20 Mini Afros: An Introduction

Twenty mini afros is an in progress art series featuring afro styled silhouettes on artist trading card sized canvases (2.5” x 3.5”), with each piece representing a personal and/or culturally relevant theme or idea with accompanying commentary.

I’m centering afro styled women as this series is a celebration and discussion of black women and culture, and I wanted an immediate visual connection to both. I’m crafting each mini using one of three different afro styled silhouettes and with various materials, styles, techniques, textures, and mediums. Being natural myself, they’re all hairstyles I’ve worn at some point, from a TWA, a smedium and full of shrinkage puff, to a fuller, coil filled pineapple. However, this series represents all black women regardless of how your coif is styled: weaved, wigged, wrapped, waved, rolled, rodded, relaxed, bunned, braided, bobbed, big chopped, caesared, colored, coiled, twisted, dreadlocked, pixied, puffed, or pressed.

The inspiration for this series is black women as the muse and not the punchline. I'm an avid consumer of social media and pop culture, and from simply living, I often see black women as the punchline of the joke. Our hair, skin color, size, and the things we enjoy are too often trashed by kinfolk and strangers, and it's a bitch being the target of both friendly and enemy fire. Stereotypes about black women are exaggerated in highly negative ways. Violence against us is minimized or ignored. Our humanity is often asked to conform to an acceptable and narrow box to be considered worthy or valuable instead of allowing us to be diverse and multifaceted individuals.

In response and in contrast, I wanted to create a collection of art that utilizes black women (and my/our stories, issues, stereotypes, culture, interests, hopes, dreams, etc.) as muses as opposed to with mockery. Our existence is not a joke or derogatory meme. It's not the uninformed remarks of people who already have negative opinions of black women in the comments on YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook.

I'm naming, numbering, and discussing each piece here, as well as posting on my associated social media platforms. You can follow this project under the hashtags #twentyminiafros and #20miniafros. I’m excited about creating this collection and hope you’ll check out each completed piece as it’s posted.