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In my art-making, I continue to explore the process of learning and knowing of the self – as person, persona, character and caricature through mirrored portraiture, painting, drawing, performance and music. I am researching the reflected self through the lens of philosophy, history, art, culture and race. Body glorification/modification, contemporary tattoo culture, scarification, cultural identity and historical racial representation are governing themes in the work.
I am using the camera to catalog my self, my caricatures, personas and the painted characters, designs and symbols that I am painting onto my body. However, what once only existed in the photographs now exist in live performances. The performances are conducted formally and informally, as I may choose to take on a persona for a day or arrive to a lecture at a university classroom “in-character” to give a lecture on “African American Reflected Identity”, only reveal the “true self” at the close – offering the audience the freedom to differentiate and discuss if either is indeed true at all. How viewers encounter the art, and their interaction with the art/performance in specific spaces – whether digital or physical – also influences the art-making process.
Recently the markings on the body are transferring onto canvas as 2 dimensional paintings, the photographs are existing in the same space as the performances, and music now intertwines it all together as one cohesive multi-media experience. Each part informs and performs with the other.
As my art is interdisciplinary and multi-faceted, so is my philosophy as an art educator.
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