Shades of Cool (2025)
Dylan Ormond Joachim
Instructor: Joe Cimino

Artist Statement

The featured digital collage intentionally positions Black imagination, resistance, and Black futurist artistry to explore the many forms that liberation can take. Crowning the work with the phrase “From the top of the morning I shine,” a lyric from Beyoncé’s 2022 album "Renaissance," serves as a deliberate nod to the beauty of Blackness and the cultural power embedded within its public display. This reverence and power are woven into the very fabric of the piece. The final image, a single static photo of seven Black birds, is a nod to Paul McCartney’s 1968 song "Blackbird," written in tribute to a young Black woman during the Civil Rights Movement. Ultimately, the collage creates a historically layered image in which Blackness is celebrated, political, surreal, and grounded in cultural resonance. It serves as a visual manifestation of the multilayered Black American experience across time and space.