I dont think about race before I start drawing. I think about how to make that mark to fit whatever purpose I need it to fulfill.

I've always felt the portrait is an occasion for marks to happen. I've never viewed the portrait as about the sitter. Even when I go to the National Portrait Gallery, I'm not thinking about the sitter I'm thinking about how the artist chose that color or that highlight. It becomes about the time, place, and context.

Kerry James Marshall especially was a huge influence on me in graduate school, as were Wangechi Mutu and Julie Mehretu. These artists are titans. My education was also very much in comic books, so I've been going to comic book events in New York and have met a few artists there.

The graphic style itself is influenced by a lot of very layered and detailed comics that I read as a kid, like Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue.

Being a black artist, the first thing people want to talk about is your blackness, the importance of your blackness and your black presence.

I kept wanting to push my image as validity I wanted to see my portrait on a wall and know it was okay.

It is hard to produce work in New York. You kind of have to center yourself - do some Zen meditation exercises and just focus. It is very distracting, and money, of course, is an issue.

For a while, I was nervous about portraying women because of the objectification that automatically comes with it, whether the artist intends or not.