The backgrounds for all my portraits start off as abstract pieces. I’ve always enjoyed the idea of shutting myself off from reality by playing music and grabbing a blank canvas, repurposed MDF or wall and painting whatever my imagination instructs. I use bold colour, texture and experiment with techniques to produce the one-off pieces I create.
I started doing portraits because I realised I had a lot of internalised resentment towards my features and my skintone. As a dark skinned black woman, I’d absorbed a lot of messaging that either celebrated, muted or ridiculed me so that led me to find a way to reclaim some power.