Deity, I, depicts The Old Maker, creator of the universe in African folkloric traditions. The artist, Nikko Washington, recalls that when he was a kid, his sister, who was a dancer, had a poster of The Alvin Ailey dancers. “Looking at that poster every day, I realized the power and athleticism in dance,” Washington says. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was founded in 1958 as an all-Black dance troupe. As part of his effort to retell the stories of Black history, Washington saw the Alvin Ailey dancers as characters that could easily relate to cherubs, angels, and deities. “They point to my relationship with God,” Washington says. In this painting, The Old Maker is seen within a black space; it is both a moment of stillness, and a moment of action; a representation of the force of creation within the sacred void.