I’m Tahirah, a visual artist based in Pennsylvania. My work comes from my experiences as a Black woman. What I feel, what I’m figuring out, and what stays with me. I’m drawn to the ways we carry so much strength while still wanting room to be soft, feel joy, and simply be ourselves. Color is at the heart of everything I create. Through my work, I explore my emotions and make sense of my thoughts and experiences. I’ve shared my work in galleries and institutions across the Delaware Valley and along the East Coast, and my practice continues to grow as I explore new ideas, materials, and ways to tell my story.
Color is the foundation of my artistic practice. Working primarily with oil pastels, I use bold color, texture, and movement to explore emotion, identity, and my experiences as a Black woman. My process is intuitive, often beginning with color rather than a fully developed composition. I allow the work to evolve as I build layers, blend pigments, and respond to the marks I've made.
I'm particularly interested in the relationship between chaos and clarity, both emotionally and visually. I use contrasting colors, overlapping forms, and variations in texture to create tension within my compositions. Areas of heavy blending exist alongside raw, visible strokes, reflecting the ways our emotions can shift between disorder and understanding. Color becomes more than a visual element; it's a way of communicating feelings and experiences that aren't always easy to put into words.
As my practice develops, I'm pushing the physical boundaries of oil pastels through larger-scale compositions, experimental techniques, and the introduction of new materials. I'm interested in how scale, surface, and texture can change the way a viewer experiences a piece. My goal is to create work that feels expressive and deeply personal while leaving room for viewers to bring their own interpretations and experiences to it.