In my oil paintings, I explore narrative portraiture that engages with historical and contemporary portrait art. I am creating a narrative portrait archive for my children through the subjective lens of using my family and our experiences traveling the world as an intercultural, interreligious, intercontinental, interlingual, and interracial family. I am a South African Pedi man with a Christian and Shamanic background, married to a Russian woman with a Slavic Orthodox Christian and Tartar Muslim background. Additionally, my children are third-culture kids born in China who spent most of their lives in third cultures. They are saddled with discovering an identity in cultures and lands foreign to both parents.

A lot of identity revolves around the stories we tell and retell ourselves as families, communities, nation groups, and the various affiliations we are a part of. We tell ourselves stories of success, joy, resilience, perseverance, and other characteristics that instill confidence and esteem in who we are and what we are capable of. It is vital to see ourselves as a great and capable lineage. We use stories not only to inspire but also to teach. Since vision dominates our perception, I want to paint a visual narrative archive for my descendants to anchor them in their complex and fascinating heritage.

I am researching great stories from both backgrounds and using them to retell stories in which they are the protagonists. God willing, this is vital to cultivating their confidence, courage, resilience, and ambitions.