“CHOKE” (Creating Her Own Kinetic Energy)

“CHOKE” (she/her) is a self-taught artist of Taíno and Mayan ancestry and co-founder and director of The Mind Body Ecology Institute. She is also founder and CEO of Arté Tea Co., specializing in artistically curated teas and tisanes, along with tea ceremonial sittings and tea travel adventures around the globe. “CHOKE” stands for ‘Creating Her Own Kinetic Energy’.

Her presence is deeply felt in communities throughout the U.S., from the Bay Area to southern Oregon and Florida to the greater metro area of D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, even to Fort Worth, Texas, a.k.a, Panther City, where she still keeps a home base. Up until 2023, she chose to be recognizable through covering her face in photographs to allow the art to speak for itself. She currently resides in Bali, Indonesia.

Inspired by the teacher who first recognized her talent and creativity, “CHOKE” feels a deep responsibility to give back to her community, especially to Black and Brown youth in America.  She has been involved with several community outreach programs, including battered women’s shelters and art camps. 

Her path is inner awareness and the promotion of radical self-love. She offers sound bowl meditations as well as cacao, tea, and new moon ceremonies built around the natural cycles and her ancestral traditions.  

Her career has led her across the country, creating art, sculpture, and murals. She is represented in collections worldwide, including Greece, Turkey, Japan, Thailand, and South America.  “CHOKE” has shown her work at places such as the African American Museum of Art in Dallas, Art Basel Miami, Eubie Blake Jazz Institute, and the SOMArts Gallery in San Francisco. She has taught African architecture at the South Dallas Cultural Center. She was a founder and director of the Fort Worth Woke Book Club, dedicated to expanding and deepening community understanding of social justice issues. 

Arté Tea Co. is a celebration of creative community and cultivators. They believe in representing artists and artisans throughout the world, and align their carefully curated tea selections with featured artists to showcase their innovative perspectives. The mission of Arté is to inspire change through love of tea and art.

Whereas some artists take an academic path to painting, “CHOKE” eschews such traditions and allows her work to emerge from the ancestral and spiritual in order to tap into the universal modalities of self that inter-are with the fundamental elements of nature and culture. Organic forms and tribal symbols are Afro-futural, Taíno, and Aztec archetypes carrying spiritual “information.” Each piece moves from an internal symmetry and order that radiates composed balance and elevated consciousness.

Other pieces reference the gigs she snuck into as a youth and the 70’s jazz, funk, salsa, hip hop, disco, and house music she heard in those early years. It colorfully reflects the energetic bounce of the music she holds so dear.

“CHOKE” is also influenced by a strong connection to her Creator, which guides her art and healthy lifestyle. “I go into the ‘zone,’ and the creativity flows out; the answers are all there. I am the sum of my ancestors; it’s quite magical to capture.”