artist statement

The process for this piece started with a base image of my grandparents, Clomin and Bill Smith, getting married. In a sense, this photo is a representation of the beginning of our mixed-race family, as they were the first interracial couple on either side of my lineage. It highlights how with mixed-race children, people often declare that a family only starts at the point where they ‘officially’ become ‘mixed.’

The people in this collage are my cousins and me as children. The static I layered over these images represents how society chooses to ignore the ‘mix’ in us—people often see me as fully white and my cousins as fully Black. I believe race is a fluid spectrum, and with my work I hope to highlight how many people can exist within this range, all with their own unique experiences and appearances.  

The poems behind the collage’s imagery are excerpts: one that I wrote called “People Always Tell Me” that expresses annoyance with white people’s perception of my racial identity and another by Maya Angelou called “Still I Rise” that famously engages with ideas of Black resilience.  

This assemblage of media expresses my opinions on how people perceive my family and also the common experiences related to perception and confusion of mixed-race youth.