History

Intrepid traveler was conceived in an airport lobby in Guatemala in 1998. In this crowded, dense space stood my sister Coco, a good friend Kevin and myself engaged in enthusiastic conversation about the unique trinkets, people, stories and photos that are collected, met, heard and taken on journeys such as this one. We drew an analogy between this experience and a work of art agreeing that both warranted exhibition in a gallery setting. The objects and memoirs displayed would represent and evoke the choices the traveler made, the thoughts written down, the ornamentals collected and the photos taken and thereby serve as an expression of that individual. We pondered over the idea of finding a way to construct such a gallery but with no money and little time available our idea seemed futile. Fortunately, Coco's determination was immense and she proceeded to buy a domain name and space on the internet after investing efforts in preparing business proposals and searching for investors. Time restricted our progress and intrepid traveler lay dormant until October 1999 when Coco and her boyfriend, Scott Smith, visited me in New York. They suggested that the site could indeed be used as a gallery but one displaying my art. From that moment, we spent every day of that week in front of the computer scanning slides and images and setting up web pages. When the time came for them to return to San Francisco, we had a buggy, fuzzy and incomplete site but from these meager beginnings, we hope to develop it into one expressive of our unique tallents, just as idiosyncratic in Their ways as the paths of our travels.

The Name

My parents have always loved to travel, so much so that my sister and I grew up immersed in this activity. Until a certain age it was all we knew as every few years we would venture from one strange and foreign land to another, exploring the environs whenever my parents were able. After spending middle school and high school in the states, every summer of college was spent engaged in travel to an area of our youth. These were special experiences given to us by our father and on one such trip, he referred to us as intrepid travelers. Since this inception, the term has become symbolic of the way we travel physically, and for me, also mentally in the spaces I inhabit in my thoughts, imagination, and art

Biography

I spent much of my youth overseas. I was born in Malawi, Africa and have lived in Malaysia and France. My parents, sister and I have traveled extensively through Asia, Africa and Europe. To this day I consider travel a part of my life and pursue it when time and money permit. Much of what I portray in my work stems from what I've learned and seen overseas in my youth and now. While in the United States, my family lived in Southern Chester County about forty-five minutes outside of Philadelphia. I was educated in Philadelphia and lived there up until two and half years ago. Now I reside in Brooklyn, New York.

Artist Statement

My life is the source of my imagery; that is, books I read, people I meet, places I visit, all such experiences have equal influence on my work. What differentiates one piece from another is the occurrences at that time in my life; what it is I am directly dealing with and how it uniquely relates to what I've done and how I've felt. On this basis, I approach my work as a dialogue between the medium and myself with the conversation comprised of the states the work goes through and the conclusion manifested in the finished piece. What I seek through this approach is a resonance of ideas in which the original thoughts become less important than their translation into a work of art. What I hope is that the traces left behind by this process will impact the viewer of my work by instigating their own internal dialogue. For me, it is these subsequent thoughts and ideas inspired by my work that have greater significance than my own in creating the image. Therefore, in using my thoughts and experiences to inspire my work, I seek to initiate an idea or a story, rather than convey one.