I am an introverted and camara shy woman. People meet me and see the fire in my personality and mistake it for extroverted-ness. I can do it. The crowds. The people even when it's over peoply (yes Imade that word up!) ... but then I go back into my shell. I go back into my imagination and rest there. My imagination is home.

My godfather was a wonderful photographer, and I dabbled a little but only with black and white images. I loved the pure, rawness of no color to distract from what was in front of me. With color gone I can see the nooks and crannies of where life is happening on the fringes of me standing in that moment at that time to capture that exact moment.

I essentially hold the camera up to capture the mirror my own soul. The reflection of how the world gives me time to see it fully, unencumbered and freely. So many moments are missed by simply not looking up. I lament for the mirrors of life and moments we never see because we are so plugged into technology.
​
I aspire to be more mindful. To be more aware. To simple BE then capture it for posterity. 

#Kottaveiinflux #KottaveInResidence #CreativePeace #BlackWomen #SacredSpace #Dreams #IncubateGrowEvolve #MirrorsLensesPhotgraphs

For 8 years after my Mama became an ancestor, I shaved my head. I mean down to the scalp at 2 am in the morning on most occasions. That always felt like the sacred time to do it.

It wasn't because my hair wouldn't grow (even though stress gave me moments of stress induced alopecia), it was because hair seemed to matter the least and take time away from what made me feel like I was living.

I wanted more time to spend with family, create new artworks I'd dreamed of time to write, time to read, time to just BE with nature. Hair absolutely did not feel of any significance or importance when my mama left this earthly plain. 

She and I had had our disagreements and viewpoints of the world, but she birthed me from her womb and heart. Who was I to not acknowledge her sacrifices for allowing me to come into being? I'm now growing an Angela Davis fro' in between artistically cultured braids...but who knows when life will require a quiet release and an outward sacrifice for my own becoming. Again, I will be willing. 
​
#Kottaveiinflux #KottaveInResidence #CreativePeace #BlackWomen #SacredSpace #Dreams #IncubateGrowEvolve #WingsShakingFree

"Have you ever fought a bear, wrestled an alligator or been wrapped too tightly by a boa constrictor? Yeah...me neither but life hands you circumstance that makes me feel like choosing the bear, alligator or boa constrictor! 

Transformation happens in the oddest and not obvious spaces or times. Sometimes I resist even when it is futile and I'm left in this cycle of repeating because I didn't get the lesson the first time. I'm not going to lie...it sucks!

I want forward. I want ease. I want journeying and life goes "Watch this!".  That statement never is as fun as when a child says, "watch this!" and then performs some skip, hop and turn that is funnier to them than it is to the observers. 

I stand 10 toes down with belief in my gifts, talents and abilities and in those moments where the lesson is revisited, it can reduce me to my lesser self of disbelief. It leaves me asking if everything that I'm made of is real or just a mirage and that space is more terrifying than the bear, alligator and boa constrictor all combined together. ​

I hate to admit it but, on those days, filled with self- doubt...if approached by a bear and a repeated lesson....I choose the bear!

#Kottaveiinflux #KottaveInResidence #CreativePeace #BlackWomen #SacredSpace #Dreams #IncubateGrowEvolve #10ToesDown