Lion/ess: The Myth of the Strong Black Woman

Lion/ess: The Myth of the Strong Black Woman
20"x24"
Digital

...

Sketches!

Here are some sketches representative of the pieces I am currently working on. Some are only parts of images, while others show the entirety (well, more or less) of a piece.

They represent images I intend to paint digitally and traditionally, using a variety of media and techniques.

Curious? I hope you stay tuned for what is to come!

"Lion/ess" (WIP)

I have a few works in progress right now. It feels amazing to constantly be working on this or that; I was so very inspired by my last residency at Goddard College a few weeks ago. This was one of the pieces I presented there, at one of our Considered Space critique sessions.

This is the first piece that I've done completely digitally, though it began its life on canvas. This iteration only came about because I was having so much difficulty rendering the     fantastical (male) feline and (human) female elements in a way I felt worked together well. In all honesty, they are still a work in progress.

Those of you that follow me on Facebook and Twitter have seen this in its original form, on canvas. What do you all think of the differences?

Stay tuned for more!

Unsatisfied

There are times when it is difficult to translate the cerebral to the visual.

My responses to the murder of seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin made me want to paint, so overwhelming was my outrage, helplessness, and anger. I've written pages and pages in my journals--about the media coverage of this case, about the lack of innocence that implied for those born into a black body, about all the things I felt were done incorrectly by local law enforcement--and I needed to release all of this.

I had a drawing I began months ago whose original story (if there was one) is lost to me now. I began expanding upon it in hopes that I could create a specific visual code to express all that I felt. First, I felt I needed to include the most enduring symbol of this case, the hoodie Trayvon wore the rainy February night he was killed. I then planned to let go, to see where thought and feeling took this piece as I became a mere vessel for the story this painting needed to tell.

Many days have passed. I remain unsatisfied with the image I've created. I realize that it is incomplete. Still, there is more here, trapped between my head, my heart, and my hands.