From the Artist:
Window Works (2021) comprises of a digitally painted diptych and triptych portraying a continued exploration in the sublimity of the deeply melanated being and literal resemblances between dark skin and the night sky. These figures are portrayed as ancestors of extraterrestrial origin and cosmic proportion through their relation to other celestial bodies, that they are both an authority and embodiment of. In all of my art, I’m driven to create portrayals of Black people with a divine sense of esteem, mythos and golden touch to increase the positive representations of melanin and to celebrate deeply pigmented individuals who have historically been targets of contemptuous perception.
In Love in Primary, a triptych of embracing figures, I intended to portray moments of intimacy and interconnectedness through friendship and solidarity. This togetherness is catalyzed from a personal longing to see and experience more physical touch that has become endangered due to some secondary symptoms of the COVID-19 pandemic like isolation, alienation, distrust and neurosis.
Planet Nursery is a digitally-painted diptych portraying a world creator and her black panther companion. Dark as the night sky and donning a crown of light, this matriarchal figure is posed resembling iconic figures like Lady Columbia and the Statue of Liberty. The black panther’s primary role is to use its paws to propel the worlds she manifests into orbital revolution.
- Noraa James