In the Bushes considers the intimacy of connection forged away from prying eyes—quiet, coded moments of closeness that resist legibility. At the center of the composition, two silhouetted heads meet in profile: one rendered with soft contours, the other with the stylized geometric forms that recur throughout my visual vocabulary. Their interaction feels tender, but it’s also layered with ambiguity—flanked by lush, overlapping foliage and abstracted directional signs that suggest both movement and concealment.

This work continues my interest in how Black queer lives are shaped by visibility and erasure—how moments of desire, safety, and recognition often unfold in the margins, or quite literally, in the bushes. The title nods to a long history of coded encounters, but also to the natural world as a site of refuge and disruption. The flat geometry of the forms and the layered transparency of the leaves reinforce the interplay between seen and unseen, surface and depth. Positioned alongside pieces exploring historical care systems and the abstraction of intimacy through technology, In the Bushes offers a quieter meditation—on secrecy, survival, and the layered spaces where connection finds room to grow.