CURTIA WRIGHT
I did a solo show in 2019 called “Through Rose” and it refers to the idiom that suggest that our vision can be blinded by a false vision of something through rose coloured glasses and it’s like it refers to how everything can be all peachy keen if you look at the world through a different lens. I felt like this phrase referred to black women and how people often view us through these rose coloured lenses either by hyper-sexualization of our bodies ex video girls or the mama arch-type where you are seen as provider or basically a nanny and you have to carry a lol of weight for other people so we are viewed in these very extreme ways/ reviewed as people that are required to provide in some way to other people…
Well the short answer is I’ve always been creating but my technical training started in 2011 when I started college and then in 2012 when I started at OCAD university yeah that’s when I started my formal education and then I started showing my work after University because I was too intimidated and scared to do it when I was in school and then I built up my confidence from there and have had multiple shows around the city and I also practice as a freelance artist and do mural work in the city as well.
It’s really hard for me to pick out names because I have issues with remembering but I would say my biggest influence is my community around me like the artist that make up my community and I feel like every month I meet a new person that inspires me wether they are a musician or a painter it doesn’t really matter it’s not limited to my own craft, especially poetry too, recently I’ve been very inspired by listening to poets and I think one of my biggest inspirations is jut music because it’s what I need everyday in the studio to work and if I don’t have it then I’m not producing what I want to produce.
That’s a good question ! it’s really hard for me to lose focus but I find making a schedule and sticking to it/and speaking affirmations that can be simple things that make me feel better mentally so I have to check my mental health before I take on anything mentally, and then form there I can tackle what I need to do.
I’m Jamaican on both sides of my family and growing up I identified as Jamaican ethnically but not culturally. I grew up listening to Bob Marley and stuff but the whole dancehall thing I never really liked and I wasn’t about that seen but I think when I grew older I grew a deeper appreciation for all aspects of my Jamaican ness and yeah I think that identity comes with growing up, meeting different people and that kind of shaped the way my art work looks now, meeting different people hearing different stories, and realizing that a lot of stories that you thought were unique to you are shared amongst other people of the same background and also other people of the diaspora and I think that has helped my work greatly.
When people call you skinny it’s fine…you’ll appreciate it later and keep doing what you’re doing because you can’t really change your trajectory ...just keep doing what you’re doing even though sometimes you may doubt what you’re thinking or what you’re feeling….everything is valid ..because you grow up to be me.