About the Artist:
“My journey to making art has been long. I am an old woman but a young painter.
Jazz came into my life when I was a teenager. Was so much bigger than the image I was not meeting. Linking and preserving parts of me. Validating. Notes as feeling. Dissonance. Raw at times. Angry. Passionate. A heartbeat. A rope. A lifeline. An underground river. Pushing into places I knew existed but would not admit.
While I did not make art, it stayed alive.
Today—seven painting and poetry panels (collaboration with DFaye Anderson), funded by Brooklyn Arts Council and private donors, will be installed on the 4th Ave. fence of the Old Stone House Park in Brooklyn (Oct. 2025-July 2026). Group shows include Attleboro Arts Center, Mass. (summer 2025), Long Beach Island Foundation, NJ (spring 2025), Abington Art Center, PA (spring 2024, awarded “”Most Compelling Interpretation of Theme””), and other places, including Texas and Portugal. Summer 2023 I worked with Souls Shot Portrait Project (Philadelphia, PA), creating a portrait for Tasia Fleming, whose partner was murdered through gun violence. My graphic book, “”Yo, Miss: A Graphic Look at High School”” (Microcosm Publishing, 2015) was called “”Riveting”” by Alison Bechdel. A follow-up zine, “”Yo, Miss #6: Changes, Vengeance, Trump & the Eumenides”” (Microcosm Publishing, 2018), was short-listed for Broken Pencil’s 2018 Zine Awards. My drawings and paintings have been featured on websites and in magazines, including World War III, muthamagazine.com, and Tendrils.
Artist Statement:
My work evolves from my preoccupations. A lifetime of experiences are what move me into art-making. My paintings are not made with a preconceived style, but emerge from finding the style that expresses my thoughts and emotions.
“Sonny on the Bridge”” was made using a technique called tempera-India ink batik. An image is painted using tempera, leaving spaces. The whole painting is then covered in India ink. When it drives, the India ink is washed off the tempera. Like jazz, there is both structure and spontaneity. “”Sonny on the Bridge”” refers to Sonny Rollin’s year of woodshedding on the Williamsburg Bridge, a bridge I saw out my apartment window for 25 years.
