Medium: Oil on Canvas with Gold Leaf Accents
Dimensions: 75 cm x 100 cm
**Exhibited at 'Rescripted'; Yahoo! UK’s 2024 Black History Month Showcase

these words are a psalm;

there's no need to shout 

I whisper them softly til

you fade away

This painting is a critique and reimagining of identity, culture, and colonial history. I wanted to paint  a counterpoint to the hyper-masculine energy of nationalism; I started this painting during football season. Throughout, I was focused on honouring the valour, resilience and forgiveness of black women. These traits often go unrecognized but are vital to the nation’s identity and success; they are deemed worthy of sainthood in traditional English literature. The golden lions represent an almost mythic, symbolic  history that seeks to dominate (and often, destroy) but here, it become decorative and diminished in the presence of the saint. Lions are African creatures.