I’ve been working on giving life to an artist statement for awhile and this is where I landed! Will post this on my about me page too, but wanted to share here too. I’ll intro this by saying that this is where I am as an artist right now .It’s a really interesting exercise to do as someone who has never published something like this so far. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes and how this changes even in the next year.
As a guitarist, my work and creativity most often and most importantly seeks to address and ask critical questions not only of myself, but of those who have graciously chosen to engage with me and my art. I want to ask deeply important questions and have meaningful conversations about art and the work that art does for all of us. As a collaborator and curator, my goal is to continue to tells stories and create moments of thoughtful engagement and that largely address resiliency and the change that we can enact socially as a means of creating a liberated world. With resiliency comes justice and the ideas about how we as musicians and more broadly, as artists, can continue to work towards creating a society that is free for everyone. Through my various additional roles whether they be administrative or in other capacities, my hope is that these ideas of resiliency, justice, hope, freedom, and togetherness permeate and largely influence the way that I interact with others and my work as a creative shows up in the world.
In the last few years, I made the decision to consciously and purposefully work towards thinking more deeply about the impact that my work as an artist can have on the world and in terms of the justice I seek for everyone. The Margins Guitar Collective is a collective of artists, justice advocates, and community members who are committed to creating and sustaining a diverse and inclusive guitar community. For me, starting this collective is a way to bring issues of diversity and inclusivity and equity to the forefront through supporting artists and the important work we do in our communities. Currently, I am the executive and artistic director of this project overseeing the operations of making our mission and vision a reality.
Additionally, as 1/2 of the guitar duo, Duo Charango, we focus almost exclusively as a duo premiering, commissioning, and advocating for the work of living artists. Two of our latest project include Taking Imperfect Action, an artists conversation series, and the Neoteric Guitar Project, a project that in its first iteration commissioned three living women composers to write music for electric guitar duo.
In all that I do as an individual artist and collaborator, I hope that I am continuing to ask deeply thoughtful and meaningful questions about the necessity of art and about how we have to include everyone in that art if it is to be as meaningful as we hope. Collaborating, creating, and reimagining what it means to be an artist, to be a Black artist are things that I am most concerned with especially as it relates to our society and culture and the impact that I hope to leave on the world.
P.S. Go listen to some new music.