[6] Her parents were strict and organized, frequently mobilizing the children to harvest crops, tend to or slaughter their cattle, or immaculately clean the house and surrounding fields.
Sewell carries her parents' habitual, ritual cleaning into her work, as she is constantly tidying, sweeping her yard, and rearranging its contents to make her charms and protective sculptures.
Although most of her work is contained on her property, cumulatively, her oeuvre reads as a series of stages where her knowledge and spirituality perform.
Mundane objects such as mailboxes and old refrigerators become vessels for history and Sewell's personal spirituality, which is a syncretism of southern American Christianity and West African-derived ancestor propitiation.
"[1] Other notable assemblages include a generations-old doghouse bordering the woods, many Black Panther inspired scarecrows, which stand guard against animals in her crops and people entering her property, and shrines to ancestors or biblical tales which are assembled on tree branches.