The beauty of simply being: HerKind reflects on Shelter
An afternoon with Danielle McKinney’s work at the Norton Museum of Art invited us to consider rest, possibility, and the freedom to take up space.
There is something powerful about standing in front of a painting of a Black woman who is entirely absorbed in her own world.
Resting. Thinking. Simply being as she wishes.
During HerKind’s private tour of Danielle McKinney’s Shelter at the Norton Museum of Art, I kept returning to how rarely I encounter Black women portrayed this way in Western art. Women fully inhabiting their own spaces and bodies, with an inner life that belongs to them.
Without apology.Without shrinking.Without needing to explain themselves.
To me, these paintings offered a sense of freedom from the expectations of the male or white gaze. The women’s comfort, desires, and solitude seemed to exist on their own terms. We could look, but we weren’t entitled to everything about them.
The light drew me in. The facial expressions held me there. There was vulnerability, but also privacy—a reminder that we can witness someone without fully knowing her.
And experiencing these works together made the afternoon especially meaningful.
Art, to me, is equal parts the artist’s intention and what we bring to the piece. Our experiences, longings, questions, and memories shape what we notice. Looking together creates room for another person’s perspective to deepen our own.
These are a few of the questions I carried home.
1Where might you need to give yourself permission to pivot?
McKinney pursued photography before making painting the focus of her practice. That shift opened the way to the body of work we experienced together.
It made me think about the ways we become attached to a particular version of ourselves. The thing we studied. The work people know us for. The direction we’ve already invested so much time in.
Trying something different can feel like asking permission to become someone else. But our experiences come with us. What we’ve learned can find another expression.
A different medium.A different direction.A different way of being.
Where in your own life are you feeling that invitation? And what might happen if you gave yourself room to explore it before needing to know exactly where it would lead?
2Who are you when no one is looking?
This question stayed with me.
Who are we outside of our work? Outside of our roles, responsibilities, accomplishments, and productivity? Outside of the ways we’ve learned to be useful, impressive, or needed?
McKinney’s paintings gave me space to consider the self that exists beyond all of those things. The woman whose thoughts don’t need to become a deliverable. Whose quiet moments don’t need an audience.
There can be something unfamiliar about that much permission.
What do you enjoy when there is nothing to prove? What draws your attention when no one else is shaping it?
Who are you when you are simply allowed to be?
3What does it feel like to fully inhabit your own space—and your own body?
So much of what moved me was the sense of women occupying space with ease.
Resting. Thinking. Taking up room.
I found myself considering how often we adjust ourselves, sometimes without even noticing. How we sit. How much room we claim. Whether we allow ourselves to get comfortable before checking that everyone else is.
What would it feel like to let your own needs shape your surroundings?
To settle into your body without immediately finding something to correct. To make room for quiet. To let yourself stay still.
The invitation I felt in these paintings was simple, but it was not small: you are allowed to feel at home in your own life.
4What makes you feel alive?
The colors, light, and intimate spaces brought me back to the ways beauty makes us feel.
What spaces, textures, images, sounds, and smells make something inside you glow? Which people and experiences help you feel present, curious, and connected to yourself?
An afternoon with art can do that. So can music in your kitchen, a conversation with a friend, or sunlight falling across a room.
I left thinking about how much it matters to notice those things—and to make room for them intentionally.
For me, this is part of the beauty of gathering through HerKind. We share an experience, and it gives each of us something personal to carry home. A question. A possibility. A little more permission.
This week, choose one thing that makes you feel more fully alive. Give it a little space in your day.
Not because you earned it.
Because you are worthy of it.
@joinherkind
See more of our afternoon at Shelter on TikTok
- 11AM
- Mindful movement and tea ceremony with Vital Sip
- 12PM
- Pilates with Bodied Babes Fitness, mats by Go Green Fashionista
- 12:30
- Sound bath with Wellness Luxury
- 1–3PM
- Music, beach games, Red Bull, and time together
Bring your whole crew: friends, partners, kids, and pets are welcome. Come for an hour or settle in for the day.
We are HER. The woman who shows up fully embracing every part of herself.
