- To me, art means, well, it's a value marker, right?

What we create reflects our values, it reflects what we consider important to us, to those around us.

(bright music) My name is Lakesha Moore.

I am a visual artist.

I'm a poet, a mentor, and an educator.

So at the center of my work are ideas of memory and identity.

I should probably mention identity first, because identity is very much shaped by our memories, whether they're individual or collective memories.

The body of work, I think, that I'm very proud of is focused on portraiture, right, and they're all of individuals that I know.

I recently had a show, I was able to exhibit them at Berry College, and it was called Infinite Rays.

So, infinite rays of joy was what stood out to me first, right?

So showing these primarily Black figures, right, and these Black bodies smiling, or kind of standing resolute, you know, in their bodies, you know, taking up space, you know, 'cause as we know, so often we're we're told not to take up space, to be quiet and to just kind of not make waves.

I really enjoy working large, and so having these large portraits, you almost treat the face and the features as if they're landscaped, right?

Like, all of us, you know, kind of represent our own particular landscape, you know, because we have flaws, we have bumps and bruises, and sometimes we show them, sometimes we don't, we hide them, you know, and in any landscape, we're always discovering, you know, how to navigate them.

The impact that I want my artwork to have in the world, I guess, for me, it seems very simple, but I hope that those who see it can find a piece of themselves in it, a piece of their story, and it encourages them to continue to voice their story.

- [Narrator] This NPT Arts Break is made possible by the generous support of the Martha Rivers Ingram Advised Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, and a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.