Artist Statement

Fashion, makeup, and the cultural adornment I grew up around as a Black American woman grounds all of my work. I use these materials as language. They are not just accessories to wear, they hold memory, lineage, and intention.

The women in these paintings are imagined and familiar at the same time. Some are drawn from me which represent witness and artifact. Some are constructed from an archetype. I move between self portraiture and character building, allowing each figure to carry her own presence and interior life. Hair, jewelry, posture, and surface become tools for shaping identity rather than decorating it.

Through painting, drawing, and collage, I’m thinking about how a woman becomes herself through style and lived experience. What is inherited. What is chosen. What is performed until it feels true. These works question fixed ideas of beauty and representation while honoring the ritual behind presentation. The figures exist in spaces that feel staged but intimate, asking the viewer to consider where memory ends and invention begins.