The title of my exhibition, Gratiot Griot, comes from the following. I was raised on the east side of Detroit. First, my family lives in a predominantly Black community known as Blackbottom. Then we moved further into the east side of Detroit to a street called Seneca, which was off Gratiot. Griot is a term from West Africa. It refers to a storyteller who maintains an oral history of its people using poetry or music. I call myself a visual griot because I tell stories of my community through my artwork.

Yes, I see myself as an intertwining of both. I tell the stories through my art of the community I was raised in on the east side of Detroit. I tell stories of family relationships, coming-of-age stories, and stories of lovers. I feel it is my charge to tell the story of my community as I saw it to show that black people are not the one-dimensional image that is, more than not, portrayed in a negative manner.

I often refer to my upbringing as a kind of ‘leave It to beaver’ kind of living. Nearly everyone on my block had a mother and father. The mums stayed home to tend to the home and children and the fathers went to work at the factories. We ate dinner together at a certain time every day. Everybody had to be on the front porch by the time the streetlights came on. We were expected to be always on our best behaviour, or the neighbours would report our transgressions to our parents. Mom On Seneca is a typical scene that played out in many of the homes in my community. Families gathered to celebrate holidays, birthdays, and each other. And yes, there is much joy in showing our traditions and culture. That joy comes from telling the story of my people and that is how it connects with all people. All people have special relationships and traditions. I feel that is why my work connects with the heart so much. Love is love.

These figures are people in my family or people I see that represent the Black man at his finest. They represent my values, dignity, pride, culture and to do it with Swag.

My personal art practice is to reflect on subjects that touch my heart or make me feel happy or proud. I guess I am just a softy and try to look for the bright side of things. I select family photos that bring up these memories and these photos become the subjects of my work.

Swag is a stylish confidence that was very dominant in my family. Somehow the stylish part skipped over me. But I know it when I see it. The collage Detroit Swag is of my actual family. It came from one of my family photos. The men in this collage are my cousins and brothers. From a child to now, they fascinated me because they were and are also so dapper. They had a mixture of attitude, confidence, suaveness, and pride that I see in so many people of Detroit. The people in Detroit have that Swag.

My approach towards subjects has been to incorporate prints of my previous works in my current collages. I am also moving towards making my subjects fit into familiar city life surroundings. I want to add more to the backgrounds of my works that speaks volumes about where we come from.

YES!!!! I know a collective opinion has changed and it is exciting and amazing that young people are now making a viable living in the arts. Moving back into the art scene, I see so many opportunities young people have from being curators to gallery owners. I see a boldness and belief that art can provide a decent income and living. I think this is so wonderful that I see young people creating their own art jobs and businesses. It is very impressive.

Yes, you would be right to say legacy is very important to me. As I have said before, I believe when we are all born, we are born with a gift and an assignment inside of us. We have a purpose, a gift, and a job to do to make the world move forward. That will be our legacy if we choose to nurture it. It is kind of like the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life. If we don’t nurture our gift or assignment, it alters our surroundings and the lives of those who are around us. A successful legacy for me is to inspire others to nurture the gift that each of us has inside of us. Mine is to inspire other artists young and old to keep going and go the distance. It will change someone’s life around you.

When I was asked what kind of artist I want to be, without hesitation, I said I want to be a fine art museum artist. I want my family to come into an important museum and see my work on the walls and they can say, “That’s my mum or grandma.” I want my work to be studied in books and college art classes. I want to be one of the great ones like Romar Bearden or Jacob Lawrence. Yes, I aim for the fences! This is where I want my artistic journey to take me.

Sometimes I think about that and then I realise the time I spent as a mum and an educator was preparing me for my time now. I came back to Detroit at the right time, and I met the right people at the right time. I realised I didn’t leave it behind. My gift was waiting for me to catch up with it.

Well, earlier, I was listening to Miles Davis' Radio on Pandora. But I needed to focus on these questions, so now I am looking at Smooth Jazz Radio!