Flourish We Will
Flourish We Will is a poetic painting of resilience and becoming. by visual artist Karla King. It is inspired unexpected yet thriving presence of Green Parakeets in Amsterdam who arrived as pets, and are now a vivid part of the city’s landscape.
The Girl and The Parakeet
A Poetic Painting of Resilience and Becoming Karla King and the making of Flourish We Will
In the southeast of Amsterdam, one of the city’s most culturally vibrant districts, green parakeets have become a quiet fixture in the sky. They appear like flashes of tropical memory—bright, loud, and seemingly out of place.
Visual artist Karla King draws the allegorical presence of the Green Parakeets in Amsterdam as both muse and metaphor in her new painting, Flourish We Will. The work was created in response to the CBK Zuidoost Zomer Salon Open Call, part of Amsterdam’s 750-year celebration. At its heart is a powerful story of migration, survival, and self-liberation.
The poetic piece draws inspiration from the story of the parakeets who were displaced from their natural environment. Originally imported as pets, the non-native birds are believed to have arrived in Amsterdam around the 1970s. Colorful and exotic, they were never meant to live outside the constraints of their cages or survive the cold European climate.
Yet, something happened—whether by accident or design—the birds were released or escaped into the wild. And what seemed to be impossible, happened. They adapted. They endured. Now, decades later, they can be seen flying across the skies and nesting in the trees of Amsterdam, their presence often met with both awe and confusion. This quiet triumph resonated with King, who also moved to the Netherlands from a tropical island. Like the birds, she once felt displaced- caged, admired, even loved, but not truly free. The metaphor of the parakeet became a reflection of her journey towards rediscovering herself in a new place. Amsterdam, with all its complexities, became the setting for this transformation.
Flourish We Will (2025), Acrylic on canvas 120 x 100 cm
Flourish We Will captures that transformation. In the painting, a young black woman holds a green parakeet gently on her finger. There’s no cage in sight. The moment is still, but not static. There’s a quiet exchange between bird and woman, a mutual recognition of freedom. The Amsterdam canals drift softly in the background, dreamlike and secondary.
The painting offers a layered narrative that connects environmental shifts, diasporic identity, and the politics of visibility in a city known for its progressiveness, but also its quiet exclusions. It highlights how resilience and unexpected beauty emerge from unlikely circumstances.
Just as the parakeets have now become a recognizable, if unofficial, part of Amsterdam’s identity, so too have those of us who were not “meant” to belong. In a city celebrating 750 years of existence, it becomes essential to center the lives and stories of those who have helped shape its present—not just through legacy, but through presence.
Flourish We Will is a tribute to all who have been seen as “foreign” “exotic” or “other,” and yet insist on their right to exist, and thrive-challenging traditional ideas of who gets to flourish, where, and how.
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Visual Art Journal interview
A featured article about the work and artistic practices of Karla King
How has your Caribbean heritage shaped your artistic voice and themes?
I grew up in Jamaica, in a household where being an artist wasn’t seen as a viable career. Not out of lack of passion, but because the creative industries back home can feel limiting, both in resources and recognition. So my artistic expression was something I nurtured quietly, starting with those six-tube acrylic sets and flimsy canvases you’d find at a local shop. That’s where my love for painting began.
My work is deeply influenced by where I come from. Being Jamaican isn’t just about island pride, it’s a lens through which I understand the world, and myself. It is the root of my voice and it shows up not only in the colors I use or the textures I play with, but in the stories I tell. I come from a lineage of proud, powerful women — descendants of the Maroons, led by Jamaica’s first national heroine, Nanny. My family is woman-led: strong, independent, resilient. They embody a fierce independence that shaped me. The kind of strength that I both admire but also witnessed the cost that comes with it. How strength can turn into hyper-independence, the pressure to always be the doer, the fixer or the provider, and how resilience can wear you down. This duality is a constant thread throughout my paintings: the beauty and burden of strength, especially through the lens of womanhood.