Ma wo koma mmɔ

About the Artist

Bre-Anna Murphy is a 26-year-old artist and Ithaca native whose creative roots run deep. Raised in an artistic household, she has been making art for as long as she can remember, developing a practice shaped by curiosity, observation, and personal storytelling. Drawing inspiration from raw aesthetics and the experience of existing between spaces, both physical and emotional, her work explores themes of transition, identity, and connection. Through her art, Bre-Anna captures moments that feel both intimate and universal, inviting viewers to find meaning in the liminal and overlooked.

Instagram @breanna_aubin_murphy

Why This Painting Stays With Me

Bre's work rewards close looking, and the longer I sit with this piece, the more it speaks to ours.

Look closely and the painting reveals itself in pieces. Fragments of color and form, each one a stage, a person, a moving part, resolving into a single whole. This project is much the same. Many hands, many steps, partners in Ghana and across the diaspora, joined into one effort.

There is a quiet tension here as well, between a serene simplicity and a complexity you notice only on close study. The complexity is not the opposite of the calm. It is what creates it.

At the center is a woman. She is any woman, and for us she is the epitome of the Ghanaian woman. A basket of goods balanced on her head, a child held close, she carries the economy and the family at once, and she carries them forward. Hers is the daily labor that builds a nation. She is its soul and its heart.

This painting will stay with me as a constant reminder of why GHSI must become more than a great idea, more than admirable work, more than a dream. It must become life-saving. It must help keep this heart beating, and help propel the nation forward.