FROM ARTISTS COLONY TO ART GALLERIES
Zenith Gallery, though short-lived, was my artistic Utopia. The memories were warm and wonderful. As we all cozied into our Art we were unaware of the life changes sneaking in. I fell in love, and in 4 months was married. We moved out and our first child was born.
Five children later, I could not have imagined it any other way. They have enhanced not only my life but my work and my skills as an artist. Enoch's Bahamian roots broadened my perspective and gave me a chance to experience his rich cultural heritage as an insider. The “Freudian slips” were absolute. They enriched my work and created not an “insight” but an outlet for my experiences and emotions.
Simultaneously Miya Gallery stepped up to help exhibit my work as an emerging artist on the new arts landscape in Washington, DC. Together with my first public show and illustration & graphic design for the “Black Arts Review” Vernard Gray (the director) helped to launch my experience into the burgeoning museum audience that continued to grow through the ’90s—GABA (The Golden Age of Black Artists). While awaiting his opening I previewed with the embryonic Evans-Tibbs Gallery partnering with fellow workshops alumnus Schroeder Cherry.
It was not long afterwards that my illustrations on cards brought me into Sun Gallery of Adams Morgan. This family of artists nurtured me through the ‘80s bringing “Visions” to empower my work and ultimately creating the legendary Belmont Arts space. Sun Gallery's representation landed my work in important collections strong exhibits, and meaningful catalogs. Washington bragged of more than 20 Black galleries during this period and I was fortunate enough to exhibit in most of them and sustained by a wonderful circle of new collectors.
It proved to be a wonderful beginning for an era of drawing, painting, and soft sculpture that would carry me into what is now the BADC (the Black Artists of DC). Here the training and education continued as I learned to better curate art exhibits and raise my own expectations and standards for my work.