The sun would shine on a spring Sunday morning as my family and I made our way to a Baptist church when I was a child. Sitting in the back seat, I would feel the sun on my face as I looked out the window. On our way my mother would reach her right hand to turn the knob of the stereo to play out Gospel music, allowing for our spirits to rejoice in the consciousness of being present and alive. A smile always managed to spread across my face in this instance. This embodiment is a sense of comfort, it's a sense of home. It makes me reminisce of a childhood filled with love, family, human connection, and Black joy. 

My praxis is exactly that. It is the preservation of memories with loved ones that are currently here and those that have passed. It’s the enthrall of Black joy, grief, and trauma. It is my experience of Black womanhood that I shed light to and continue exploring as a Black femme. All this manifests itself into my art through oil pastel drawings or acrylic paintings that present cherished moments of family members. The vibrancy of colors on the canvas speak to the characteristics and livelihood of these people. I also create soft sculptures using craft materials accompanied by photographs or objects traced back to loved ones. While the prints I create are able to cement these memories of loved ones onto paper, cloth, or cotton. My self portrait photographs, on the other hand, are often saturated and high in contrast and color that show my state of mind and body over the progression of life. Lastly, the thing that I think ties all my work together is my poetry, which embraces all of what makes me, me; like my grandmother’s hug.

The “Unknown” family portrait series of mine are oil pastel drawings that depict my concept of how I see my mother’s side of the family that I don’t have a strong connection to. I chose photos from one of my mother’s extensive family photo albums to present them through. Due to my lack of knowledge for who most of the people are in these pictures, I draw them in an unidentifiable way by not adding their eyes in these portraits. I believe that you know someone the most through their eyes. These works are also full of vibrancy and saturation in color like much of my art. However, instead of using it as a tool of familiarity with these individuals, like my other works have, I use it as a way to bring my own conceptions of these lives to the images.