I am a visual artist working in collage, assemblage sculpture and altered books. My practice explores identity, memory and the history of the African diaspora. Vintage and contemporary images collide to convey how the past informs the present.


Somewhere, beyond the sea...

Here are a couple of elements I'm thinking of using on the postcard I'm going to alter.
Ooh, I love this paper. Enough to marry it and not have our relationship recognized in most of the 50 states. It's even better than the navy blue and white version I found previously. Expensive as all get out, but delicious.

About a week ago, something about a merman floated into my head just before I fell asleep. I was thinking about events that happened years ago (it's fun to rewrite history!) and the storytelling started to flow. I don't know if I'll use everything, but you know how I like the lace paper...

... and the colored lights in that snippet look like the aurora borealis to me. Then yesterday, I went over to my pal Stacie's house and studio, and hung out with her and Amy Lee. I didn't have time to stay long and I was still sort of in art-freeze, but I could scribble down some ideas and pick out some elements in like-minded company. Which got my brain telling me, last night:

Get up and gesso the postcard. Nothing else. Just gesso the slick side of the postcard and let it dry.

Yes, I know they have medications for this kind of thing now.

But for once, the brain delivered its message without comment or judgment. So I did it without fussing about cleaning up my workspace first. Ugh. That task, on the other hand, will require me going to the room in my head that's stark white, with no furniture -- you know, like those "nowhere" spaces you see in movies like Heaven Can Wait or 2001: A Space Odyssey, where people always ask, "am I dead?" -- until the rest of me finishes cleaning up.

Postcard on its way!

"I aten't dead yet." -- Granny Weatherwax (Terry Pratchett)