (Worcester, Massachusetts) #WomenInArt #JennessaBurks #Burks #WorcesterCenterforCrafts #BlackArt #BlackArtist #SocialJusticeArt #art #artText #Blueskyart #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists
American artist Jennessa Burks has described this painting as rooted in conversations with her daughter and questions that grew more complex as they talked about equity and the ways people are treated. In that context, the “fire” is not anger for its own sake, but a dawning moral clarity showing the heat of awareness, the ache of empathy, and the refusal to accept unfairness as normal. The close-up portrait shows a young woman in profile, her face turned toward a warm, ember-like glow at the right edge of the canvas. She has a medium-brown skin tone. Her head is framed by a dark hood that blends into the shadowed background. Light catches the bridge of her nose, the curve of her cheek, and the soft fullness of her crimson lips, while her face dissolves into shadow. Her eye is sharp, reflective, and slightly narrowed as it becomes the focal point. Her left hand rises near her chin, fingers loosely bent, as if she’s thinking through something hard to say. The brushwork is visibly layered as smoky grays and blues deepen the darkness, while tans, copper, and gold skim across the skin like heat. The surrounding space feels atmospheric and more like moving flames of air so we take in the scene as an inner moment that is quiet, watchful, and charged. Painted in 2020, this work sits in a year many families remember as heavy with disruption and public reckonings. Here, that weight is carried in a girl’s gaze. She is likely still young and still tender, but already braced against what she’s learning. Burks, a Worcester-based self-taught artist and educator, channels that lived, teaching-and-parenting intimacy into a portrait that feels both protective and honest. The light insists on the girl’s dignity, while the shadows acknowledge what it costs to keep seeing clearly. The result is a generational image of purpose so that hope is made visible as resolve.
February 17, 2026 at 7:12 AM