Living in a society where few of us can be ourselves, or we suffer abuse from the politically correct police (PC Police, AKA, "fake" liberals with guilt) and/or conservative fundamentalists, it is a constant struggle to be myself without being labeled something that I am not.

I found that painting is an effective way of getting my point across, yet caused far less hostile and abusive responses. People expect Artists to tell the truth, but do not of average folks. Controversial topics are often taboo at the dinner table, yet uncontroversial art is considered boring. A controversial artist is considered to have an edge, a controversial guy next door is to be avoided. Painting to me was the perfect way to bring two things that are most important in my life: My love for visual arts and my involvement in community activism.

My paintings tell a story, not only the typical story against injustice that many expect as a woman of color. As I cannot simply become a martyr or romanticize and glorify my sufferings, I take it a step further and deeply scrutinize myself as well as others and call them on their deficiencies. Every individual and every group is a fair game.

I paint on my pc using my tablet on Adobe Photoshop, although recently, I have made the switch to Corel Painter. Usually starting with clippings and image files of reference materials that I have collected through the years. They could be from magazines, newspapers, web, etc. Then I make a collage of my story. When I have a great story that I want to tell, that is when I start painting. This often starts from the collage or I may draft up something from scratch and of course it could be the combination.

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NOTE: This is the website of Urban Envy, Artist. This site is not affiliated to any other Urban Envy's or others with similar AKA's or URLs. Thanks so much.