The Watcher, Acrylic on Canvas, 2010

There are some who believe that the artist's function is to express what is happening externally in the World at large, working in epic scales to report something greater to a universal audience. Yet others believe that genuine artistry requires looking deep within and finding a very personal, specific truth and conveying it in such a manner that others will want to look. Perhaps the most successful artists journey precariously throughout both of these ideals within their professional lives, occasionally managing to unite them in a skillful, cohesive manner.

Working primarily in acrylics, but also in a variety of mediums, I have been indelibly entangled amid themes ranging from political satire to self-image. The works viewed throughout offer a substantial representation of my largely self-guided journey.

I often reintroduce traditional feminine figures. "Lady In Waiting" is my tongue-in-cheek version of the wood nymph, substituting the fair waif for a lithe athlete; replacing her wings for a blindfold. "Eve's Corruption" is a twist on a familiar parable that seems to encompass the lens through which women are often viewed. Here, I have Eve holding the proverbial "smoking gun" and staring outward with rebellious indifference.

"Valentine Lilies #1 through #3", painted in varying degrees of soft flourishes and light, and "Valentine Lilies #4", done in hard, edgy shadows, were part of a series that used the analogy of flowers to display different facets of femininity.

"Requiem Por El Amor De Mi Vida" and "Currency Exchange 2: The Iron Ceiling", shift the focus inward by pulling from personal experiences. "Requiem…" is a comemorative painting which explores the joys of love and the heartbreak of its tragic conclusion. "Currency Exchange 2…", which delves into gender and race, is from a series for which I rip various headlines and advertisements from print media and rearrange them thematically. "Les Deux Femmes 1" and "Lazy Day Cool" are similarly self-referential, with a more whimsical and light-hearted tone.

In my pieces, I attempt to string together this constant battle of images and ideas brewing within current thoughts and discourse of what makes and breaks a person...loneliness, passion, spirituality…to convey the numbing duality of the surface, static symbolism of the World’s expectations with bright, simple and primary colors—which are pulled heavily from my Caribbean roots--merged together with the more complex, dark and chaotic lifelines hidden just beneath. I strive to create this feeling of being stuck in a waking dream…tipping on the edge of reality. This World, my World, is one that is both beautiful and ugly, concrete and uncertain, silent and animated, flirting with implication while feigning ignorance…but never dishonest.