My vision for my art cannot be separated from my travels around the globe as a young woman, and the early lessons to only pay attention to what moved me, without giving thought to what is deemed "valid" by "the public." My aesthetics tend towards an amalgam of my love of pop art, along with all of the nations who are a part of who I am via nationality, culture, ancestry, and life experience.

 

 

The first person to direct me to put paintbrush to canvas was artistic shaman, Jean-Michel Basquiat back in 1980s New York City....my first night in New York, I met Andy Warhol, who crowned me "pretty in pink" as we sat above the party scene playing out below us...out at a club one night, Keith Haring turned the scar down the middle of my back into his canvas, leaving me with an angel swirling and taking flight. These artists' visions, and so many others of that time and since then, reign as my artistic bible of creative majesty inside my brain, leading me to explore whatever colors, shapes, and forms dance through my mind.

 

 

I approach art on canvas or leather or found objects just as I do the movies I write or direct, turning them into collections of color , memory, and ephemera, leaving a story  behind for the next soul to explore, just as I have done in my upcoming mixed-media memoir. My collections of street wear and home decor is available at CharisMa Designs, and upcoming collaborations will find a home here, as well.