Artist Statement

My overall practice includes painting, collage and sculpture, with an emphasis on photography and video. My practice is a form of self expression and a way to convey pent up feelings and ideas. It is a space for me to be vulnerable but also maintain a certain distance from my audience. My work often deals with beauty standards - both my own and those set by society - and articulates what beauty means to me. Much of my practice is inspired by my own personal experiences and feelings, particularly my identity as a bi-racial black woman in America trying to create community and relationships. My practice is also an attempt to understand and communicate the complex emotions that I feel at times as a person who is subject to low moods and high anxiety. In that way, it is an escape from reality, and a way to reinterpret the negativity I have felt in my life. I make art because it has always been something I have been compelled to do. Art making is important to me because of its ability to connect people that think they are alone in their experiences, and to represent the idea that we are all more connected than we think we are.