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Crystalyn Whitaker Nelson

Poetry has been my life line since I learned how to string words around my bare skin and soul. Convoluted thoughts run as rapidly as the time we're bound to and by. As chaotic as it may appear, there is rhyme, rime, and reason. As one who has found life more restrictive than otherwise, to now unfold into a multi-genre artist is not abandoning my first love but enriching her with more means of connection and understanding. As no human is monolithic, my artistry mirrors. It is my victories, vices, and villainy - my nature and my nurture - that reveal the poem that lies deep and broad within. It is such with us all. Whether I have chosen to put words to this force or simply convey through photography or mixed media, it is the truth that we all seek, believe we obtain, or are completely obliterated by that defines my boundaries now. That Truth is Liberty.

Artist Statement: My artist statement is a breathing memento: one that is boastful when it can be, though reclusive and uncertain by nature, ever reminding me of Self. It is birthed from persistent attempts to make sense of a senseless human experience, an experience that often left me too paltry to persist. However, since the pestilence of an awakened psyche is the artist's most faithful friend and foe, I do. I do choose to find something to write about, be it beauty or pain. I do celebrate them both so that I may one day understand the need for them both, not just the former. I do find the beauty in the ordinary, the background, the unsung. I do gaze into Mother Nature’s infinity and realize how special it is to be when, where, and why I am. Every word written provides a peek into all that this Black woman is, and I'll continue to write so that we can all find out who she will become.