Collection: Akilah Watts

I am interested in depicting a black Barbadian experience. My work focuses a
lot on my own personal experience as a black Barbadian Artist but I also
touch on a more general Caribbean experience in some of my works. I use

imagery such as fruits and vegetables I would have grown up seeing, Barba-
dian folklore character(Mother Sally), seascapes and landscapes as well as

many prints traditionally found on fabric in old Barbadian homes.

My main goal is to instill a feeling of Nostalgia and or curiosity in the people
who view my work. I want the viewer to be entranced in a style of Caribbean
art that feels familiar but still relatable. One of my bodies of work features a
character that I call the “Acretia”, she is a spiritual entity whose continence
bestows confidence, grace, and beauty on whomever she inhabits. When a
person is inhabited by the Acretia they take on a look of regality which intern
makes the viewer pay attention to the message being conveyed.

One of my bodies of work entitled Moments From My Island Home, focuses
on bridging the gap between the realistic and the idealistic view of my island
Barbados. In this series I explore themes of Identity and belonging, as well as
culture. I am interested in creating work that is authentic to my Barbadian

experience in its truest forms and this is one of the reasons I use family pho-
tos and identification photos(ping pongs) in some of the works in this series.