In my experience, as a young black artist, you have to fulfill an archetype, or be a token - and I was unwilling to do that.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Artists should be free to create what we want. I believe there's a special value in work that is a reflection of oneself as opposed to interpretation. When I see a film or a TV show about black people not written by someone who's black, it's an interpretation of that life.
It's unfortunate that a lot of people think African-American female artists are monolithically R&B this-or-that, don't have to do anything by default.
For the life of me, I'll never understand how you can be an artist but not want people to understand who you are as a person.
There was a manifesto in the late '60s/early '70s, and it basically laid out what 'black art' was and that it should embrace black history and black culture. There were all these rules - I was shocked, when I found it in a book, that it even existed, that it would demarcate these artists.
I wanted my art to deal with very formal concerns and to deal with very material concerns, and to deal with antecedents and art history, which for me go very far beyond just the influence of African-American artists.
I just feel like everyone and their mother thinks they can be an artist. You can't. Sorry. I know I was born to be one.
I don't think you should categorize yourself as an artist.
People just decided I was an R&B artist because I'm black.
It's possible and available to any artist to be himself or herself on their own terms, to be accepted and embraced by black people. You don't have to be a thug to get love from black people.
I am not a black artist, I am an artist.