My favorite type of art to create is abstract work that blends watercolor, acrylic, and ink through layered, fluid processes. I’m drawn to creating pieces that feel emotionally alive, where color, texture, and movement reflect memory, healing, and transformation. I love allowing the materials to guide the work through a call-and-response process, creating compositions that feel intuitive, vulnerable, and deeply connected to both personal and collective storytelling.

I find inspiration in the emotional landscapes we navigate through life: grief, healing, resilience, joy, uncertainty, and transformation. My work is also shaped by the political and cultural realities of being a Black woman from the Deep South, carrying both personal and collective histories. I’m deeply inspired by artists like Sam Gilliam and Ron Bechet, whose work reflects freedom, material experimentation, and cultural memory.

A $25,000 award would allow me to reinvest in myself as an artist after years of pouring into others through my work in arts administration and youth development. I would use the funding to expand my practice into large-scale sculptural watercolor works on fabric, secure dedicated studio space, access new materials and production support, and grow opportunities to share my work nationally and globally while continuing to mentor the next generation of artists.