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.


... The dark sacred night

There's a reason why I'm making you crane your neck sideways.
See?

All done. We are pleased at the way this one turned out.
You might recognize the phrase from Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World:

I see skies of blue... and clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night

And I think to myself... what a wonderful world


I admit it: I fell in love with the song when I heard it in Good Morning Vietnam. But it got me to get a CD of Armstrong songs.

And the "dark sacred night" really held me. It captures so many things I like about darkness and nighttime. Listening to a sleeping child breathe. The feeling just before you slide into sleep. Entering your home at the end of the work week.
I got rid of the first version of this page, but I did salvage the "stones" I made from those cinchers that close bags of bread at the supermarket. (I have no idea if that's what they're really called.)
I thought I hadn't used any technique I learned in LK's class, but then I remembered she suggested printing images on different papers. Isn't it cool how the pattern came through even more as the ink dried?

Recurring artistic choices: textured paper, extra-lightweight paper (like lace paper), acrylic paint on paper, antique drawing. (I finally realized why I like the old-fashioned drawings. I grew up looking at them in the Trader Joe's mailers. Goofy, huh?)

That's the stuff.

That's just weird.

Verdigris