5/Fifths

With 5/Fifths, I wanted to explore my progression in my black and female identities. I have always been a feminist and a fighter against racial injustice, but in those spaces, I was asked to strip myself of one identity or another in order to fight for a cause. I wasn’t allowed to be my full self in either space, thus the journey to becoming whole and comfortable enough to advocate for myself. I look at artist like Kara Walker, who explores historical trauma in a stark and graphic way, and Amy Sherald’s portraiture, celebrating black bodies on a fun and contemporary way, to draw inspiration and courage to make the portraiture and present the ideas I want. “Pull Me In” is an example of having to question and examine myself. Who am I? Why am I making this work? Am I holding back to please others? Who is this work for? While those specifically tie into my artistic practice, I’m asking these same types of existential questions in my personal life and how I present myself to the world. Often times, I go into these black female spaces among friends and family to work through newly discovered ideas and concepts about my identity. It’s this place of comfort where I found pieces of myself in the people I respected the most. While I don’t believe in a person becoming complete in a definitive way, I do believe that the things I stand for today will be the things I stand for tomorrow. The way that I move through the world pivots from this point and is a continuation on the basic ideas I’ve come to accept.