Since August 2025, artist Danielle Joy Mckinney has been the Rose Art Museum’s artist in residence. Her exhibit “Tell Me More” will be touring until January 2026, and the Rose is Mckinney’s first ever solo museum exhibit, featuring 13 of her pieces with two being exclusive to just the Rose Art Museum. 

Mckinney started her career as a photographer, attending Parsons School of Design in New York. She was inspired to transition into painting in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to escape the world around her. On Nov. 6, Mckinney hosted an artist talk and walkthrough of her exhibit at the Rose. This talk consisted of Mckinney walking students and staff through not only her process but the why behind her art. As an African American woman growing up in the south, Mckinney draws from her childhood, making her art tell not only her story but the story of those lost in art history. 

During the tour Mckinney shared, “When I started painting and I started showcasing the work, I was like ‘why am I painting Black women?’ And I opened my books and asked, ‘where are all the Black women?’ So I made the references, it wasn’t political, it was just inherent.” She spoke of a need to find a way to see herself in her art; this led to the creation of her “ladies,” as she has affectionately named her pieces. Her ladies were a way for Mckinney to tell her story but also to showcase a different light in art. She added that she didn’t see her art as political, because she didn’t intend for it to be. The making of her art was this kind of spiritual release for her, a way to separate herself from the discombobulation of the world, not necessarily a way to make a statement. This being said, Mckinney acknowledges the power and voice many find in her art and says she quite likes to see the way people view her art. 

Mckinney was asked about her thoughts on if her art was still her art now that it had entered into the public view. To this she commented, “They are no longer my ladies. They are now your ladies, the day they leave my studio they are no longer mine.” Many artists echo Mckinney’s sentiment on art in the public view now belonging to the viewer and not the artist. What was striking about Mckinney’s take was that she didn’t seem to feel a sense of loss for the ladies. If anything, she was happy that she could share them and their stories with the world. Mckinney referred to her ladies as “the ladies” because as she said they were no longer hers; they were everyone else’s. When looking at the pieces you could feel the ladies, and the space they took up. One of the aspects to note about Mckinney’s art is that every picture had a room. Her pieces were constructed around each of the ladies and the space that she required to be fully captured. 

There was also humility in the pieces. A kind of strong but gentle vibrato seemed to melt into the eyes of the viewer. As Mckinney spoke, you could feel her paintings come to life around her and feel her sense of empathy and humility, which seemed to emulate her paintings. There was a deep sense of nostalgia in Mckinney’s art: a feeling of calmness that washed over you as you viewed her art. Mckinney said, “As a girl growing up in the south, I never saw anyone in my family rest. They were always doing something. I think I paint resting ladies, because this sense of relaxation was seen as a luxury.” By painting her ladies as relaxed, it feels as though Mckinney is reclaiming the lack of rest in her childhood. Nostalgia comes out in her presentation of the ladies and their need to take back the concept of rest. 

Mckinney’s paintings have a common theme of reclamation to them. She reclaims the African American voice, her childhood, and the power behind rest. All of her pieces tell her stories, but also the stories of the viewers who come in contact with them. Her ladies — and inherently the viewer’s ladies — and the need for them to travel creates this all-encompassing feeling of rest and quiet power draped over the backs of humanity.