The Cherokee Gardens: BA Thesis Exhibition

My Senior Thesis Exhibiton: The Cherokee Gardens🌺🦚🪡🪶

Throughout my last semester, I have been really drawn to connect and highlight my Cherokee and Bajan Culture and Heritage. I am Afro-Indigenous, and throughout media, being a Black Woman and having Cherokee Ancestry is not highlighted enough in media and society. I wanted to share my stories of my culture and who I am is very important to me as an Artist. Through using upcycling and sustainable practices to create my artwork and garments, I explored various symbols from hair to dolls, to headdresses to create my unique world and culture of color, fabric, and earthworks. Focusing on environmental and eco-conscious awareness through sustainability and nature is the main theme within my work.

I am a creative who creates intersection of art, fashion, culture, and sustainability. Specializing in upcycling textiles and objects into wearable and functional multi-media artworks, I am embracing my Afro-Indigenous and Caribbean influences, infusing spirituality and heritage into every artwork and design. Creatively, I am exploring the themes of spirituality, sustainability, and addressing textile waste through handcrafting elements together. Everything that I have been creating since using thread and fabrics for this thesis have been handsewn. Throughout my art making, handsewing has been such a spiritual and meditative practice for me. I have incorporated that into every piece that I have made this semester.These artworks explore me and my hair representation. Women of African and Indigenous descent have been wearing our natural curls, as well as exploring braided styles even for spiritual protection and migration, as well also exploring with colors and using many different materials for hair. This is my first time using synthetic hair as a medium in my artwork. Using hair as a restricted and freedom expression of African, Caribbean, and Cherokee hair throughout our migration in America has been a powerful symbol for centuries.