Family Ties

Original Painting on Canvas

Artist Location: Maryland

Size: 36 x 60 inches

From the Artist - What is Black Art

Black Art is art produced by individuals intimately connected to the Diaspora through transmission of the mysterious DNA. The DNA of approximately 13 million Individuals removed from the African Continent, the DNA of authors, scholars, diplomats and kings who widely traveled the globe. Black Art is all of these influences. The abstract representations of African tribal spiritual work and classical painting techniques of artists like Joshua Johnson and Augustus Drake. My originals are for the most part unknown to me but I feel their infused influences in my work at every turn. It is my artistic obligation to remain true to the patch of diasporic quilt speaking to me. This abstract thought is what drives my work. The maternal side of my lineage is strong. The images I show you are the result of my use of the mysterious DNA and tangible connections to humanity. Connections allowing me to meet someone from a remote Cammaroonian Tikar tribe who explains why we are all cousins. Years later another artist from Burkina Faso tells me this same philosophical vision of the Diaspora. Connections taking me to a small village outside of Paris, Giverny. A village of 500 people to meet a beautiful African woman living there from Cote d'Ivoire for two generations. Connections taking me to Italy to become friends with a Black woman who has never traveled to either the North American continent nor the African continent. These connections are for me the beauty of what Black Art is. The visual realization of the tangible connection of the maternal Diaspora to me and to my work.

About the Artist

The narrative of one’s art is a living document, evolving in phases.

My practice, without any conscious help from me pushed visions out of my soul lingering for years. The most important lesson I have learned has been to get out of my own way and let the art lead me. I am drawn to artists, male and female whose sensibilities are able to look intimately at the feminine mystique. Women express openly among themselves emotion and spirituality. The meaning of feminism is having unparalleled physical strength to quite literally push humanity forward. Feminism silently and most profoundly influences my work. Women are the species I know best.

I am from the DMV and have lived in New York, New Mexico, and Italia. My work is abstractly real. The techniques are driven by classical art “isms”, indigenous tribal art and a mysterious ancestral DNA. I spend time reading ,studying and collecting mentors to further my art. My influences include, Wilfredo Lam, Picasso, Matisse, Leon Berkowitz, Alma Thomas and contemporary artists who converse with me about art, politics, and concepts of life, Lillian Burwell, Jack Whitten, Oliver Lee Jackson, Akili Anderson, Alonzo Davis and Patricia Michaels.

I'm driven to tell the story of my time through the eyes of a Black American woman, a feminist and global citizen.

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Family Ties

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