This piece represents the sisterhood that black women universally share. In every space we gravitate towards each other. This painting also highlights the beauty that black women radiate. I wanted to show the love and the appreciation that black women feel for each other.
This painting exhibits themes of nature and the divine feminine. The moon is behind her head almost like a halo and she’s emerging from the water. She represents the calmness, femininity, and confidence we have as black women.
This is the second part of my Honey Bee Series, next to “Sweet Melanin” (listed below). The idea behind this painting is that sometimes black women are referred to as honey, chocolate, caramel, molasses, etc. The list could go on but it can leave you with weird feelings if the wrong person uses that to describe you, for example, a white male. The woman is depicted with a more nonchalant attitude but she’s being consumed by the honey to show how this can be overwhelming and feel as though you are being fetishized.
This was the first part of the Honey Bee series. “Leave Me Bee” is the 2nd painting in this series (listed above). This painting comments on black women being compared to honey, chocolate, caramel, and molasses. Instead of a more negative feeling you get when the wrong person says it, it can be received in a more positive light if a fellow black person says it. Here she appears calm, confident and beautiful.
I painted a recurring figure, The Fro-Tree woman, but in a different setting. Here she is shown in a tub washing her hair and if you look to the ceiling, there are hands coming out pouring water on her from a watering pot. This doubles as her shower head. She has tree-like markings on her body and leaves growing from and around her. The vines are also growing in an exponential amount to show how much work it takes to wash our hair. It’s a long and tedious process but it’s necessary for its growth. She’s washing her hair but also watering her garden and sometimes you need extra help. Hence why the hands are coming through the ceiling. This continues my theme of the natural world and natural hair being similar because in the same way you’d tend to your garden, there’s a similar process for our hair. Water and nutrients are essential for both to grow.
In this piece I continued my theme of black womanhood and how our hair plays a big role in our lives. Our hair in its true form is usually referred to as natural and this has and still continues to inspire me to pursue these ideas of nature in my work. You can find similar shapes and textures that relate to black hair in the natural world. This painting of a black woman displays that she is beautiful and exhibits peaceful queen-like energy. I decided to put the moon behind her head because it often represents the divine feminine and acts like a halo. The smaller figure towards the bottom left represents us while, the larger woman represents our beautiful and unbreakable spirits. Nature surrounds both of the figures to show that they are protected.
A concept I wanted to explore was urban lifestyle and how it is integrated into black culture. I chose to depict a black woman with a large afro covering her eyes. She is sitting on top of a building surrounded by the cityscape and it’s packed with color. In many cases black people grow up in more urbanized areas and, in turn, develop such a deep pride for the cities and communities they live and come from. I explore my hair theme more by covering her eyes and hinting at the idea of her hair being her own crown. She sits on top of the buildings almost like it’s her personal throne, which therefore would make her a queen in her city. She will exude confidence and queen-like energy but in a more modern, colorful, and urban way. As a result of my senior solo show, this piece was selected to be on the EMU Black Homecoming shirt. Queen in My City was also selected to be in the Art in The Legislature Exhibition at the Michigan State Capitol for a full year.