This body of work is an effort to strengthen my connection to my Haitian heritage through creating work that both helps me to do research about Haiti and my family, and create images that evoke pride in my identity. After the passing of my late grandmother, who immigrated from Haiti with my grandfather, my connection to the Haitian side of my identity has diminished greatly. My connection to a resilient people and beautiful island used to bring me comfort and pride, but nowadays I feel more lost and ashamed that I am so far removed from anything Haitian. In an effort to reinvigorate my Haitian connection I gathered photographs for my paintings from my grandmother's old photo albums that I dug up from her basement with the help of her daughter, my Aunt. In the creation of these pieces I thought about how I could accurately portray members of my family and communicate how I know their personalities and histories to be, how painting the black side of my family dignified them in some way by showing they were worthy of such a historically renowned art form, and how I could record family history through paintings because the photo albums that belonged to my grandmother, unbeknownst to her, suffered immense damage from multiple floods in her basement.