Proud to be...

As a black British woman, you are born resilient, and you have to have a fighting spirit of pushing through. I'm proud to have pursued a creative path—a difficult road to walk for any person, regardless of colour. Among other things, it takes determination, talent, networks and serendipity to succeed. And, even then, you must remain vigilant, as many people will gladly take advantage of 'creatives’—what we do is not considered a proper job.

Even now, I am asked to contribute to meetings, sit on panels, travel long distances, only to find that I am the only person in the room not being paid. I'm expected to contribute just for the love of what I do. When asked if they have a budget to pay the artist, the answer is often no, but the publicity should be valuable enough. Or there is no budget, and you find that your services are no longer required. There is no other profession I know of where you are expected to pay your expenses to attend full-day meetings, just for the pleasure of adding it to your CV.

And the questions—what do you do? No, what do you really do? Just like —where are you from? No, where are you from from? People find it hard to believe you can make a living from your creativity, just like some will find it hard to think you were born in the UK.

Once you have grounded yourself in the creative world, there are so many directions you can travel. While travelling, you are gathering many tools, wearing many hats, learning plenty of transferable skills. I am foremost an artist, but this path has enabled me to be a businesswoman, a gallery owner, a curator, a lecturer, a critic and a mentor. When I say I am an artist and then add a lecturer or a gallery owner, people assume I make my living from my lecturing or selling art. The truth is my income mainly comes through my art, even over the last two years when the gallery has taken priority.

I am also proud to be a businesswoman; it's a powerful thing for an artist to embrace business without feeling you have sold out. After all, business needs creativity too.

Resilience comes from knowing who you are, where you want and need to be, and being confident in your abilities. You have to know your worth and keep reminding people of this, even if it means you don't get to add that experience to your CV.