Naku Penda

I paint for emotional release. Each painting aimed to make every part of my experience beautiful. I painted this to show my appreciation for the difficult moments I’ve had with washing, blow drying, perming, and pulling my hair.

I had to learn the movement of my hair in order to finish the painting. Oil painting is easy to fix but with archival ink, there was no room for mistakes.

So much product on the market about how we need to control the strands that grow from our scalps. It’s exhausting.

I just wanted a second to enjoy it for its untouched beauty so I replaced the flowers with my own 4C strands.

Hair is among the many things stripped from our bodies. Protective styles are no longer protective and the products made for "us" just damage it even more.
But on this canvas, it can rest.