My Story
My Background
I was born in London in 1968 to Caribbean parents both of which arrived in the UK in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation, my mother arrived from Guyana and my father from Jamaica.
Mother worked as a machinist in a clothing factory most of her working life and my father worked at the Firestone tyre factory.
My parents had five children of which I was the last-born twin. My siblings and I grow up in multi-cultural west London in the 70s and 8os and as a young boy I became fascinated by the world of drawing and painting, in-part sparked off by watching my elder brother draw. ..
Despite not coming from and creative background both my parents were very encouraging and enthusiastic about my desire to draw and paint images of the world around me, the support I received from my family made me confident and unhindered creatively, I would often take myself on regular trips to the major art Galleries and Museums in London to see my favourite works of art. Despite feeling underrepresented both in-terms of the images on the wall in the paintings and the visitor demographic of the Museum (often I was the only person of colour in the building) despite this I was still hugely inspired by seeing the works of the old masters.
For me being in those spaces was a way to challenge this lack of representation and my attempt at claiming ownership of the space and artworks just like everybody else.
On the rare occasion I happen to come across a painting of a person of colour in a museum it was always a bit of a disappointment, as the image was always of a subjugated anonymous black figure or a ethnographic specimen racially fetishized to add exotic charm to a scene, or, in portraiture specifically, to function as a human commodity (a slave or servant) to elevate the stature of the aristocrat depicted. .
We cannot erase historical injustices, but we can reclaim territory denied us through challenging popular preconceptions as to what ‘black’ art can be. I aim to express the duality of my own experience; the sense of being both part of the English environment I was born into yet also displaced from it - connected to the Caribbean culture of my parents with its traditions, values, and historical inheritance.
Rather than put me off, this gap in Britain’s cultural canon served to inspire me. I wanted to see myself and my community in the grand prestigious roles I often saw in the paintings.
I wanted my work to invert this structure. I aim to endow that which is under-represented, undervalued or ignored in our society with the status they deserve through their becoming the subject of a painting.
We cannot erase historical injustices, but we can reclaim territory denied us through challenging popular preconceptions as to what ‘black’ art can be.
I aim to express the duality of my own experience; the sense of being both part of the English environment I was born into yet also displaced from it - connected to the Caribbean culture of my parents with its traditions, values, and historical inheritance.