(2024) Oil and acrylic on canvas. 60"x48"
 
This painting explores the relationships between artist/art collectors. As an artist I read a lot of art history and theory, look at a lot of art, and have a deep appreciation of everyday objects. This piece also explores race, the evolution of race:artist:art in America. Who had opportunities then and now. How non-white people were depicted then versus now. Who buys the art from the artist? Can someone own culture or is art for everyone? Even the word “culture” in America often tends to mean “black culture”. So to depict a white woman/artist/collector “collecting” culture hopefully opens up conversations into cultural appropriation and diffusion in America, a land of many cultures. 
 
Included in this painting are real books and objects that I own. Some I've gone out of my way to buy, and others are considered antiques that I've inherited from my family. Featured on the "wall" behind me/this character of me is art by other artists: Utagawa Toyohiro's "Summer Evening" (1801-04), Vincent Van Gogh's "Irises" (1890), Kerry James Marshall's "De Style" (1993), and Piet Mondrian's "Composition with Red, Yellow, Blue, and Black" (1921). This piece ultimately shows what I think about as an artist.