Support a Black Dominican Artist Mom

In 2012, I digitally depicted a Mother with her 4 children on a pasola, and in 2024, this inspired a similar themed series in Watercolor. Every painting a living record and homage. I am moved by fleeting tender moments on motorcycles, average people's effortless style, recurring street vendors, and carnival goers in elaborate traditional garb.

Those prominent and inextricable parts of our community's fabric I focus on have become targets for cultural annihilation and corralling of the marginalized Black majority by the minority. Dominican national news and online commentary lambasts motoristas in the name of social order, seeking to get them off the road though they're most peoples only reliable transportation. While carnaval tradition faces heightened prohibition-- a centuries old cultural preservation battle.

As a Black Dominican single mother who also takes care of my mother, everything I make goes towards supporting my family and so does all of my time. Expensive supplies and the immense amount of free time required to continue expanding my art practice do not come easy. There is little room for creation, experimentation or error if you dont have the necessary funds. Painting, audio-visual and music projects are all things I have on hold for lack of funds.

With these resources I aim to be able to fund my work and set aside due time to continue using art to extend to my community, often perceived as inglorious and constantly devalued, a gaze that captures, glorifies and honors the beauty in us and our mundane.