In 2003 I decided that I would go back to school. So in spring 2004 I enrolled at Coppin State University. I took some core classes in the "Urban Arts Production" program like theater and stage design and museums and collections and was excited to go further in the program and knew this major was for me. My advisor spoke to me about a Professor Grant and how I would enjoy her ceramics class.  So spring 2005 I took the class "special projects" and worked with making ceramic tiles and then using the tile to create a piece of work. I enjoyed that class and working with clay, so that fall I took "special projects drawing and painting with clay". While taking this class I found a way to draw with clay,

I always loved to draw, but I was not too crazy about painting, but when I use clay as a medium to draw with and create images that can be 2 dimensionl and it made drawing and painting images a fascinating experience for me. Van Gogh has always been my favorite artist so I decided to do a remake of "Starry Night", I admired the way Van Gogh used texture in his paintings and thought that clay would be a wonderful way to create the turbulent sky and flame like cypress tress and mimic the impasto brushstrokes he used. I then decided to do a portrait of Van Gogh, then of myself and a field of sunflowers. I wanted to incorporate something about the person in the portraits I did, so with Van Gogh it was his troubled mind, and in my portrait my love of sunflowers. But I wanted to do much more with the clay and the portraits I created. I wanted to move beyond the 2 dimensional.

Once the semester ended I knew I wanted to continue my exploration with clay and doing portraits. So I enrolled in "special projects" again in the spring. This time I wanted to do a portrait of my father whose passion was singing. However I wanted to add another element to his portrait, which expresses his love of singing. So I added hands and a song book. Each time I completed a portrait I wanted to create another one and in some way surpass the previous one I had competed. So the next portrait I wanted to do was of Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King. I wanted to work in a larger scale then I had before so their portraits were done in a scale of 3 feet by 4 ½ feet , and my latest piece of work has brought  me to a dimension  and scale I had  not plan on taking. Professor Grant recruited 8 advanced ceramic sculpture students to create bust of eight important African Americans in Maryland History, I chose Billie Holiday, but this bust would not be a normal bust of the person, we had to create a visual narrative of that person within the bust. I incorporated in the bust of Billie Holiday, a saxophone, microphone and the words to the song “God Bless the Child”.

This piece is a monumental achievement for me, and has set the bar for me where I feel I won’t be able to return to the 2 dimensional wall portraits I did previously. I have taken special projects 3 times now and each time I create something more impressive than the one before, I am amazed at my talent.  This past year 2008, I completed on a portrait of Jimi Hendrix.