The Sun, My Heart - Exhibit Opening Reception

The Sun, My Heart

By artist Summer Deaver

On View: June 18 - July 30

Opening: Thursday, June 25, 5:30-8pm

Closing Reception: July 30th, 5:30-7:00, featuring tea meditation and light refreshments

Summer Deaver’s collection explores the unity of opposites through contemplative mark-making, oil painting and hand-burnished printmaking. Inspired by writings in Thích Nhất Hạnh’s The Sun My Heart, the series reflects the idea that light and darkness do not cancel each other out, but merge into wholeness. 

Created with gouache and hand-burnished prints, the print work emphasizes presence and mindfulness—balancing immediacy with the meditative act of pressing hand-carved, often Sanskrit or Tibetan-inspired imagery into paper. Visual elements draw from the artist’s practice of watching ocean sunrises: triangular forms and soft gradients emerge from textured darkness, like dawn breaking over the shore.

Rooted in themes of interconnection and transformation, “The Sun, My Heart” invites viewers to witness how light and shadow, stillness and movement, self and other are never truly separate.

About the Artist 

Summer Deaver is a multidisciplinary artist, yogi, and community organizer whose work bridges visual art, spiritual practice, and social transformation. With a BFA from the University of Georgia, Deaver's work spans printmaking, painting, ceramics, and murals—each medium serving as a vehicle for philosophical inquiry and healing. Her murals at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Whitechapel Projects invite moments of collective care and connection.

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As Director of the Caroline Huber Wellness Center at Brookdale Community College, Deaver advocates for environmental regeneration and social justice with a healing-centered lens. She has exhibited at AG Gallery, The Kitchen, Cinders Gallery in NYC, and has spoken at the Rubin Museum of Art.