I believe that all visual artists go through stages in their career where they explore not only different mediums and subjects but also themselves. It has always been important to my development as an artist to go through these stages of exploring myself and different ways of creating, because they have pushed me to come out on the other side a better artist and person than I was. Initially, the paintings that I created were based solely off of stock images of celebrities that I found on the internet. As I grew as an artist, so did my desire to become more creative, and so I began photographing men, women, and children that I know. Over the past two years, my paintings have focused on the Black experience as I have known it through my life. It reflects a softer side of Black people, yet still shows our strength and resilience, something that I want to see more of in galleries and museums.