Aphrodite 10

15 x 11.13 inches

Collage with Screenprint and Linoleum Block Elements on Cotton Rag Paper

2023

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APHRODITE is a new series of collages about pleasure and about my human body, which comes from this planet and is formed thanks to the thousands of organisms that lived before I was born. The human body is often forced into a small binary box, but the human body is an expansive, wonderful, and mysterious container. I am fascinated by my body and all it can do. It took me two decades to learn how to care for my body instead of exploiting it. 

My own culture insisted that I exploit myself, it was deemed favorable to push myself beyond my limits so that I could be the smartest kid in my class, so that I could be the best at everything. I saw my two parents work multiple jobs and rarely rest. They said I could rest when I died. I am so glad I rejected those messages and instead I prefer to focus on my joy and my body’s pleasure. Capitalism and patriarchy insist on stripping us of our intuition, our natural flow with our bodies, our natural connection to feel joy in the bodies we have. 

My “job” as an artist is to celebrate my bodily autonomy, to ignore dominant ideas that attempt to shame me for being wild and free, to reclaim my body and prioritize joy and pleasure - and to be powerful from that place. Yes, that place where I can be my fully expressed self and therefore trust my body’s wisdom - trust my gut as they say.

Naked photography it’s one of my favorite forms of art and something I’ve been doing for the last 3 years in collaboration with my friend Bobby Gordon. I feel honored to use my body in my artistic expression. I’m incredibly blessed to be alive at a time when I can do this type of art and inspire other femmes to be their wild, decolonized self. When we are feral we can more easily tap in the messages that nature offers. We can tap into nature’s wisdom, and help shift ideas about pleasure and how we express it. Mama earth wants us to FEEL. IT. ALL.