Coat of arms

Coat of Arms, part of my Remembering Yellow series, serves as a deeply personal exploration of identity, misplacement, and resilience. The work draws inspiration from the Jamaican Coat of Arms, using satirical commentary to reflect on my relationship with women while growing up in Jamaica. Through this piece, I navigate the intersection of childhood experiences in Jamaica and my adulthood in Detroit, creating a visual narrative that bridges these two defining periods of my life.

The Remembering Yellow series functions as a collection of self-portraits, visually articulating the tension between feelings of misplacement and the hope of identity. As a child in Jamaica, I often felt out of place—my softer-spoken nature and gentler view of the world invited criticism and social judgment. These experiences, rooted in cultural expectations of masculinity, left lasting impressions on how I navigated self-expression.

Since moving to Detroit and traveling more extensively, I have revisited these childhood experiences to better understand and confront the emotions and memories that shaped me. This reflection led me to Junkanoo, an 18th-century artistic movement in which enslaved people used handmade costumes, repurposed materials, and found objects to infuse humor and hope into their lives during a time of immense social and political hardship. I found Junkanoo to be a fitting metaphor for my own story—transforming pain into creativity and finding joy in reclaiming identity.

In Coat of Arms, I reinterpret Junkanoo through a modern lens, using symbols and masks to tell a deeply personal story. The piece reflects on my relationship with myself and the women in my life while critiquing the cultural expectations of masculinity in Jamaica. By layering these elements, I aim to challenge societal norms, celebrate resilience, and offer a visual narrative that bridges my past and present, inviting viewers to reflect on their own relationships with identity and culture.