Atlanta artist honors Kamala Harris’ historic rise to vice presidency

Vice President Kamala Harris may have ties to California and Washington, D.C., but her history-making election as vice president also made a mark on an Atlanta-based artist.

Ahead of the historic swearing-in ceremony Wednesday, Ashley Dopson, a fine artist and muralist, painted an ode to the first woman, Black and South Asian vice president on Beecher Street and Cascade Avenue, CBS 46 reported.

“Who we will become doesn’t happen in an instant so we gotta enjoy each and every step,” Dopson told the AJC of why she felt compelled to create the artwork, which is flanked by the words “Dream Big!”

The mural features Harris at three stages of her life: one as a child, another in her college days at Howard University and one as vice president of the United States.

While Harris and Dopson attended rival historically Black universities — there’s a constant battle over whether Howard University, where Harris graduated from or Hampton University, where Dopson calls here alma matter, is the real HU ― Dopson put that aside to honor the former California senator.

“Congrats to our nation now we put our hand to the plow and Work,” she wrote in part in her Instagram caption.

The elementary school art teacher continued sharing her thoughts on Twitter.

After explaining how excited she was to hear from her father, who had called to tell her she was on the news, Dopson said, “Soooo humbled and grateful! I really just want to be a good steward of my gift.”

Dopson had been working on the mural since last year.

She shared a glimpse of her progress on Twitter in November, saying in part that the Oakland, California-born official is “So inspiring to us all!!”