Belle of the Ball Painting

I’m Scottish. I live in Harlem, NYC. I believe it’s critical and necessary to embrace cultural diversity. I’m passionate about equality. I’m compelled by the underdog. The courage of “social outcasts”, who walk their own walk, moves me. When I moved to Harlem in 2006, I felt an affinity with the neighborhood and I quickly realized that my white working class upbringing had similarities in culture and feel, but the fact that I can walk out the door wearing my white skin, gives me an immediate privilege that I’m still working on fully understanding. I work with mixed media to build many layers, creating a history and opposition, using a multitude of tools to enable me to relinquish control. I've had successful 30 year career that spanned being a textile designer, art director and licensing artist. In April 2020, my dad died of COVID-19 in Scotland. Here in lockdown in NYC, I was lying on my couch grief stricken about my dad while also feeling completely outraged yet impotent about the systemic racism and white supremacist rhetoric gathering momentum in this country. On one of those days I heard a wee voice inside calling me to hang some paintings I had created in 2019. Since then, I've been creating my grief, joy, anger, sorrow and hope.