I was born in Charlotte, NC. I spent the first half of my life there and then moved to Florence, SC. I am 17 years old, and the most important things in my life are God, family, and friends. Art has always captivated me and I’ve been making art ever since around the 1st grade.
I view art as a way to express my beliefs and ideas. Even when words lack sufficiency, art always proves to be a common language for everyone. Being able to visually translate my thoughts and reach people from different cultures and backgrounds serves as my driving force.
Usually, my pieces are created with graphite and colored pencil. Recently, I have been using a variety of media, including acrylic paint, oil pastel, charcoal, watercolor, etc. My techniques vary from project to project, depending on the subject matter and the theme of the individual piece.
My art is both an appreciation of God’s original creation and an attempt at tackling racial issues in America. By simply watching the news or listening to comments, I’m faced with constant injustice and discrimination stemming from generations of misunderstandings and lack of exposure to differing cultures. With my work, I try to bridge the gap by revealing intriguing viewpoints of situations, people, or by creating a catalyst to start the conversation. I primarily focus on issues pertaining to race, social justice, or humanity’s connection to nature.
I use a lot of symbolism in my work in order to address an issue, but the way the message is interpreted is entirely up to the viewer. I aim to always present things in a unique way and spark a conversation. My goal is to open people’s minds and have them view things with a different lens. Hopefully, my artwork will help provide a common ground for people to come together and embrace their unique differences.
My piece Transitioning serves to provide insight into an aspect of African American culture: cutting away the damaged, chemically-treated hair and embracing the natural hair texture. The transition changes more than physical attributes. Transitioning also hints at ridding oneself of the burdens and pressures of society, in this case society’s standard of beauty, and fully embracing one’s self-identity. The flowers physically bloom as her soul metaphorically blossoms and grows. Her hair falls around her face as wild as the flowers in her hair. They’re a reflection of her own outgoing and ambitious personality. In order to fully usher in the new, she had to first trim away the old, and her gaze drifts downward as she contemplates this.
