This was one of my first paintings of a coloured woman and, to use the words of my mom, “she’s very glow-y”. I love the way I was able to capture her beauty with a simplistic yet effective style of painting; in fact, it is this painting and its success that encouraged me to continue to paint faces and has brought me to where I am today. Starting out, I was very afraid to work with skin tones and light because it had never been something I was good at. The undertones and shading techniques used for fairer skinned subjects were never something I understood or could capture correctly which is why I changed subjects. In doing so and researching the histories and undertones of this new group of people I found inspiration in their strength and gained a new level of respect and admiration for them, which is why I named this piece “BIPOC Tribute”