The first in a series of masks painted in metallic inspired by varied African cultures.

Artifact

Inspired by Makonde tribal cubism that inspired Pablo Picasso, I wanted to create a piece that reminds me of my maternal Puerto Rican culture. A woman is shopping at an open-air market with abundant and colorful fruits and vegetables.

Woman at the Green Market

Inspired by the stained glass windows of an old Baptist church i visited with family years ago here in High Point, North Carolina 

The Windows of the Old Church 

This piece represents the manufactured culture of the beauty industry and the idea that beauty is a privilege and must not be made natural. Women cannot be their natural selves without having to be criticized, poked fun at, and encouraged to get plastic surgery, all at a much younger age than necessary. Thousands of beauty influencers online project shallow, vain images of what it is to be beautiful, leaving millions of girls and young women who may be plain to wonder if they are even worthy. We must live to appease the masses, be attractive to slovenly, unattractive below-average men who complain about not getting sex or women being opinionated, and do all the things that don't make us attractive, such as intelligence. Women also have to fit other people's perceptions in order to get a job or be worthy of being considered for marriage even if they don't want to be. In all of that, I see this: an odd machine trudging along the endless sands of cosmetic foundation, squeezing out a woman with unnaturally long legs and skin tone, her eyes and lashes altered, surrealistic colors in the background, chaotic, bold, obnoxious colors representative of the propaganda that is the world of perceived beauty.

My Beauty, My Complication

Blue Moods was my first free hand tribal mask work inspired by African and Latino cultures as both make up my own heritage. I wanted to pay homage to both the Taino and Masai (I wasn't aware of at the time) that I discovered not too recently from taking a DNA test. Rich and vibrant are my people in all things I want to celebrate and explore that more in my future work.

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Zulma Brooks

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