ARTIST STATEMENT

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Growing up in a town with predominantly white families, one’s identity is shaped around that environment. You begin to realise your self-image and views of others have been based on those surroundings. Ideas of what you find beautiful can emerge from subliminal messaging from childhood into adulthood. I was projecting this psychology into my past artworks by only drawing white women. I came to an understanding that my European ideologies of beauty have been misrepresented due to the media’s portrayal of ‘beautiful’ women.

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I began to realise how my work highlighted the Eurocentric ideas of beauty and I was not focusing on the beauty of my culture and background; being black. This is something that I am investigating further within my practice. I'm fascinated by identity and how that can be translated through artistry. I specialise in portraiture whilst recently experimenting in photography pattern design; this involved taking information from my peers whilst using my imagination to create mandala-like designs. Many of my portraits are achieved through photography and observational studies using graphite and charcoal pencils which focus on women of colour.

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