b .1982
Nassau, Bahamas

ARTIST STATEMENT

Sunday, July18th, 2010, approximately 5:40 am. I am at street party filled with people who overflowed into a private home.  The dimly lit enclosure soon becomes a bar with flashing lights, loud derogative lyrics, vulgar dancing, and an agitated crowd. The music stops. Lights flood the room. Somber rhythmic voices echo “Murder. Murder. Murder.” Someone was murdered outside of the compound. I heard his name. In disbelief, his name continually rang in my head. I followed the crowd as they swarmed to see the victim. He was a close acquaintance. He was not yet dead, but panic like prophecy poured from his mouth telling us he was dying. In an isolated glass room, the lone man stumbled around like a freshly amputated creature with wounds to his head and chest region. Delirious. He wore a white shirt and blue jeans; he was drenched in sweat and his eyes were wide with the intoxication of his pain.  Ironically, his long blue jeans consumed blood as if he stood in a bucket of it. "I loved her and this is what she did to me" he said. "Help me... I am dying...Why are they taking so long? I can feel myself leaving you. I will miss you all." It was heartbreaking. Hope sprang up in me but he knew he was dying. "What about the crows and the chickens?” he asked; "My spirit will remain to watch over them." In a quiet and peaceful sigh, he departed. Already I could feel his spirit remaining as he took his last breath. The crows and the chickens would indeed be in his care. This was my dream, and from such dreams springs the creative visions for my work.

My work is an examination of human existence; past, present and future. It examines beliefs and practices, both religious and secular, that have survived from generation to generation. It also questions how life is valued in a society, be it one’s own life or the life of another. My work seeks to reveal life in its many complexities.  Through the use of metaphoric symbolism and iconography within each piece, I use images to communicate layered messages. Besides my subconscious, I draw inspiration from literature, fables and images of old. I am particularly inspired by the religious controversy triggered by earthquake in Haiti and borrowing the famous opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin; my researches, ideas, ideologies and subconscious have fostered my work towards the artistry of life, survival, religion, death and the afterlife in a contemporary world.

Influenced by the ever changing technology of making and distributing art in a contemporary society, this body of work is an exploration of today’s digital innovations. Like that of what we have come to know as traditional art, all of my images began as hand rendered  drawings and are then colored using computer aided software.  My style of drawing, use of line, and sense of composition are the driving forces behind the end product of my work. The computer is secondary, but has its importance; it has enabled me to use color in a complex layering system that I discovered through a thorough, well thought out experimentation process. This layering system mimics that of the layered thoughts, narratives and messages in my work. This has now become signature to the work I produce.

My work is outputted as a one of a kind image (1/1) I chose this approach because I want the work to be viewed outside the realm of “print reproduction." I enjoy the thought of having made an original, from a process invented to do the total opposite. My work should stand alone, like that of a traditional painting or drawing. In my opinion, the thought of multiples has a devaluing notion in both a monetary sense and the literal sense.  My decision to explore digital media has more to do with the process of making my art, rather the reproduction of my work. I want my work to remain singular, solitary, and infertile. Authenticity, guaranteed life, sustainability, and archivability have been the most emphasized areas with my new work, second only to the actual creation of the work. The introduction of certificates of authenticity, learning and investment in a giclee printer, print processing, and study of various paper surfaces, have all allowed me to retain total control of how my images are produced and presented.