Thursday's reception for the Artist Co-Op Exhibition was a success. Thank you to everyone who came out and supported me and all the other exhibiting artists!

The exhibition will be on display until November 11, 2017 at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning.

A few weeks ago I had a chance to go down to Charlotte to attend the opening night reception for the 80x80 art show at the Mint Museum Uptown where my piece, Spinal Column of a Kaiju, was featured along with 79 other artists from across the country. The whole evening was amazing! I can't even begin to describe what it feels like to be part of such a major event in such a beautiful museum such as the Mint. The venue is enormous, which allowed the artists to stretch out and share their creations. The range and the diversity of contemporary art was fantastic and being there among the people and getting a chance to describe my work and my process felt pretty surreal.

So tonight was the gallery opening at Azart and I figured I should still write about it while  I'm still wired off of white wine and the good times I had..

Gallery receptions are euphoric and wonderfully hectic at the same time when you're an exhibiting artist. Most of the time it feels like a whirlwind and I wish I could be in several places at once. You find yourself trying to catch up with your long-time friends and supporters but want to make enough time to answer questions about your process to people who are new to your work.

Tonight was no different at Azart. The crowd quickly swelled and I had met so many new faces that were enthusiastic and curious about my Inkscapes. I love listening to people's perspectives and I always come away learning something new from my audience. Tonight, several people told me how the art looked so three dimensional that they wished that they could crawl inside each piece.  People also had a strong response to the amount of color, especially my Inkscapes speckled in yellow and they were soothed by the blues of my Steely Gray

Azart Gallery is a beautiful space, so if you are in the NYC area from now until the 19th, please do go by and check out the show. I feel privileged to share the space with such talented photographers. The gallery is located at 51 Orchard Street in NYC.

I'm pleased to announce that one of my works, Spinal Column of a Kaiju (pictured above), will be included in an upcoming group exhibition at the Charlotte Mint Museum Uptown in North Carolina. The show, entitled 80x80, runs Friday, June 10th through Saturday, June 25th, 2016 and celebrates the Museum's 80th birthday and will feature the works of 80 artists selected from across the country.

With this being my first time exhibiting in a major national museum, I'm extremely excited about this opportunity and can't wait to attend the opening reception in Charlotte on June 10th (from 6-10pm). If you'll be in the area during that time, I'd love to see you but if not, I will be sure to take pictures and share!

I'm so happy and proud to say that Harlem for Flint was a success. We met our fundraising goal of $10,000 and there was an excellent turnout of so many people who wanted to support Flint, Michigan.

As an artist, I was thrilled to be able to use my work to help spread the message of determination and hope. I met such incredible people in the process; all of the volunteers had such positive energy that it felt like a family get-together. There's nothing that compares to people coming together in the name of compassion. The performances were tremendous with each artist bringing such passion and beauty. The end of the evening culminated in a troupe of tap and African dance against a crescendo of song.

Of course it was a tremendous thrill to have a video installation of my Inkscapes to serve as a backdrop for the whole night at the National Black Theatre. It added so much to the mood and so many of the spectators were really impressed by it. This is something I definitely want to do more of in the future because I love how the motion of the Inkscapes can create serenity and infuse tremendous energy at the same time.Please be sure to check out the Youtube video featuring Ali Bradley's rehearsal performance against my video installation (it was actually one of my favorite moments of Sunday afternoon).

A big thank you to all those that attended and contributed! I'll be adding more video over the next few days so be sure to subscribe to my Youtube channel to see more.

I'm pleased to announce that I am working with the fundraiser Harlem For Flint which will present a one day event of artist performances, speakers, a silent auction and poetry readings to raise money for children adversely affected by the water crisis in Flint. Proceeds will be donated to the Flint Child Health & Development Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

I'll be donating a print of my work to the art auction and my new videos of my Inkscapes will also be part of the event too.

Harlem For Flint takes place on Sunday, March, 6 at the National Black Theater in Harlem. For more details, please visit the fundraiser's website at http://harlemforflint.com

Yesterday, I finally made it out to the Gugenheim to see the Carrie Mae Weems exhibition. I'm so glad that I did. I never had such an emotional and cathartic response to an art exhibition before and I am still left contemplating what I saw.

Carrie's weight carries a lot of emotional gravity because she directly confronts issues related to racism, womanhood, stereotypes, exclusion, marginalization, love and loss, and beauty, all of which are themes that are of great interest to me as well. The staging in her photographs is simple; she puts herself in each image as a way of narrating a sries of complex emotions and feelings that are so universal that when I saw her series of works, I felt like she had been inside my head.

There's so much to say and I'm not sure where to begin but I'll start with two series in the show that stood out to me the most. The first one was a story of a relationship between a man and the woman, from their sweet beginnings to their bitter end. Each image that represented a stage in their relationship was beautifully narrated by Carrie's words (she writes beautifully; if she ever writes a novel, I'll be all over it.). The story told the dance that couples often do their  relationships; trying to find that happy medium while still holding onto their own uniqueness and desires, all the while fearing they will be devoured by each other. I was amazed by how much she could convey these sentiments through such simple staging in her photographs. Each vignette took place at the kitchen table like the above image.

The second series that really took me was a collection of old photographs from the 1800s that she had discovered. Originally, the photographs seemed as if they were meant to portray black people in an unflattering light but Weems flips this attempt on its head by presenting the images in a red tint and writing words across them in glass that express the heart and soul of the subjects of each image. Her words not only challenge the racist implications of the photographer and bu they also restore dignity to the subject. I loved this series because she plainly calls out the ugliness of racism and its impact on people who are constantly under the boot of discrimination. While I was at the exhibition, I kept wondering how non-minorities reacted to these images. Did it made them think deeper about their own stereotypes or inaction when they bore witness to racial discrimination being inflicted on others? Did it affect how they saw black people and black women?

I think the thing I like the most about Carrie Mae Weems work is her directness and how she creates on her paper the change she wishes to see in the world. She's willing to use herself as a subject as a way of addressing the marginalization that black women often feel when they are represented in society. She discusses colorism in the black community by playing with words and tinted photographs. All of these images were empowering because they insisted,  "I matter. We matter."

So, if you haven't gone to see the exhibition and you live in New York City, I urge you to walk, run, or gallop to see this it at the Guggenheim up until May 14. You will be so glad that you did.