About the Artwork
My artwork draws upon ancestral visual expressions and cosmologies as a reference point for the creation of new ways of seeing. For some time, I have been using recycled plastics and bottles combined with found and purchased objects in the making of mixed media sculptures and vessels. These artworks represent a small attempt to mitigate the polution of earth’s land, oceans, and waterways. These works of art stretch across a number of themes. Works like Nkisi Kozo, Nkisi Nkondi Jug…, Nkisi Medicine, and Nkisi Nkondi Collage, are inspired by Congo visual culture and cosmologies. Other cultural expressions are derived from West Africa, such as ideograms from Eastern Nigeria and Western Cameroon. Sometimes these Africentric elements are combined with events of social import, as in the case of Nkisi: Congo Basquiat, which illuminates societal conflict and also displays an Nkondi belly pack containing the likeness of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Two very new paintings, After the Fire… and Maasai, Madonna, and the Police examine the subjects of futurism and police-community relations. These artworks represent some of the motivating forces behind my work. As a writer and as a visual artist, I have been dedicated to the examination and creation of expression(s) that expose the dignity and humanity of African peoples. And I do so in an environment that constantly challenges Black existence. I make art with a sense of urgency and resistance against those forces that make people feel ashamed or lesser than others who claim some kind of superiority.