Despite the overall strangeness of 2020, this last year has also been one for the poly-sci books. In addition to having one of the highest voter turnouts in the 2020 elections in United States history, we elected our first female Vice President, Kamala Harris. How wonderful it is to live in a democracy!

This significant development in the growth of our country has triggered much excitement for what is to come. As we look towards the future, let's pause for a moment and relish in the now with a creation by our featured artist Synthia SAINT JAMES.

Throughout time, an assemblage of artists have captured and memorialized occurrences that alter, and not always for the best, humankind's trajectory on earth. Kamala: Protectress of the People, the number 14 painting in SAINT JAMES' signature series celebrating healers, orisha, shaman, and deities, pays homage to the first woman and woman of color elected to hold this coveted high office.

Kamala Devi Harris was born October, 20th 1964, in Oakland, California, to immigrant parents Shyamala Gopalan Harris and Donald Harris. Shyamala is an Indian-American researcher for cancer, and Donald, a Jamaican-American Professor of Economics, Emeritus at Stanford University. The pair met at the University of California, Berkely, while studying for doctorate degrees and were both activists in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. . 

Synthia SAINT JAMES depicts Kamala Devi Harris, named after honored Hindu goddesses, as a torchbearer, symbolic of liberty and justice, clothed in a Jamaican headwrap and an Indian Sari, both customary pieces of her deep family heritage. Displaying unwavering strength in emblematic colors, Kamala's remarkable career and dedication to the people sparks inspiration and hope.