I am a Brooklyn based, interdisciplinary artist, who uses tools such as painting, drawing, printmaking, to tell our stories that encompass the embodiment of the Black Presence. The idea of the “Black Presence” is rooted in our community, experiences, the objects, and materials we leave behind, memory, and the embodiment of our will. My being has been influenced by my personal life navigating through communities in New York, Los Angeles, Columbus, Camden. I have created work using the materials gathered from these communities in tandem with the moments in time formed from our shared experiences. How those places and the people along the way imparted their different attributes in myself and my work. The other half of the pieces will focus on the spirituality of the “Black Presence” to invoke connection as we explore belongingness, grief, trauma, desire, history, art, that go beyond our physical bodies.

My practice through my art, came my origin with the production process with Hip Hop music. Instead of creating the beat, figuring out how samples, sound clips can not only honored the past but be woven into new songs, I am now taking paint, charcoals, photography, magazine materials, photos, older archives, environmental mediums (sand, food wrappers, metro cards) into my narratives. This transmedia approach grounds each work to the communities and memories they were derived from.

The narratives in my art are formed by using day to day activities and objects to serve as catalysts for visceral experiences of the “Black Presence”. My works often depict members of my personal community such as friends and family or myself engaged in daily activities, moments of leisure, grief alongside the landscapes of neighborhoods that harbored our histories and belonging. This can range from roller skating, performing at a club or quiet moments such as bonding with family, to the remembrance of homes long gone. These sets of works form the anthology for the “Black Presence” to exist and embody these memories in a physically tangible manner. Because accessibility of our stories through shared experiences with my community to me always exists outside of art world bubbles, it allowed me to connect back to community, and challenge how we should engage with art. Accessibility on behalf of the community should be the uppermost goal so language should be defunct of class or academic filtering. Shared experiences, and power of resilience can be utilized as tools to engage my community to safeguard our emotions, our homes and being.