nothing, something

and

EVERYTHING

“I've known both misery and happiness, lived in so many different skins it is impossible for one skin to claim me. And I have felt like a wayfarer on an alien planet at times - walking, running, wondering about what brought me to this particular place, and why. But once I was here the dreams started moving in, and I went about devouring them as they devoured me.” - Gordon Parks.

The first pictures that I ever saw of black people in photographs were in my history classes of being slaves, or being deceased and being in protest. The first pictures of black people that I’ve seen in art is of black people being just a subject matter. A place holder that depicts servitude and racist stereotypes. Once I learned about my history in this country it was hard to like Parks, find a place where I didn’t feel like I was walking on egg shells or making my presence uncomfortable for other people. But when I started making my art, I didn’t think about any of it, or so I thought I wasn’t. My history in this beautiful complicated country was always shown throughout my art, I just never realized it. My series, Nothing Something and Everything speaks to a journey about how I started from a blank space of Nothing. To then Something (Art) formatting a foundation of itself. Then the process of Everything where my art is allowed to navigate its own way and be what’s it’s supposed to be.

What does it mean to be a black surrealist artist creating work that talks about the stained reflection of inequality of black people? Having to imagine and create a fictional atmosphere to a real reality that bares the black visibility of everything that has shaped America’s history. For instance my image ‘Pretend, which expresses this “need” for black people to fantasize everything is fine when carnage happen to us. Now that I knew what kind of work I wanted to make I started photographing myself in my room. I needed to be the subject matter of my own work because it allowed me to focus on explaining parts of my history and how my art plays a role in that. I’m depicting myself in a new color filled way that’s engaging and inviting. This work is also expresses ambiguity and complex interpretations that I wanted to talk about that involve myself being center and surrounded by things that shape a long lineage of the history of artistic expression of black creativity.

I use my work to navigate me into talking about complicated parts of my life and history of being a black American. Through my work I hope the viewers look within themselves to weave into the artwork and be a witness to the black experience in this surreal world.