This work also reflects my own internal conflict as both an art historian and a painter. On one hand,
my academic side critically sees how art history has routinely exploited and excluded women,
especially women of colour. On the other hand, my creative side is deeply in love with the technical
beauty of classic oil painting. By combining these ideas, I am not throwing away the master
techniques of the past, I am using those exact rich, painterly methods to demand space for us as the
artists holding the brush.