I am Gullah, a descendant of enslaved peoples, born into a line of abused Black women and I inherited near identical assaults on my female Black body. Using my own story as a bridge, I examine where my personal experiences connect with the overall experiences of the Black community in America. I use ceramics, textiles and printmaking processes to speak to a narrative of mental and physical confinement and limitation of the Black body in America’s past and present as well as the beauty, resiliency and pride within the people. My pieces are a strikingly delicate balance between weighted subject matters and beauty as a visual aesthetic. They are a quiet reflection of spaces that are imposed upon us and the spaces that we select for ourselves. My work asks that we examine the correlation between our collective history and the influences it has had on our contemporary world.

 

My work expresses the human form as abstracted figures to talk about the human condition. A condition that I represent through ceramics as my main choice of medium. Using sculptural and functional architypes, I employ throwing and handbuilding techniques in which I envelop African, African American culture and ceramic history into my forms. Many of my works use elements from my ancestral Sweetgrass baskets. These elements are a connection to my familial culture that satisfies my need to preserve identity.