Hana Ward

Ms. Luck, 2024

According to Hana Ward, her new body of work includes “figures who have what I'm calling a cowpea consciousness. They see themselves as abundant, connected to the land, and harness their collaborative power to enrich their lives.” Like the other works on view during Atlanta Art Week, Ms. Luck (2024) references the cowpea as a good luck charm for prosperity. “The woman in the painting might be doing her daily errands in the city. I'm not sure what else may be in her purse, but she has her black-eyed pea to get her through,” explains Ward. The many variations of this cowpea tradition include: placing a pea in a wallet; adding a coin to a dish of cowpeas before its served; leaving one pea on the plate to share good luck with others; and eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s—Ward honors these small, aspirational gestures of freedom, abundance, and history in Ms. Luck.

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