Statement

As a painter who depicts her own likeness often, people find it surprising when I say my work is not necessarily about me. While my work may start with a personal experience, I also want to capture the context of that experience. Everything that I encounter as a queer Black woman exists in a much wider compilation of (hi)stories. I engage with not only histories of oil painting, but histories of Blackness, especially black womanhood. It’s not enough to understand my work, or understand me, without understanding what led up to the image you see. The tension before the burlesque dancer makes her final reveal is the work, the exposed body in the spotlight is what the audience sees. 

My work involves identity, Black feminist theory, internal conflict, power of pleasure, sexuality, and plain old longing. I generate ideas through narrative style writing, then an image develops as I go. My work is about control and the lack thereof; the act of painting itself is all about the balance of control and instinct. I seek to understand perception, how my identity can act as a mask or a curtain, something aggrandizing or nullifying. 

This tension of the gaze is everything. I ask how to be sexual but not sexualized. My work challenges the ‘controlling images’ imposed on Black women while also embracing the complexities of seeking liberation and agency. I embrace and celebrate the vulnerability I put forth in my work, and I wish for my viewer to see themselves. I paint my skin with visceral fleshiness to affirm my presence, and I add my array of colours to honor my skin. I use my body and my experiences as research without showing the final conclusion, just the messiness of discovery.