BIO & ARTIST STATEMENT

   I am an artists and illustrator who makes collage pieces of vibrant flora mixed with full body figures and handmade typography. My compositions are made through strategically placing various acrylic ink paintings among and between charcoal figure drawings spliced with India-ink silhouettes. I then take the focal collage and add a black frame and solid colored background to ground the final piece. Once the overall piece is completed, I take a photo of it and modify it digitally for both refinement and the addition of motion through animation. The inclusion of movement contributes more depth in my works and makes the artwork an interactive piece instead of simply flat. Recently my work focuses on body, language, and identity through nature, subverted expectations, and augmentation of the human form. My works open a narrative of confusing invitation. The plants within the art are serene and captivating, while the body language between the figures and silhouette is tense and/or melancholy. This push and pull of pleasant and unpleasant is the duality I want my audience to connect with. Visually my work shares similarities with the works of Kara Walker, Nick Cave, and Yinka Shonibare, though my art centers on the idea of outward depictions of inner, intrusive, thoughts more than the depiction of historical African identity. The reason I make artwork is to express my desire physically and visually for a bridge between the real world and fiction.  Merging of these two concepts is important because it gives me a way to explore and expand narrative on the human subconscious. Things that happen within our minds don’t always line up with how the real world is intended to work.