Baker Artist Portfolios

Being profoundly Deaf, I need to use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate in my daily life.  ASL is a three-dimensional, mobile, visual language, which cannot be written or spoken.  During my travels in America, it is seldom that I meet other people who know ASL, so communication with people who can hear is often inaccessible or difficult, unless I write back and forth with them in English on paper.  What I have come to appreciate are symbols or written English language on signs in the American landscape.  Handwritten, manufactured, or printed text are little windows of access where I u

I am almost out of time to update this profile, and am still overwhelmed with last minute holiday commissions, but I wanted to at least share some of my favorite pet portraits!

Embodied: Coming to America, showcases photographic montages that explore narratives of struggle, resistance, and revelation. Depicted as both a ritualistic and cultural experience of a black body embodying two perspectives. This embodiment leads to the creation of a new kind of “other”. The “other”, in this case, is the hybrid perspective that is derived from the fusing the two perspectives. Which are completely different, yet still exist in the contextual framework of blackness.

Walking has always been an integral part of my creative process. During this pandemic winter, my walking practice became a refuge from loss—the loss of over 500,000 American lives from Covid-19, the loss of social norms, the loss of physical connections to family and friends, and the loss of my day job in January 2021. 
 

This is a garniture set made for any home. Garniture sets were traditionally made for showcasing one's high class in the form of a set of ceramic vessels, lined up on a mantel or atop a cabinet. This particular garniture set uses checkered patterning and gold luster-application to imitate visual cues of a high class garniture set, while adorning forms that are playful and functional for everyday use. The forms included are three candleholders and two lidded jars, all which include green flocked details to add an occasional fuzzy texture.

Bring a loved one and go somewhere special with this travel-sized box, used for holding two cups and a deck of playing cards. You can pour a drink or two into each cup and learn a new game together! This piece is meant to assist in creating a fun and shareable moment between two people. 

This is a wearable, personal-sized tent which can be used for occasions such as walking your dog, changing clothes for an event, walking down the street with your friend, and other various activities of the wearer's choosing.  The tent is lightweight and has a slit in the fabric that allows the wearer to peek through and see where they are walking. Great conversation-starter! 

These jars were both made within the same month, with the same question in mind -- What can a jar function as other than a vessel to hold? Can it be worn? Can it tell a story? Drawing inspiration from a ceramics book containing photographs of  Mexican ceramic water jugs strung on donkeys for travel, I made a wearable jar for holding and then serving a beverage of the wearer's choice. My second jar was inspired by images plastered in my mind from a childhood storybook where a man in striped pajamas (Ebenezer Scrooge, most likely) carries a candleholder around his home.