My earliest memory that inspired me creatively

is also one of my favorite memories of my mom.

My mom was my first creative inspiration.

One Chirstmas as a young boy living with my imeadiate family in Kingston

My dad “got through” to go to America,

leaving us behind.

We moved to the country side of Jamaica to stay with relatives

This would be our first Christmas without our dad in the house

my mom picked a cotton tree and brought it in the house

This would become our Christmas tree

she made a star out of aluminum foil.

she decorated the tree with ornaments

“ornaments” she made by weaving small colorful wires

she pulled from broken electronics

reimagined into little colorful basket ornaments

she hung them from the little cotton tree branches

she made us teddy bears from cutting and sewing together pillow cases.

She made us coloring books

by rubbing candle wax onto newspaper comic strips

and pressing it onto blank paper

She manually printed onto blank paper / drawing paper that was cut from the first and last pages of old text books

looking back sometimes I feel like art, printing and creativity has gravitated towards me ever since!