Growing up as an African American kid, I never really saw artwork that represented people of my culture. Most other 70s and 80s babies like myself can remember going to granny’s house and seeing the paintings of Jesus she had on the wall aside from the photo of MLK. When it came to embracing the African American culture artistically, there was nothing. 

Only until I was an adult did I, and we, realize how important seeing representations of ourselves was so impactful on our lives. Of course, this knowledge comes with learning and recognizing systematic racism that exists and being exposed to more outlets of learning than what our elders had accessible to them.  

Now being a grown up and having young Black children, I made it a point to make efforts to break this cycle so my children can grow and be embraced by the art they see. Not only for my children, but for all people of my community, I think it is important to see a mirror of ourselves artistically.  

So much of the little artwork that represented Black culture we were, and still to this day, exposed to focused primarily on the painful American experience that our people have gone through. While this small part of our history is very important, I feel this narrative further limits and defines us as one thing, and we fail to recognize the many great things about our people in our modern day. 

My work focuses on embracing ourselves in a modern everyday context. There are so many things we do acknowledge as a people in the past tense, but I feel we don’t focus enough on the great things we do now. Not just on a large world or national scale, but there are things going on in our homes and local communities that deserve recognition and attention.  

To portray my subject matter, my staple medium is oil pastel. I love the bold vibrant colors it provides, and I am able to get really contrast with the medium. With realism and attention to detail being in my artistic DNA, I also work with acrylics and sometimes couple with oil pastels in the same work. As my art is ever changing, I have come to paint on wood to create a three-dimensional effect with two-dimensional work to continue to blend lines and not be defined by just one thing. These qualities only mimic how I envision my culture and help to give me a style and voice within my work.