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"More great than human, now, and more August, / New deified she from her fires does rise.” John Dryden wrote these optimistic words in 1666, in his poem Annus Mirabilis (The year of wonders). Only a poet of Dryden’s immense imagination could find a blessing in that year, when London was struck by both the Great Fire and the Great Plague, all amidst a naval war. As we close 2020, is it possible to find a similar hope amid the embers? Personally, I find some solace in the mysterious Sentinels of Aude Hérail Jäger, a French artist based in London.

In her speech accepting the nomination for vice president, Kamala Harris honored past generations of civil rights activists and a new generation standing on their shoulders. Artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy has long painted works focusing on those women and men on whose shoulders so many now stand, whose stories and struggle inspired new generations.