My art is my tool for synthesizing information. The subject of my work focusses of ambiguous figures experiencing this thing we call Life, they are a reflection of the souls of the folks, the others, the workers, the n*ggers, the shadows that haunt and remember. I cobble them together with bits fabric and pieces of acrylic and whatever else I find and bring home and they help me better understand the communities in which I live.
I was raised in the Black oral tradition as well as the western academic institution and as such my art integrates the analysis of the latter with the accessibility of the former to encapsulate narratives in a tangible form.
Moving forward I plan to explore longer topics of history and ethnography from the lens of the African diasporic community. Human bondage, land theft, and the house field dichotomy are a few of the topics I look forward to digging further into.
Being an educator has shaped my practice and the stories I am telling. Working in inner-city high schools, teaching in prisons, and being a counselor for largely nonverbal developmentally disabled people has helped me to appreciate the barriers preventing people for telling their own stories and the necessity to produce work that can be felt instead of just admired. It is bloody and grimy and haunting and, if you squint, a little bit funny. It is accessible, especially for people who can recognize the figures involved.
