My sister was a rising Jazz musician struggling to make her way. Something about this struggle intrigued me; there was passive fighting merit to the musicians I met at her gigs. Many possessed a charisma indicative of a fighter going through the gauntlet. For a while, I sketched instrumentalists in graphite and charcoal, a short-lived period that saw a sudden influence of colour and a wider and more transparent motif.
It was also during this period that I began to study music theory with an accomplished trumpeter. I felt that understanding music would provide insights into the direction of my work, and help me connect with the individuals I was painting. The study of music became an essential part of my later work and a major catalyst through which my creativity and perspective deepened in both directions of art and my teaching.
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