This is one in a series of paintings based on the photos of women held in the Ellis Island detention center in the early 1900s. In each painting, I try to give back some agency and power to the women pictured. This woman, left unnamed by her photographer, reminded me of an aviator with her close fitting cap buckled beneath her chin. That was the inspiration for her wings, deeply textured, powerful wings with magenta to match her scarf. To both her left and right are symbols of the Sami people, who inhabited Lapland (now northernmost Finland and Sweden). Imagery of other indigenous cultures are also incorporated into the collage. To the mid-upper right we see two women from Slovakia, contemporaries of hers at the detention center. In this context she is not vulnerable, but grounded, strong and confident in her historical inheritance and her future.