Another Painter
I love painting as a form of therapy. I primarily work with acrylics, but some of my pieces, like the one below this text, Subjugation, is a mix of acrylic paint and acrylic ink.
Subjugation was created a few years ago. I saw a film called “Bad Hair” (the quote on the painting was pulled from that film). I was inspired by the fact that we have continued to carry the baggage that was loaded onto our ancestors when our ancestors were taken from their homes and forced into slavery. Our religions were relabeled as blasphemous mythology and were not recognized as legitimate belief systems.
The figure depicted is a rebellion against the oppression that was imposed upon us when our belief systems, traditions, and land were ripped away from us. The figure is serving a soft body, a textured face, dark skin, and locs. They are not seeking approval. They are sitting in their peace.
Auntie
This painting was created to showcase one of my favorite bonding experiences within the Black community, which is the intimacy of having your hair done by a loved one.
If you’ve experienced this, you know that this may not be a pleasant experience, depending on the person who is doing your hair; however, I wanted to depict a peaceful experience as a way to reclaim this experience as one of care and bonding, rather than trauma, for our generation and future generations.
A Dancer’s Body
I loved creating this piece. Fun fact: I ran out of one of the shades of pink in the middle of creating it and I had to improvise.
The purpose of the painting was to show a dancer with a larger body and darker skin than what we usually see in mainstream ballet.
I really wanted to be a ballerina as a child, but it never seemed to be accessible to me because I didn’t have a body like the dancers that I saw on tv. In hindsight, I probably could have pursued it anyway, but I’m a 90s baby and we didn’t have a movement of body positivity or the representation that we have today of diverse bodies (size or ability).
Painting this was healing for me and made me realize that I need to paint more stories like the ones that I didn’t see in my childhood.
