Portfolio List

This collection is a series of paintings depicting mouths adorned with brightly colored, patterned lipsticks, grills, and symbolic elements, making dramatic gestures that convey audacity, confidence, sensuality, and vulnerability. I wanted to double down on the trope of “Black women being too loud,” so I decided to task the mouths with a nonverbal conversation to highlight the intersectional challenges of Black womanhood.

The Predecessors is a series of four oil paintings depicting self-portraits as the Queens in a deck of playing cards. Each Queen is collaged in flamboyant styles featuring animal prints and trimmings, and adorned with gold leaf, enamel, rhinestones, and flowers. Through this series, I sought to explore oil painting while reimagining a more nuanced vision of Black nobility. The clothing is intentionally defiant and over exaggerated, juxtaposed against the restraint of classical portraiture.

These large-scale oil paintings depict Black figures portrayed regally, their garments constructed from fabric and paper and fashioned into luxe forms, housed within gold frames. This body of work marks my introduction to incorporating textured patterns using materials such as diamond dust, sequins, and glitter. I created these pieces as an act of inclusion and defiance, reimagining Black luxury in a grand mannered style. Through this collection, I envision an alternate history in which Black people are empowered through Afrofuturism.

Mother’s Prayer is a series of mixed media paintings featuring surreal self-portraits that depict vulnerable and intimate moments of self-reflection. My skin transitions from color to monochrome, interwoven with spiritual and cultural symbolism, while textured botanical motifs embellish the landscape. Faced with an empty nest, I found space to reflect on my identity, my role, and the changes in my body. Through this work, I expose the private discourse I experienced, seeking to find beauty in the fragility of the process.