Artist Bio
I have always aspired to be an artist. My father was an Industrial Arts teacher and a master carpenter who designed and crafted fine wood furniture. Growing up in the Washington, DC ares, I had the privilege to explore the galleries of some of the finest art museums in the world. I immersed myself in all things creative. As a teenager, I discovered photography and my first summer job was working with award-winning White House photojournalist, Sharon Farmer. In college, I interned with the legendary African American Art historian and curator, Guy McElroy at the Mary McLeod Bethune House Museum. I studied fine art at Spelman College under the tutelage of reknown African American printmaker, Lev Mills and Africobra co-founder and art historian, Michael Harris. I was destined to create fine art, but I was sidetracked 20 years by a different but art-related career, marriage and family.
In college, I studied fine art, but graduated with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism and spent most of my professional life on the creative side of television production. I am an award-winning writer/producer who has created commercials, public service announcements, documentaries and music programming for local TV and national cable networks. In addition to being a video proucer, I am also an artist and art educator. I completed my master's degree in Art Education at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington DC. I studied under painters Natasha Mokina and Tom Xenakis and printmaker, Dennis O'Neal.
As an Art Educator, I have taught drawing, painting, photography, video editing and multimedia applications in K-12 schools, community college and on the university level. As an artist, I have exhibited my artwork in several galleries throughout the mid-atlantic region and was an artist-in-residence at Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel, Maryland. Currently, I work in higher education as an adjunct faculty member teaching layout and design for multimedia, video production, video editing and more. However, when I'm not in the TV studio or multimedia lab, you can find me with my digital camera out in the field or with my paint brushes or printmaking tools in my art studio.
Artist Statement
My fine art is inspired by personal narrative and African American culture. I am influenced by figurative works from social realism, post impressionism and the Harlem Renaissance periods. I am most interested in exploring important societal issues through my fine art, photography and video, with an emphasis on the themes of education, children, women, family, community and African American history. I hope my artwork and my video projects present a positive and insightful perspective on African American life and culture.
Art Exhibitions
Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Washington, DC
Spelman College, Atlanta, GA
Hand Gallery, Richmond, VA
Corcoran College of Art & Design, Washington, DC
Publick Playhouse, Bladensburg, MD
Montpelier Arts Center, Laurel, MD
PGCC Center for Performing Arts Gallery, Largo, MD
Savannah State University, Savannah, GA
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