Featured work · Detroit Historical Museum
From Cotton to Cars
Now in the Detroit Historical Museum’s Permanent Collection
The Great Migration, painted by a Detroit artist. Black families left the cotton fields of the South for the auto plants of the North, and helped build the Motor City. Whenever it is exhibited, the painting will be shown with a bronze plaque bearing her parents’ names.
Featured Artist · Black Creativity 2025. Featured lead artist in one of the nation’s longest-running exhibitions celebrating Black creativity and innovation.
Bella! Mary Ellen Pleasant, 1840sCollected
Her signature style
Figurative Surrealism: fantasy & realism
Rosemary begins with historical fact, then lets fantasy take over. She exaggerates the story just enough to draw you in, and leaves room for you to reach your own conclusions. In fact, she would rather you tell her what you see.
Look closer and hidden layers begin to emerge: faces within faces, scenes within scenes, revealing more the longer you look.
And then there is the color. Rosemary loves it vivid, and she has a genius for combining colors in ways that shouldn’t work, and always do.
What do you see? Rosemary wants to know.
Original paintings
Stories told in color, line & pattern
Acrylics, oils, pastels and inks, collected and cherished by art lovers around the world.
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Collected'Black Love Will Keep US Together' This painting became the magazine cover for BLAC MAGAZINE February 2022
$6,500 -
Date Night at Home! 47x37x2 inches featured artist-Griffin Museum of Science and Industry 2025
$7,550 -
Juneteeth• "The Dignity of Dawn" 24x48x2 inches/acrylic
$5,675 -
CollectedBella! (Historical painting) Mary Ellen Pleasant 1840's rich entreprenuer
$5,950
Black Creativity 2025
Featured Artist: Rosemary Summers
Rosemary Summers, featured lead artist in one of the nation’s longest-running exhibitions celebrating Black creativity and innovation.
Wearable art · Handmade in Detroit
Earrings that tell a story
One-of-a-kind earrings designed and handmade by Rosemary. Lightweight to wear, impossible to miss, and made with the same eye for color, line and pattern as her paintings. Many designs can be made as clip-ons on request.
Meet the artist
From the classroom to the canvas
Rosemary Summers began her career as a Special Education Teacher in Detroit, Michigan. After retiring in 2011, she followed her heart’s passion to become an artist. Her work is now collected and cherished by art collectors worldwide.
Telling stories through color, line, pattern and design in acrylics, oils, pastels and inks, her art has been featured in publications, juried exhibitions, galleries and museums, and on radio, television and social media.
She hopes every viewer feels a sense of awe and peace, and discovers within themselves the unlimited power of creativity, no matter the subject.
