i am accused of tending to the past

as if i made it,

as if i sculpted it

with my own hands. i did not.

-Lucile Clifton

In trying to learn to understand my own time, I have become emerged in the years piled up behind me. The result/response has been a grand interrogation into history, culture, philosophy, psychology, and the human response to war. My practice is fueled by this ongoing search for understanding. I live in a hostile society, where tragedy is considered an inevitability. I live in a society where I am constantly under attack, where the silent majority wishes to destroy me, disenfranchise me, but most importantly to erase my memory from history. This series of works is based on the concept of black relics. These works represent opposition to that notion. These works are modern relics, on stone, papyrus, silk, basketball flooring and Newport Carton boxes. They tell a true history of my family, my community, and my culture in a land controlled by my oppressor. These works could be compared directly to hieroglyphs, or the coded quilts that doubled as maps, slaves used to escape plantations, in order to gain their freedom. I am an interdisciplinary artist born in Houston, Texas working primarily in drawing, painting, collage, and photography.