I thank you for the opportunity that you’ve given me to showcase my work. As far as highlights go I have three main experiences that really stand out. I’ve been drawing for years but when I lived in Bermuda I would only draw as a hobby so it wasn’t until I married and relocated to the US in 2007 that I really started on the path that I’m on now.
I wasn’t able to work due to immigration policies and in order to curb the boredom I started drawing. Eventually a friend took notice and commissioned a portrait of a family member, for the first time I was actually paid to draw something. I knew that a living could be made from art but personally I never considered my work as a source of income, it was always something I just did. That same friend went on to purchase several other works from me so I had to have done something right.
Without a doubt the most memorable moment was in the case of a mother who had lost her son in a tragic car accident in 2008. She had picked me from amongst a list of other artists to commission a piece in order to commemorate what would have been her son’s high school graduation in 2009. Her son had always been a 4.0 student, a member of the Honors Society, and not to mention the youngest of two. After talking to her on the phone she came to my studio with 7 small pictures of her son, the school graduation hat and gown, and a few pictures that she had downloaded off of the Honors Society website. The finished piece was a composite of all the pictures and her unforgettably emotional reaction can only be summed up in her own words:
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Nakia,
Words cannot express the amount of joy you
brought to my heart when you gave a gift I
thought I would never get to see. Nakia seeing
your portrait of my son in his cap and gown, has
brought me undescribable joy, something I
thought I had lost when he went home with
Jesus. God has truly blessed you with a talent
like no other I have seen. May god continue to
bless and keep you. |
That was really the first time that I’ve experienced someone actually crying because of an art piece that I created.
As far as being a Bermudian artist working in the US goes I just find that the opportunities are far greater with a much wider audience. Yes you can gain notable recognition in Bermuda for doing the same thing. However, being closer to specific art districts such as those in New York, Washington D.C., Atlanta, even the west coast and everything in between allows greater exposure and chances for the average up in coming artist. The only major draw back is that with the current financial climate, many artist have been hit with having a surplus of pieces, that whilst people are interested they simply can’t afford at this time.
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