Page 20 - The Digital Cloth Issue 7

Then one day, I threw open my closet
door and what I saw there shocked me.
All of a sudden, I saw my clothes in a
new light. I noticed how far I’d drifted
from my true color sense. What I saw
in my closet – the mainly dark clothes -
was not the original me.

This is when I decided to reclaim my
authentic color sense. To lean into my
intuition of color. Now, in my artworks, I
push the boundaries of the color
combinations I use. I’m always
searching for new ways of
combining colors to tell stories. I use
a lot of patterns, creating them from
scratch, sometimes to convey a specific
meaning like the Ghanaian fabrics do
and other times just for the aesthetics.

Kente is the most valuable fabric in
Ghana. So, when I design fabrics for my
portraits, they have the same Kente vibe
- strips of color pieced together. I adorn
my portraits in colorful Kente fabrics
because I believe they deserve to wear
the best and finest.

Making art filled with various colors and
patterns juxtaposed against a
background of meaningful stories,
connects me to my heritage and gives
me fulfillment.