Artist's Statement

My work is a mixture of the collective and personal. For centuries, “Image – Making” as a way of life has been an important tradition of African ancestral history and has become essential to the development of Caribbean and Jamaican societies. By extension, it is an integral part of thesesocietys’ self-reflection at various stages of their evolution. Consequently, it is imperative for Africans in the Diaspora to create images that collectively, as well as personally, illustrate the continuity of our evolution within a contemporary context. This is especially important at this juncture, particularly in the face of a global thrust for self-assertion and self-awareness – the I am – as this thrust engenders a discourse on political empowerment.

In general, my work reflects the creative urgency and anxiety of a people on the verge of a propitious re-birth. However, a vital aspect of this evolutionary process involves the exposure (and possible eradication) of the imposed internalized images that exist in the psyche as well as the adverse effects they can have on the African mind. Like the phoenix that rises from its ash, my work speaks metaphorically to the eradication of these images. It leaves for posterity, in the form of constant evolution, a prominent path of dignity, greatness and identity that was once lost to the African.