creatHER: constructing the Black Woman

creatHER: constructing the Black Woman is a seven piece collection that explores Black radiant feminine energy, tasseled and adorned in strength, tears, racism, sexism and identity. Those featured in this collection include: Judge Shannon Frison of the Massachusetts Superior Court, Issa Rae, Screenwriter and Actress, Leymah Gbowee, Liberian Peace Activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2011), The Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson, US Supreme Court Justice, Chaka Khan, Musician and Award Winning Recording Artist, Viola Davis, Award Winning Actress and Best Selling Author and Pearl Cleage, fiction author. I chose these women, meticulously. I chose them because I could relate to them and I wasn’t afraid to see myself in their greatness. I painted larger canvases to remind myself that this is and will always be bigger than me. I wanted to offer myself to the conversation of elegance in Black Femininity, I chose these women based on my desire to push my acceptance of my greatness further. I wasn’t afraid to project my own uniqueness, intersectionality, audacity and liberation. I chose them because I am not afraid of my own light and their light reflected on me amplifies that within. I believe in my authenticity and the mastery of my craft.

I thoroughly enjoyed the honor of investigating the many layers and colors of what it truly means to be a Black Woman. After spending just one year at the Academy of Art University, I was consistently confronted with my Blackness, a Blackness that I have questioned for years. I was obviously Black, but never Black enough. Instead of being a Black Woman, I was consistently conceptualizing and analyzing Black Women and I never measured up. I learned that Black Women are unique. They come in so many forms, shapes, sizes and colors. But each is different in their own way. Black Women are fearless. Black Women press against the borders and exist within the intersections. It is the intersections that matter the most. Where you can be yourself as a Black Woman, but also relate to other cultures and speak the language of their heart.