King x Indigo (Dalvion J. Fields)

Your childhood experiences of grief and feeling like an outsider seem foundational to your practice. How do these early emotions continue to surface in your current work?

Notably grief and rejection from other kids turned a lot of my attention inwards because I knew that I had to create a safe space for myself. One in which I felt there was more possibility than the version of the world that I was experiencing. I absolutely believe the work still encapsulates and translates this feeling that’s essential to understanding my broader view of the world and my experiences. I think that I’m always questioning reality with my work, a feeling that continues to connect me to my childhood mindset when I first started creating.

Nature, video games, anime, and fantasy all shaped your inner world growing up. How do these influences merge visually and conceptually in your surrealist language today?

Two common themes often found throughout my work are escapism and magic. These are ideas that I think a lot of people can often relate to even in subconscious ways! Surrealism comes so naturally to me as a mode of visual creation because I encourage the viewer to question the world they perceive through my stylized depictions of what’s mostly just found out in our natural world (trees, flowers and such). Inadvertently studying so much fantasy has taught me how to craft a believable world with believable characters and how to suspend disbelief.

King x Indigo (Dalvion J. Fields) | Conflict Of Interest | 2024

Many of your works balance bright, playful colors with darker emotional undertones. What draws you to this tension between joy and melancholy?

I think about duality and multiple perspectives a lot and how this manifests in our lives and influences our emotional responses to things. Contradictory emotions, light and dark, with and without, life and death etc. are all a part of that sense of questioning I spoke of. I take a lot of opportunities to bring darker topics and emotions to the surface, but I often like to present them in more vibrant ways. It’s somewhat like finding a silver lining in an unfavorable situation. The same subject matter can mean so many different things to different people, and even to yourself at different points in time.

King x Indigo (Dalvion J. Fields) | Hidden From Summer | 2025

Your characters often feel introspective, almost withdrawn, yet deeply expressive. Are they self-portraits, emotional avatars, or something else entirely?

I’m still figuring that out hahaha! I think they’re more emotional avatars, just conduits for my emotional expression and not necessarily depicting myself. I’m usually a logical person, but when I’m working through some specific emotional state, it definitely influences and manifests into the work and into the characters.

How does your Creole and Haitian ancestry inform the symbols, colors, or narratives within your work, even in subtle or abstract ways?

Color speaks to me first in any creative process and I consider how that could be true for the viewer as well when looking at the art. I think there’s an innate need and intention to communicate in bold lines, colors, and often “simplified” forms which I commonly find in other Haitian artwork and motifs. Creole identity for me culturally speaking, has always been about intersectionality and embracing a layered identity as someone who has ancestors from various ethnicities and backgrounds. Creole artwork often features vivid colors, detailed patterns and deals with themes of identity, history and memory. All of which I identify with culturally and creatively, letting my natural instincts guide my ideas and techniques when working.

King x Indigo (Dalvion J. Fields) | Hidden From Summer | 2025

You speak about reshaping cultural and diasporic grief. What does this process look like for you through painting and material experimentation?

I believe for black people (specifically African-Americans born in the U.S.) there is a current rebuilding and reclamation of culture and identity. There’s been so many stories and diasporic cultures that were suppressed or even completely distorted in the past but thankfully people are tuning in more into history and even ancestral wisdom, allowing for more nuanced and truthful storytelling which influences the art as a whole. Additionally as a bisexual/queer person, I want to capture this feeling of “home” and “shared space” that I find comes with catharsis. I’d like to think that I encourage this mindset with my work, knowing that modern culture is always evolving and changing, I want to help steer it to a more accepting place with nuance and possibility for those who are marginalized or left out.

King x Indigo (Dalvion J. Fields) | Imagine Days | 2024

How do you want viewers to emotionally engage with your work—through empathy, reflection, discomfort, or imagination?

The only expectation that I have for viewers and my audience is for them to approach the art with open imaginations and minds. I think there is a lot of tangible meaning and feeling woven throughout the work that’s ready to share itself through multiple lenses, whether it be empathy, melancholy, whimsey or even sometimes discomfort. These feelings and facets of my emotionality are a culmination of my experiences and I’m confident in my visual language and storytelling in conveying them. I always hope that everyone who views and spends time with the work walks away feeling a little freer to express themselves than before.