The first work I did in this series started with an oil pastel image of a young Masai warrior. I sat at my kitchen table pondering whether I would be able to do his face as I had always felt so intimidated by portraiture in the past. But low and behold, a mere 45 minutes later I had captured his image.

This was one of those times in creating art that I can truly remember having an “out-of-body” feeling take over me. When I finished, I couldn’t even imagine that this was within my capabilities but yet the evidence was there in front of me.

This first image set off a cavalcade of images. Moving from pastels to acrylic to oil paint, I moved from image to image. I was and still am very enamored by the strength in these faces. I just love the bold, graphic colors and oh those beads.