Even if you don’t know Danielle Mckinney, you know her work. You’ve seen her women at rest against a moody backdrop, draped in furs, reclined with a cigarette in hand. The photographer turned painter’s work has been pinned, tweeted, reposted, and hosted in galleries worldwide like Galerie Max Hetzler and Marianne Boesky Gallery. Mckinney’s women (or her dolls, as she sometimes refers to them) are portrayals of Black women in decadent spaces.

Her latest venture is a book and a journal of her work produced in tandem with her mother, Barbara Mckinney, who wrote 50 prompts to accompany Mckinney’s paintings and encourage self-reflection. Mckinney cites her mother as her biggest inspiration. Pieces like Shelter , featuring a butterfly, prompted letters from people “that were so moved by the

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