ARTIST STATEMENT

I paint as a means of staying connected to my spirit, my ancestors and the world around me. My work is charged with unpredictable but intentional brush strokes, color, and cartoon like facial features, simple shapes and spray-painted contours. Each painting is meant to capture the essence of the subjects I paint using black urban interpretations of cubism and impressionism. My experiences that are real or imagined, circumstances that I have lived through or been told about allow me to breath a since of life and trueness into each piece. I am constantly moved by the ever-changing energy that surrounds me as an artist, as a woman, as a black woman. My paintings are reflections of mental notes, personal challenges with ridicule, abandonment and rejection. These are not visions or dreams or an indirect picture of an African religion and this is not my interpretation of traditional African art. I use acrylic, spray paint, and oil pastels to paint large images of mask like portraits on raw canvas, stretched canvas and found street objects to draw attention to the untapped, under recognized and underrepresented spirit of Black People.