"The most important part of my art practice is to create a deep connection with my work while simultaneously exploring themes and concepts that are authentic to my personal story. My artistic practice involves creating that space of hyper-visibility to black Diaspora identity while exploring the themes of fragile black life. Equally, these experiences matter to me and aid in my inspiration to create work that visualizes my perspective as a black queer woman, to which I use my identity as a vessel to communicate. This process involves making discoveries in my art practice that have led me to push the boundaries of black resilience and sustainability while maintaining and embracing my black identity. This unlocked obscure space in my practice, to which I work, is named The Space In-between; it reflects on moments that are more felt and not seen. I use that in-between space as a voice in my work to hold a candle, bring visibility, and give light to my conceptual ideas. I generally start my process with these considered themes that help me navigate new realities for myself and others in my community. I value my ability to use clay as a vessel to explore and develop the narratives that are familiar to my identity. My drive is to push unconventional topics to mainstream art to create spaces for communal communication and engagement. In addition, having the ability to consistently experiment in art with concepts and create work that’s either successful or unsuccessful is what I value the most. Actively showing up and being consistent in my practice fosters my ability to push myself while committing to personal development. Being a ceramist and painter, I approach both mediums with the same narratives and commonalities and bridge them together to create a concise body of work that flows through both mediums. Painting and ceramics lend themselves to me while I lend myself in return by committing to understanding the role they play in my artistic voice. Although working in Ceramics is not always a forgiving medium, it has taught me patience, especially being okay with failure, growth, and the importance of being consistent in developing your voice that will evolve even more over time while producing work that I resonate with on a maker's level.
My relationship with clay is an ongoing exploration of clay and the ability to absorb and adapt. I apply this ideology to art practice and how I approach ceramics and painting by considering a few statements to push myself inside the studio. I reconsider my purpose in what I’m producing, starting with why and answering that question I pose to myself.
Why do I make the art I make?
To investigate
To explore
To work through
To know when to stop and keep going
To know when to leave because knowing when to stop is most important.
