Statements

2025

 

As an artist, I strive to make my work as raw as possible. Using striking expressions captured within facial features, I like to conjure robust emotions from the audience. Leaving out a figure's eyes give testimony to a face’s many gestures and wrinkles, as these “windows to the soul” often take away from facial characteristics. Each painting is intuitive; rather than planning out a composition, I tend to let my feelings in the moment dictate how my art looks.

 

When I work with paint, I am reminded of the control I have over my work. I truly enjoy the flexibility of acrylic, hence it is my medium of choice. A major part of my process is layering several different coats of paint and then oil pastel, and being able to work quickly with a medium that allows me to easily manipulate texture, line weight, and other aspects, gives my paintings the magnitude of vulgarity they have. In terms of mixed media, I always try to be intentional about adding other elements, such as the recurring cowry shells I have in my pieces. I use these shells as a symbol to connect back to African culture, the same way many African Americans use them to connect to their roots.

 

I aim to use my art as a means of challenging the Western art world of today. As a Biracial Black woman, I feel that my identity plays a large role in the making of my work. Looking back into the shaping of Contemporary Western art, African art has often been at the forefront. More specifically, artists such as Picasso and Matisse appropriated aspects of various African sculptures and ceremonial masks in the early 20th century, and thus, grew into the contemporary Western art world. That being said, I like to think of my work as a reclamation of my own culture and heritage as an African American individual, but also a testament to a world that derives its success at the expense of and the exploitation of another’s.