In the series the The Gathering Of The Elephants, The Family and Shaminic Zebra’s and in other AI inspired work I am influenced by Hinduism, and in these particular series I base a portion of the work on Hindu religious beliefs in gods and deities who play an incredibly powerful central role in the culture and way of life in India 🇮🇳 This series is a tribute to the god Hanuman who has otherworldly strength, courage, beauty, power and wisdom as he is part human and part animal, more specifically monkey and is referred to as Monkey Man. He also represents redemption and bravery. My series The Gathering of the Elephants is an homage to the Hindu god Ganesh who has the face of an elephant 🐘 and the body of a man or woman as you will see in the work. Ganesh’s attributes include obstacle remover, good fortune, renewal, change and transformation, and all things benevolent and auspicious regarding protection and new beginnings, among many more incredible representations. If you notice my work often has themes of humans and animals and their interconnectedness as this is a salient feature of my work and relates to my themes of respect and acceptance among people. It’s also important to mention that Hinduism is not the only religion to have gods, goddesses and deities to worship, there are numerous other cultures and countries who have their own! For instance the multiple Carnival’s in several cultures. In Africa, the blending of humans and animals as iconic worship are common and have been since as long as the continent was physically able to create culture and meaning (from Evolution not the Bible!) Similar cultures and religions have their own forms of who and how they worship. I find India unique in its mass cultural worship and homages to myriad animals like elephants and snakes and the list continues as beings to celebrate and revere. Numerous other gods and goddesses like Shiva, the divine deity of destruction and renewal, as Shiva is the protector, the creator and yet the destroyer of the universe. Being among the most powerful of gods some say, Shiva must be treated with respect because she has the capacity for extraordinary power.

I work in analogue and digital photography and in AI, often blending some or all together depending on each project. In My Work, Native Light, I have taken a series of selfies then after putting the images through several generations of various creative apps, I use an AI program to insert the multiple raptor’s, usually eagles and ravens as they are frequent visitors in my work. All of the work I do in AI is used to articulate the visual stories with the inclusion of my own work: Image and text, to tell the myriad creative stories. In The Women, all of the images are in correspondence within my essay The Women as the primary academia supporting the work and functions as the critical text, as both image and text are contingent on each other and one can’t function without the other. I use my own literature including creative writing, critical and theoretical photography essays and short stories relating to the work in many of my projects. In some of my projects, you may notice my frequent inclusion of raptors across my site though most notably in my series Native Light and The Falconer’s, which is about my identity, lineage and ancestral memory. My creative use of AI is strictly to help tell the creative visual stories waiting to be told in this exciting journey of my work.

So much of my work comes from my dreams. In fact all my recent work in the last few years that include ravens and eagles as frequent visitors especially those who perch on the shoulders of the Shawoman falconer healers all come directly from one of the most profound dreams of my life regarding my ancestors. I’ve always felt that they protect me and in the dream, a giant red tail hawk landed on my shoulder when I was walking a long red road out of the city. Later the hawk who was sensationally beautiful, turned into a man, the most beautiful, handsome Native American Chief I’d ever seen. Much like in Hinduism where several gods and deities appear in the form of half animal and half human. So if anyone is wondering why I do the work I do, my dreams are the origin and the culprit. AI enables me to make this work, work I’ve been wanting to visually articulate for many years, I’m grateful for all the recent technological innovations that allow me to make the work I’ve been wanting to make for many years.