“By courageously looking we defiantly declared: ‘Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality.” -bell hooks
Through the lens of my family unit and close friends, and our trials and triumphs, my work reflects on how America’s racialized past continues to affect people of color today. By depicting myself and my loved ones in our everyday spaces, such as our homes and neighborhoods, I explore how the effects of larger social systems reflect themselves within our personal lives. The work investigates concerns like what the persistence of police brutality means for the futures of my four young nephews, what the racial disparities in COVID hospitalizations and deaths has meant for my parents, how the privatization of public spaces relates to the treatment of the bodies of people of color, and how centuries of dehumanization and Othering, defined through W.E.B DuBois’ double consciousness, have distorted how we are viewed in the world, and how we view ourselves. My portraits suggest resilience and healing despite these obstacles of daily life. Through my figures’ gazes, there is a recognition of the pain and scars they and their ancestors have bared, and a direct confrontation with their troubled history and the judgements that come against them. This confrontation signifies their strength, agency, perseverance, and an eagerness to build new systems based on personal connections and mutual respect.
As a Black woman working mainly in oil paint, and in thinking about its use in the Western Art canon as a medium of the White, male, masters, I am celebrating and valuing the Black figures who have been historically excluded from this mode of representation. “Victory”, like many of my other pieces, challenges the Eurocentric lens “beauty” has largely been defined by in our Western society, where Greek gods and goddesses represent the epitome of perfection. In this piece, the Black woman being depicted and plant potter of a Greek goddess sit next to each other at a table. The statuette holds a small plant on her head while the young woman’s head is adorned with a bouquet in the formation of a halo. The halo is a symbol that was often used in Western art history, but largely not for people of color. The use of flowers and common weeds to build the halo speaks to hierarchies that reach as far as our natural landscape. Every plant, like every person, has their own value in our world, and I believe the resiliency of weeds has similarities to the resiliency of people of color in this country and beyond. The playing field between Greek gods and goddesses and everyday people of color is also leveled by the “Nike” hat the young woman is wearing. Nike, the goddess of victory, has been made more accessible through the brand that many people wear on a day-to-day basis, showing that they are also worthy of what the goddess represents.
My large-scale canvases allow viewers to enter the scenes with my figures, to meet and interact with them directly. In Their faith unwavering, viewers stand outside the archway of this interior space, guided by a young boy entering the scene from the left of the composition. All figures appear unaware of their presence, except for the matriarch of the family who is seated on the couch staring out at viewers; their reflection hangs in the mirror above her head. Through the shadowy reflection, viewers are present but not fully materialized within this world, making them secondary, or other, to the figures. This challenges their expected position as superior to those who are painted. This recognition through the shared gaze gives viewers a responsibility to connect with these figures as they enter their space; they aren’t allowed to be in a comfortable position outside of the scene, mindlessly consuming the object of the painting. By inserting viewers into the spaces of the painted figures and directly engaging them with one another, the power dynamic between the two is leveled to allow for relationships to be built based on mutual respect instead of objectification.
Through my work, I aim to encourage reflection on our past’s presence in our current society to prepare individuals to build new systems based on shared empathy, respect and care despite differences in personal background and life experiences.
