Artists Statement

Using words to describe my work is like insisting that the jazz improviser not trust the ensemble, that the ensemble not trust the each other, and that the audience not trust itself for the experience.  My creative process is unplanned, and my work is inspired by waves of unseen sounds. It is a form of storytelling: constructions of emotional and metaphorical expressions. Using charcoals, pastels, materials, mixed-media assemblages, installations, and paints, the flat color areas, distortions, geometric forms and spatial relationships are all present in my allegorical vistas. I am a visitor of material, and a manipulator of intuition, or anything my hand, not my mind, finds desirable in a continuous, transcendental composition.  Ultimately, I work towards the incompletion of my personal evolution. 

Born in Lafayette , Louisiana , in 1958, my parents had nine children. As a shy, painfully introverted kid, I observed my mother’s improvisational skills for provisions. She did every thing from the heart: cooking, storytelling, interior decorating, and praying. I   developed similar skills for drawing and music.  I played the alto saxophone and kalimba in intervals like I drew ferocious lines with various widths, and those disciplines later became my creative orgy. The indigenous fusion of Creole language, cooking, voodoo, zydeco and jazz music impacted my formative years.  In 1981, I received a B.F.A. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette . 

As a muralist in schools, museums, and community programs, I have used my gifts as a teacher and artist to shape the image of human consciousness. My work has been featured in galleries and museums, including the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, “The 33rd Annual Juried Exhibition,” The New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, “The Visual Expressions on Jazz,” Harlem, New York; Savacou Gallery,Manhattan, New York; “Exposition in Black,” Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Louisiana; U.S. Embassy, Maseru, Lesotho; and Augusta Savage Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts. In addition, I completed an Arts International Residency in South Africa in 2004.