Qusuquzah Sitting with Pink Flower in Hand

Although Mickalene Thomas is best known for her large-scale rhinestone-encrusted portrait paintings, photography has played a pivotal role in her career from the beginning. As a graduate student in the M.F.A. program at Yale, she began photographing her mother, a former professional model, whom she has identified as the first of many muses who have inspired her visual explorations of black feminine identity. In recent years, she has photographed other women--lovers, close friends, or friends of friends--styled and posed in constructed environments bursting with pattern and color. "Just like my first muse, my mother, all of my muses possess a profound sense of inner confidence and individuality," Thomas stated in an interview. "They are all in tune with their own audacity and beauty in such unique ways. They are unafraid to exude boldness and vulnerability at the same time, and most importantly, they are real." As in most of Thomas's portraits, the subject of "Qusuquzah with Pink Flower in Hand" gazes confidently back at the viewer, claiming a space of beauty and sexuality that challenges cultural stereotypes while insisting on visibility.