It’s a beautiful series. Now, after hearing what it’s about, I know that it’s a sad series but without knowing it, you wouldn’t know, the paintings are aesthetically beautiful with the use of gold, and the light blue colour.

That’s perfect because for those who know, they know. And then for those who don’t know, I want them to take away, Nina, what you took away, that feeling of “Wow, these are beautiful, I can’t look away.” But if you look at the paintings and you happen to ask me what they are about, of course I’m going to tell you.

I want the viewer of the works to see the beauty in these people, because after so many generations you forget people, and I don’t want these folks to be forgotten.

Could you give me some insight into your creative process, from the start of a piece to it being finished?

I actually share a lot of my process online, I don’t mind sharing it, because it’s hard to replicate, no matter what people say. So, usually I paint in my head first. Sometimes, that can be days, sometimes that can be months. And I do that until I feel that I have the painting like 60 or 70% there. Then, usually in parallel, I start fooling and altering and painting on photographs on my phone, because I’m more comfortable on my phone than on a laptop. The collage pieces, I digitally paint them, and the physical works, I’m actually painting them and cutting them, that’s analogue.

Regarding the execution, it used to be that I would go and not sleep the night during 2 or 3 days and just paint and create my work. Sometimes I still do that, but I found with this Blue Series that I now paint when I feel it. So, sometimes I might paint a little, add a few drips, look at it and walk away for 6 weeks. Then I’d come back to it and when I come back to it, I finish it. I think it was because I was grieving. This one (Courtney shows me which one), I initially painted the gold drops in the blue background and I let that sit for 3 months. Then about two weeks ago, I felt that it was time again and then I finished both of them quickly in 24 hours. So, it’s a long process but the execution is very short.

My big works, the really big ones that are floor to ceiling, those ones take me a while just because they are so big. And the subject matter is different, five of them are abstract portraits (but not a face) and then the other three are cosmic landscapes because I’m very much into planets and astronomy. I said to myself, “What if I may create a planet with its own avatar, and these planets were made up of found objects and images?” I can’t wait for everyone to see it, it’s really dope (laughs). I have stories behind the planets, histories, and avatars, and for people who thought, “Oh, she can’t paint”, well, actually I can and you’re about to see it (we both laugh).

And last question, what is your hope for the future?

Courtney takes a moment to think.

My hope…. My hope is that there’s just a little bit more love in the world. For myself, for my nephew, for everyone else, because we need it right now, we really need it.