THE ARTIST
“I see Black people as art.”
I am a mixed media artist, educator, and photographer based out of Washington, D.C. I combine striking black and white photography with acrylic paint or fabric and upcycled frames as canvases. My artwork not only features my students, but celebrates and honors them as living pieces of art. My art is about them; the photography is them. The subject matter is always them. I like to connect them, placing them in Black history. There’s something beautiful about connecting the past and the present and teaching them visually in that way.
My work is a tribute to the Black community, its essence, beauty, magic, and resilience. I hope my work inspires and informs viewers — while also speaking to and for the youth and educators, especially those working in Title I schools. I use a collage method to connect my students to figures and happenings of the past. I use a visual medium to teach Black history, while also commenting on the current state of the community. This infusion of the past and present, rooted in the culture, sheds light on stories that are often forgotten, hidden, or untold.
My graffiti tag of “jumbled” letters painted in my “Le Drip “series, creates an opportunity for viewers to connect with how I see words as a person with dyslexia. I create as I see the world; and as I see my subjects, creatively allowing “Le Drip” to ooze outside of the frame, representing the undeniable and uncontainable “sauce” of Black essence. The ingredients of the “sauce” include the combined pain, triumphs, joys, strength, and swag of the Black experience — of the culture. As I often say, “I create outside the frame cuz our sauce can’t be contained.”
In alignment with the “Le Drip” series, the “Red Line” series’ purpose is for the viewer to connect to these pieces in a tangible way. The materials used in the series are limitless and generally include leather, collage, textiles, fabrics, and photography. The purpose of this series is to highlight subjects by using various textures that represent them as individuals and urban culture. The red line of quilted fabric that covers the eyes of my subjects in this work is a visual representation of the blinding educational trap “redlining” creates in low-income black communities.
Further, the use of an up-cycled, hand-painted or fabric -wrapped frame directly correlates with the emotional trauma suffered by disenfranchised individuals who often express feelings of being discarded, unnoticed, and deemed invaluable. My art showcases these individuals — their stories and experiences — as the masterpieces they truly are.
“I paint outside the frame because I don’t believe that my people were meant to be inside boxes. Our sauce cannot be contained”