EFA STUDIO PROGRAM: Member Artists
Watson Mere
I view my work as a window, one that reflects the viewer’s own experiences or beliefs, or offers a glimpse into worlds they may have never seen or understood. My aim is to create pieces that resist passive observation and instead demand engagement. Each work invites viewers to pause, reflect, and question.
My creative practice is rooted in the cultural complexities of the African diaspora. I am driven by a desire to give visual voice to those long silenced by society, a mission rooted from my own early voicelessness. As a child, I was unable to speak until the age of five and began creating art at the age of two as a means of communication. This inability to speak heightened my sense of observation and taught me how to translate emotion and perception into visual form. Art has been my first and most enduring language.
At thirteen, I discovered Microsoft Paint, an early digital tool that, alongside acrylics, oils, pastels, and other media, has become central to my storytelling. Through these tools, I build symbolically layered compositions where themes of Black identity, contemporary life, and ancestral memory intersect.
My work is both vivid and intentional. Bold color palettes attract the eye, while layered narratives rooted in African symbology and Black cultural memory invite deeper contemplation. Each piece is a visual griot, a silent storyteller, whispering something different to every viewer, yet echoing a shared history and humanity.
