My work is the result of my research. The process is in both the finding and obscuring. Through mark making and layering I hide and excavate my invisible artifacts. Each work starts with an emotional response that I channel through paint and clay. I am interested in the idea of traces or a physical representation of that. A scratch on canvas- the memory where my hand once was on the surfaces of my work. Through the language of mark making, I am recording the history of my mark where my hands are no longer present. The only evidence that I was once there are  the color and textures that I left behind. I am a preserver.

As I work to find the language each painting requires, I introduce paper mache and different methods of applying paint to create pure abstraction. I have had to give myself permission to let go of any preconceived ideas to allow the marks and the surface to have control. 

I  use my hands to wipe on or erase with water or rags to respond to the surfaces. Painting with my hands allows me to feel like I can breathe without constriction; allowing the paint to be used to its fullest potential. There are marks that only my hand can create. The traces that the marks leave behind are the memory of my hand only. When I use a rag, a splash of water, or a brush, I cover and distort their marks with my own handmade gestures. The accumulation of energy and smudging of marks present in Julie Mehretu’s darker paintings inspire me. 

 Like throwing on the wheel, I paint with my canvas on the ground and as I work I am constantly moving around the canvas.  I like to let the colors of my paintings choose themselves. The steps I use to paint are intuitive at this point. I tend to start my paintings with a dark atmosphere and then I use vibrant colors to create a deeper space through the movement of the marks. Mars black is what I prefer to start my paintings with. It is physically the ground but also it grounds all colors and unearths the light. 

My ceramics and paintings inform and reflect each other in their process.  Inspired by Ana Mendieta, Simone Leigh, and my Caribbean ancestry, I create abstract ceramic forms that reference Pre-Columbian pottery and rock sculptures. The Taino inspired vessels are both urns and a body representing life and death in one vessel.  I layer various underglaze colors before applying a grounding layer of black on top. I then begin excavating the layers of colors beneath the surface. Using various tools including my fingernails I scrape off glaze to reveal the under layers and then I add back onto the surface with pastels. I want to generate a type of visual camouflage that confuses the negative and positive space.

I start my ceramics by creating pieces of one vessel on the wheel. I typically throw each piece in three vessels and then I connect them all together by hand building with coils. I also use the coil method for all of my hand built rock formations. I apply underglaze before the first firing, allowing me to control the layering and mark-making on the surface. After the initial firing, I use underglaze pastels to further enhance their depth and visual complexity. This being the exact opposite of the surface of my paintings. And yet I consider these pieces to be paintings as well, just ones that can be viewed from all sides. 

I am interested in the idea of  indexical signs. An example of indexical sign is to imagine you are walking along a deserted beach and you notice footprints in the sand. The trace of a footprint is the only signifier that another human was once there. This is a present theme within my work, specifically in my painting Left Behind.  I use the outline of my body positioned the way I sleep as an indexical sign embedded into the “ground” of the painting. Where I am exploring the connection between the signs and signifiers and their interconnectedness as well as the connection that the human body has with the earth. Although the outline of my body is left imprinted into the earth creating an invisible artifact, I am still here. 

 I treat the paper pulp on the surface of my paintings the way I treat paint-I create positive and negative spaces with the medium on the canvas. This layer is my “underpainting.” After this I completely cover this layer with as many layers of paint and pastels until I find that the positive and negative spaces underneath the paint are completely camouflaged.  

 I see myself as a researcher or an archeologist who does not dig, but instead reactivates histories and unearths the fossilized narratives embedded within materials and surfaces. Fossils are preserved in rocks. Rocks record (memory) by holding traces of the past protecting what’s inside (seen or unseen).  My painting and my ceramics protect each other. The paintings reference the interior of caves. Caves are a sacred space that historically the Taino people have used as a place of refuge or ritual. Culturally caves were used for burials as well and they are a place to connect to the ancestors. My work also preserves and reveals unseen and undertold histories of colonization through a process of layering, excavating, and transformation.