This was the beginning of my foray into mixed-media work, and it was such a joy to create! I started by taping about 12 pages of 8″x10″ watercolor paper to a wall. I had a large variety of materials to play with (acrylic paint, charcoal sticks, inks, pastels, colored pencil, and images. I also had a page filled with descriptive and opposite words: big/small; thick/thin; bold/subtle; light/dark. The approach was to choose one word at a time, choose a medium for that word, and make a mark on the page that matched the word. I found this much more freeing and fun than what had been my typical approach to starting a piece. (Before this I began pieces by measuring, starting in the middle, and meticulously matching colors and image to recreate what I was seeing onto the page. ). After the first pass I had what you now see as the chicken’s nest. Over the course of several days I added color, images and elements as the story unfolded. What most people would never notice is that the image in the upper left is that of a Black sharecropper from around the 1960’s in Texas. This was long after that wretched practice in American history should have been illegal. I’ve always had massive respect and affinity for the African-American culture. I admire their ability to maintain grace, joy, humanity, family, and tradition. They do so regardless of the injustice our countries’ practices have thrown their way. The title has a double-entendre. The roosters and hens literally call us to rise up. And many African-Americans have called on our culture to rise up. They have demonstrated what it means to rise up, day after day, decade after decade.