Artist Statement

The piece is a digital collage using public domain works, including lithographic prints and sculpture. When generating ideas, I began by considering what I cared about, including the ideas and beliefs I held, as well as what is currently happening politically and socially. On a rudimentary list, themes I wanted to explore included black femininity and sexuality, interpersonal violence, and impoverished communities, topics that personally affect me and my family, and that I have explored academically and artistically. Elements such as texture, color, and space contributed to the composition’s subtly overwhelming visual expression.  

Overall, the resulting landscape feels threatening and tense. Heavily influenced by Elizabeth Catlett’s prints and Harriet Jacobs’s autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, an examination of the black female experience during American chattel slavery led to the creation of an ominous landscape grounded in lived experience and research. The goal was to produce something grounded in history but timeless in impact. Both women depicted experienced life as black women during different time periods. This composition serves as an affirmation to me. It affirms that while suffering and injustice are hypocritical and seemingly inevitable, there is hope. There is possible liberation, and even amid suffering, there are still beautiful things to witness.