I was adopted at around 11 months old by a white couple, and when we came to Australia, we moved around a bit, and I went to a few different schools. I was quite young when I travelled, by myself, back to where I was born to find my birth parents. I wasn’t successful and when I came back, I was a little bit dishevelled, and, you know, I sort of thought I was never going to find out much about my natural history. And it sort of sent me on a bit of, I don't know exactly, but I was involved in some crimes and went to juvenile detention around that time.
Then I was moving around Australia and getting into trouble. I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD and mental health problems and it was hard growing up with parents who were so different than me. My exuberance and hyperactivity just didn’t fit with the family dynamics. I also think my problems were to do with being a bit lost, maybe a bit of loss of identity, growing up in a white family, and being of colour, not knowing my heritage, hanging around with all the wrong people. My co-accused, who is the same race as me, was a lot older and maybe a bit of an obscure role model? The crime we committed was serious and I spent a long time in prison.
Self Portrait
Yin Yang
I feel I am a caring,
non-judgemental person
who has made dramatic changes
in my life.
I no longer tolerate violence
or entertain arrogant behaviour.
Change is an ongoing process,
one which I aspire
to continue and upkeep!
More Self Portraits
Me in the Abstract
"Yeah, so that was my version of trying to do some sort of Picasso. And that is a picture of me in an abstract fashion.
My Energy
Whirlwind
"I had quite a bit of energy, and it wasn't compatible with my parents who were a lot older, there was a big generation gap.
This drawing is about my energy and a tumultuous period when I was incarcerated, and often had my head in the clouds."
The Layers of My Life
Blue, Green and Yellow
"Oh, so that was the blue, the blueish sky meeting the ocean, because I like the ocean, and then green. I had to put a bit of green in there, because I'm not opposed to green.
There's a lot of inmates that will refuse to wear green when they get out, because I know, I fully understand why, because we were forced to wear that day in, day out.
But I just see it as another colour, but I can attribute it to prison in the same token, so I suppose there's a bit of a mix there. And yellow is for brightness and joy, which is a big part of what I see now."
My Journey
Surveillance
"The pyramid with the all-seeing eye. The all-seeing eye from above, it keeps me safe, and its surveillance - being watched all of the time.
I see both sides of the spectrum. I see from the prison perspective and I see the surveillance outside."
Brightness and Happy Days
"So that represents brightness, happy days, and a bright, optimistic future. I look forward to a bright optimistic future.
The sun is a life giver in a scientific sense. I mean, it creates photosynthesis, and it gives us plant life and our lives."
My Experience of the Criminal Legal System
I could see the clouds from my cell window
"This painting is about my time being incarcerated. So that was the green that I wore in jail, and the clouds, the blue and clouds, that I could see out the window of my cell. And every now and then on the oval, I'd look up and see clouds.
Then there is the afro I grew when I first got out. It was to soften my look when I first got out, and not look so, maybe intimidating, with the number one or number zero haircut that we always got in jail.
So that was a sense of just trying to reintegrate and fit into the community."