Intro

Click here to download PDF of statement
Born and raised in New Orleans, I am deeply committed to living and working here, as I have my whole life. Witnessing my home community and landscape being decimated only deepens my resolve and commitment to aid in our recovery utilizing art as a ritual and methodology. My work as a visual artist has spanned over thirty years. This website will function simultaneously as a portal into that process, an archive and a bulletin board.
An important facet of my work is its multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and collaborative nature. My hope is that I am blurring boundaries of all sorts: ritual, activism, community, archive, preservation, etc., as well as those of the disciplines of photography, sculpture, painting, performance, and theater.
Artists of all disciplines say they make art because they “need to.” This is not an easy answer, or an escape from delving further. It is the truth. As a young girl, I watched my professional seamstress/grandmother working hard at her machine ritual, day after day, all day long, slip into a reverie of sorts. Her “performance” resonated as I found my way into making things and projects, and it still resonates.
This work is a privilege to me. It has helped me navigate the ways of the world, which always pose new questions and challenges. I am passionate about this work and presenting it to wide, international audiences; collaborating and working with artists of all disciplines, scholars, students and community members of neighborhoods all around the world; and realizing new mixed media installations and public projects that arise at this highly charged, profound moment in our history.

