Cabinet Portrait: Wife Portrait, 2022 joins Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA's Permanent Collection through LENS: Photography Council Acquisition . Other works included are Cabinet Cards 1-5, 2016-2022 which is a suite of collaged works, Blockchain art, and Blockchain Art Prints.
The Cabinet Portrait Series
Mixed media collage portraits with powdered pigment, pastel, graphite inspired from the exhibition Acting Out Cabinet Cards and the Making of Modern Photography at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
​
Works were produced in part with support from:
​
​
About Cabinet Portrait: Wife Portrait, 2022
mixed media with powdered pigment, pastel, and graphite, 40 x 60 in.
This work features the artist in her wedding dress, an All Saints Parachute Dress, and jewelry given to her by her husband, artist Chris Christion, made by Black designers, the necklace and headpiece are by- aphia sakyi and the wedding ring by Adorn-Adorn. The artist prominently displays her hands, not only revealing her wedding ring, but also her tattoo on her left pointer finger, "opifex" Latin for artisan.
​
Areas of the portrait are pixelated, relating to the medium of digital photography. A melanin ghost, imagery included in the artists collage lexicon is included in the bottom left hand corner of the image. The sepia tone back drop not only mimics the tonal values of early photography, but also relates to the brown skin tone of the sitter and the relationship between sitter, ground, color, and the reading and making of identity in photography.
​
The graphite color of the wedding dress is in line with late 19th century wedding dresses, which were often dark in color, and worn throughout the woman's life for formal or special occasions. The color of the dress and surface are heavily worked with graphite and pastel, creating areas that are both painterly and reflective.
LENS EVENT @ LACMA
In person visit with the exhibition Acting Out Cabinet Cards and the Making of Modern Photography at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I shared a series of Cabinet Card Collages which include multicolored tears and space imagery, relating to synthesthesia and correlating color with time.
