asubtleplace...

Initially, I painted what I thought I was supposed to paint based upon how the world defined me. Today my art surpasses who I am as a hyphenated identity: African American, Belizean, and woman. I had to go deep within myself to find and express the real me. Now I take license from that place inside of me that is beyond my race, gender, and ethnicity.

Granting myself permission to hear a particular criticism helped me to realize that freedom is wisdom. Once I was able to incorporate criticism into my artistic way of seeing and being, I experienced a new emergence in my work. For the first time it was pure, original, and undeniably me. While I had no connection to abstract work, what came out of me was honest versus planned from some outer paradigm.

My mission is to encourage my audience to see themselves, and life as well as others internally rather than externally. I use color and strokes to engage my audience, inviting them to explore and embrace their innermost thoughts and feelings. Most often, a force that is beyond me informs and guides my creative expression. I am called upon to create my art in response to the events, circumstances and times of the world around me.

Whether it is the plight of women and children around the world or the tragedy in New Orleans or a conversation with a friend, I create from the now. I use my work as a way to share information by connecting it to socio economic and political issues. I donate to charities that deal with the social and economic development of women and families globally. As such, my art has a purpose beyond the canvas and the eye.

Just as a book is delineated by paragraphs, pages, chapters, and volumes my work embodies all that I encounter.