My art is created from items and images that are at hand and previous drawings collected over time. I have found the practice of collecting and rearranging to be innate; an archival process that recovers the past, secures the present and expects the future.  Anchored in my spirituality, culture, and womanhood, I use songs, lyrics, and scripture/verse as my mechanism to collect memories, in tandem with the present, reconstructing stories for the future. I create my work largely on brown paper bags, which gives life to my pieces, in that they are recycled; alive. With the brown paper bags as a base, I build my works, some multi-dimensional, in layers using mixed medias and mediums while employing the use of bricolage. The fabric used is mostly comprised of my mother’s Wauhtuka Doll scraps.  By utilizing multiple disciplines, I create assemblages that explore form and color, unified by the spirit of Black life.

 

 The use of bricolage symbolizes the Black experience and involves and demands the ability to “use what you got”. From slavery, to the present, the Black imagination developed techniques, mechanisms, and traditions that make due from scraps. In seemingly insurmountable ways, the spirit of Black life adapts in the most brutal conditions, making beauty, holding sacred, and celebrating Black resilience. 

 

My work embodies the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi. It is a view of imperfection and impermanence that requires unbound acceptance that creates appreciating beauty. I explore wabi-sabi, with a focus on relationship and community. Imperfection and impermanence are understood in nature, however humanity desires perfection and resists change. A posture that lends itself to hatred, injustice, and inequality. Love, joy, peace, comfort, grace and mercy “but the greatest of these is love”; are principles I create from as resistance and empowerment. By accepting imperfections, humanity can evolve. Relationships can be reconciled, and communities can be rebuilt by reflecting on the past, acknowledging failures, and expecting new outcomes.