Former Baltimorean Amy Sherald presents two female figures in an open landscape—one gazes at a rocket and its spiraling trail of smoke, and the other glances knowingly, perhaps at us. Sherald scouts her grayed subjects from real life and portrays them in fictional and contemplative poses and settings. Sherald found the two women in this work at a fundraiser for Baltimore Renaissance Academy High School. Sherald takes a nuanced view of progress in this painting: “There’s something about a rocket—it’s symbolic of the highest height of the spirit, of unlimited potential. It really captures your imagination because it’s going someplace where we can’t go. It’s almost like a dream. It’s just a very American thing, watching rockets go up. But I also feel like rockets are very white and very male, somehow; you know, the space program, all those white guys.”