Quarantine Q&A: Conversation with Dr. Marsha Pearce

I moved to Tulsa, OK, in mid-March 2020, just before the COVID-19 shutdown, after being accepted into the Tulsa Remote Program. I had come from Barbados and New York, and it was an extraordinary time to be relocating halfway across the country to a place I’d only visited once. The surreality of it all launched the Fugitive Ecologies series of collages, which I shared on Instagram as I conceived them.

Here is an interview I did in early May 2020 with Dr. Marsha Pearce, a Trinidadian cultural theorist with a strong interest in the visual arts. In it, I discuss my move, mood, inspirations, and aspirations.

It was a timely and generous conversation. I had just settled into a downtown apartment in Tulsa, surrounded by concrete, with no furniture, no green space, and a lot of time to reflect on what I’d left behind. The lushness of Barbados had been part of my daily visual vocabulary, and suddenly I found myself in a stark, silent city, amid the early uncertainty of the pandemic. Speaking with Dr. Pearce helped me unpack that transition in real time.

We talked about what it means to sprout up in a new city, and about the importance of grounding and regrowth, both creatively and personally. The “Fugitive Ecologies” series was still taking shape, but I had already begun calling the pieces “rebellious botanicals.” They felt like a refusal to surrender to my new, sterile surroundings. Built from fragments of older paintings I had made in Barbados, the collages let me reimagine those tropical textures in unfamiliar ways. Strange, vivid forms came together to create something that felt alive and rooted—even in dislocation.

What I appreciated most about the Q&A was how thoughtfully Dr. Pearce engaged with the emotional and conceptual layers of the work. She didn’t just ask about materials or process; she asked about intention, internal shifts, and how personal dislocation was shaping the art. That kind of attention was especially valuable during a moment when everything felt unsettled, when art felt both vital and fragile.

The conversation also gave me space to speak about influences that continue to shape my work: literature, politics, and the visual traditions I move through. We explored how the act of making something beautiful during a time of global disruption can serve as quiet resistance, and how the body and the botanical often intersect in my practice. These ideas continue to ripple outward in my work today.

Looking back, the interview captures a raw and revealing moment in my creative life. I was adapting—not just to a new place, but to a new rhythm of making. No studio, no exhibitions, and only the materials I had brought with me. What I did have was time, fragments, and the urge to create something that rooted me.

You can read the full Q&A with Dr. Marsha Pearce here.