Anxiety Series

Anxiety Series began as drawings of selected patterns from the pine floors of the Whitney Museum. When feeling overwhelmed by anxiousness, I would take a moment to ground myself and release the energy by focusing on a representational subject and create an image that appears more abstract. These drawings, translated in color paintings became a mental health tool when artworks that required emotional labor as well as processing trauma from systematic injustices in this country became strenuous and debilitating. The paintings range in size and materials, and the color selection is based on my exact temperament in the moment I begin working. Watercolor, acrylic, and magazine paper are physical applications of internal emotional responses to trauma, conflict, shame, doubt, and feelings of uncertainty. As I navigate as a queer, gender non-conforming, multiracial, multicultural body in a country that has institutionalized racism, sexism, and classism, these works operate fundamentally as therapy as a person raised in a community that stigmatizes mental health.

For centuries black and colored people have carried the physical and emotional labor of systematic injustices in the United States. The ultimate goal of this project is to offer a visual and sound release in forms that don't realistically recreate the violence and trauma we have had to endure. Our communities are now presented with violence against them all across social media and news platforms, and are left to deal with desensitization with little to no access to mental healthcare. I hope to offer an opportunity not only for solace but freedom to feel, to embrace, and channel the energies that we often hold pent up inside us. These works translate intimate and vulnerable emotions, whether it's a personal reflection or better understanding a subject, being able to embrace moments of anxiety will help to heal us as a community.