1. How long have you been in Atlanta? What brought you here?
I was born in Anchorage, Alaska, but I’ve lived in Georgia since I was 9. I have a lot of family here and in parts of central Georgia around Macon. I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta and currently live in a suburb outside of Atlanta.
2. Did you go to art school? Do you have any degrees?
I didn’t go to art school, but I always loved making art and coming up with new ways to express my ideas. I was always taking art classes throughout high school and knew it was something I loved doing, but I also had an interest in archaeology and anthropology since first or second grade. When I got to college, I decided that majoring in archaeology instead of art was the more realistic of the two subjects to pursue. I have a BA in Anthropological Studies with a specialization in Archaeological Studies from Yale University.
3. Tell us how you got your start as a working artist.
It’s always hard for me to answer this question. I guess I started being “serious” about photography in 2009. I was shooting a lot of musicians and figuring out ways to sneak backstage or catch my favorite acts before or after their shows to get decent portraits. Eventually just creating straight photographs wasn’t enough, and I got into more mixed media and installation-based work. The first time I ever showed anything publicly or ever had anything on a gallery wall in Atlanta was at MINT Gallery’s Postcard Pin Up show at the end of 2009.
4. What are you working on in your studio now?
Oh man… I don’t even know what’s happening in there right now. Maybe you could tell me! I’ve been listening to a lot of Kanye West and Sharon Van Etten while I work, so it’s kind of a shitshow which I’m totally okay with. I am really fascinated by the law of conservation of energy and the idea of energy in enclosed systems – space, the human body, language – and out of this, I’ve been working on some pieces that I’d consider very personal. I’ve been getting in my head a lot more lately, and the response to the work I’ve shared so far has been really positive. I think people enjoy work to which they can relate on a very basic, emotional level. I was really hesitant about making work like this at first because it always feels risky to do anything that may come off as melodramatic or too self-interested and mopey, but I’m really happy with how it’s progressing. I’m beginning to realize that cerebral, conceptual work and emotional work don’t necessarily have to be mutually exclusive.
5. What is it like to be an artist in Atlanta today? How can Atlanta improve?
It’s exciting. Atlanta is a sexy city, and there’s a lot going on here in the arts right now. Atlanta is the perfect city for someone who wants to do something brand new and isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty. There are a lot of open spaces for experimentation and creation which is an advantage it has over other larger cities with larger and more complex infrastructures where a person can just show up and inject themselves into the system. Atlanta’s got a scrappiness to it, but it’s a kind of slick scrappiness – like a cute girl who wears heels but also knows how to use power tools and change a tire. Atlanta can improve by continuing to do what it’s doing – bringing more arts to the city, engaging the greater national and international art communities and developing its own artistic voice and creating programs to retain the good artists who are already here.
6. What is the role of an artist in society? How do you see your role in this way?
I can’t answer this for every artist, but I can say that I think my role as an artist is to provide people with a new way of thinking about a subject. Sometimes it feels like I’m a scientist when I’m working in my studio – every series is a new study and each piece is some kind of trial. It’s like I’m building up a collection of empirical evidence to prove a theory for each series. I am always trying to answer the question, “What does it mean to be who I am right now in the world? What does it mean to be where I am right now in the world?” Being a Black, gay, female artist living in The South, in America, in a Democratic, capitalist society gives you a lot to think about. There’s a lot going on there, so incorporating personal identity is something I’ve been thinking about a lot more in my work.
7. What is the job of Art?
Synthesis.
8. Does Atlanta have a specific role to play for Art/Artists?
No, I think it’s quite the opposite. I think artists have a greater responsibility to the city than the city does to the artists if that makes sense. Artists are the arbiters of the character of a city. Art is one of the major ways in which people identify the character of a city be it through architecture or music or some other form of art. If I go much further into this answer it’s going to get circular fairly quickly, so I’ll stop here.
9. Do you have any advice for younger artists?
Work hard. Be nice. Be curious. Be genuinely interested in people and what they have to say. Take care of your body. Figure out what you like. Invest in yourself. Don’t just look at the work of other visual artists for inspiration – listen to music, read poetry, read a good novel, read the news, just READ, exercise, play an instrument, make your brain work in different ways so you don’t get burned out. Remember that no one really knows what the hell they are doing, and always ALWAYS trust your intuition about everything.
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