“Things With Wings” Artist’s Statement:
I love the idea of telling a story using visual literacy; in these pieces I'm exploring the concept of woman-on-woman violence. What does it mean culturally for those who identify as female to navigate and operate in a world that isn't build to accommodate or appreciate us? Sometimes, it leads to feeling defeated, angry, spiteful, unhopeful and distrusting: a lot of negative emotions. Often, we recreate these patriarchal scenes against ourselves through slut-shaming, modesty arguments, body negativity, colorism, and heated discussion on motherhood as a right, privilege or duty. It becomes even more difficult to live when we create structures within our own interactions that don't allow for self-awareness, honesty or growth.
I'm interested in juxtaposing the two narratives and seeing what emerges. How can we live in an ever-increasing progressively pro-female times and, yet, the delay/reversion that we are taught become the way we communicate to each other and ultimately establish our worth and place in the world. The theme of that intersection here is played out in several terms: by placing the two stories together and seeing how they interact, by using animal idioms to help convey commonly understood connotations, and by using audience/artwork relationship to fuel the conversation forward.
This series is deeply personal to me, blossomed from a poem I wrote, “Things My Family Carry”. Often, I will work ekphrastically, working between mediums and allowing multiple interpretations to arise. I am working through generational trauma, understanding that what happened to my grandmothers, what happened to my mother, affects me. It lives in my cells and bones. We carry that weight as women, heads of families, comforters, warriors, life-givers and trail-blazers. It is unaccepted to talk openly and freely about these issues but how can we ever break the cycle if we cannot talk about it?