Artist Statement

I speak on the motif of race and gender as they pertain to social and environmental narratives. Using storytelling to channel this exploration, I create a world outside the expected perceived images of blackness. With vibrant arrays of oil paint, I depict Black bodies with simmering joy, symbolizing the act of taking apart, dismantling, and tearing down the structures that limit our ability to find each other. Whether through over-saturated golden hour tones or cool blue hour hues, these various positions are meant to showcase the resilience found in engaging with our roots, an act that embodies bold defiance in praise of Black errantry.

 

My current work portrays women swimming and dreaming together in the midst of oppression and seclusion. By painting the refracted view of looking upward through water, I use its natural obscurity to explore what we choose to reveal and what we choose to withhold. Depicting real women allows me to translate their photographed figures into painted forms that portray movement and transformation. Featuring their bodies side by side opens up possibilities for how we, as a collective, build together. 

 

Water becomes tranquil and compelling, rather than fearful. Our bodies remain in motion, away from settling. When we go underwater, we are both running away from and refusing that which was first refused to us. We claim a space that was always meant for us to find joy in. Through this, the work reorients hope, stresses our desires, and reimagines possibility. By painting fluid blackness through a veil of distorted waters, our aliveness expands, enacting possibilities for life beyond the constraints of our current world. It is a way to say: “I am here, and you cannot deny me."