My current body of work stems from my personal identity, a division between being African-American and Black, growing up in the suburbs of Los Angeles in the ‘90s, and coming of age in the ‘00s. Reared by television, my main source of inspiration comes from MTV and Nickelodeon, the two channels that gave me hip hop and cartoons respectively. Rap music videos gave me a notion of what it meant to be black, while cartoons presented me with a visual language to illustrate my thoughts. The construction and execution of my work reflects the assimilation to American culture that foreigners face; it is a mixture of everything assembled together to make one collective identity, a colorful melting pot. The idea of narrative, simple yet complex composition, and the contrasting and relating of materials to one another are expressed through the application. Not everyone feels comfortable discussing race issues, myself included. My paintings are an outlet for the ambiguity I feel towards this heavy topic. Featured on the NAP/Blog: October 23, 2013