Nathan Lewis’s unfeigned drawings have evolved out of the nine years he worked as a critical care nurse at a Washington, D.C. hospital. As he describes himself, his work is influenced by the rhythms and records of people’s lives – vulnerability, empathy and care. A significant influence on the artist’s work is jazz music, which dates back to his childhood when he played the violin. He often references his music contemporaries as inspirations, in particular Josiah McRaven, Kassa Overall, and Matana Roberts. Another influence and the source of movement and rhythm in his work comes from his practice of Capoeira, a martial art camouflaging as dance, invented by enslaved Africans in Brazil. Capoeira, with its connection to music, gives shape to the temporal, cumulative meditative process of how Lewis develops his drawings. Lewis also considers Milford Graves as another important influence; Graves is an artist who also connects healing, martial arts, sound and visual art in a unique, autodidactic way. Lewis is involved in Wide Awakes, an artist collective that raises political participation ("joyful resistance") through performance and happenings, after the Wide Awakes of the 1860s.