PORTRAITS
Featured
September, 2020
24" x 18"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000730
Jacob Blake. Another man that is maimed by police; forever changed by a moment in time. No more protesting! It’s a revolution. Lives, beliefs and systems are being changed. That which will not bend will be broken. That which does not grow will die. Because we bent and bowed and now we are growing…burning with and from your injustice and our own indignities. We seek to reclaim and create our houses. Being Kings and Queens, upright and righteous, beautiful and noble. Our rise comes from the blood their land has absorbed. Rastafari.
Painting insights. Its construction is comprised of all 8 laps. The blue background is the police and the likes that surround us. The brush is loaded and tapped and stopped the colors down. Shots being fired at a target to create a picture. We in the inner city are created by shots, shots at a bucket end zone. Your girl, my girl, Shots at a hair cut, shots at wide noses and big lips. Shots at the very thing that keeps us alive. We take these things, make a new us other than what our mothers and fathers created. The shots they shoot, the sons and daughters of Almighty white father, form a picture as well. Some see resistance in the dark. Some see the complexity of our beauty, our strength. The ability to endure, figure out ways to thrive where they can't survive. Skin tones says something different to everyone. To reclaim humanity. Beauty. I opted to use everyone’s favorite color. Reds, blues, yellows, greens, purples… I try not to promote brands and labels in my work. They don’t free promote me…Seen?
Summer, 2020
18” x 14”
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000718
George Floyd started out as another pebble in a pile of Black bodies. Now he has risen to the height and stature of a mountain, allowing us all to climb him to greater heights.
Summer, 2020
24" x 18"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000717
I've never felt like an American, but when I seen this country from coast to coast shake and crumble, under the heavy hands of the oppressed, when I seen the fires. The looting. I smiled. I felt proud to be an American. To be a Black American.
March, 2020
24" x 18"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000696
Pillar of Strength started with the sista from the recent Harriet Tubman movie (Cynthia Erivo). I was thinking how these women didn't have weaves or hair that simulates straight hair; they were leading us to a new form of freedom.
October, 2019
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000670
What would a new life look like…feel like?
What will the same life feel like?
2019
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000659
I started this painting August 2018. I've been begging’ for wedding photos, so my surprise wedding gift went down the tubes. Then I thought I should have it ready for July 2019. So now it's August, 2019 and I, the father of the groom, still never got the photos requested. So much for V.I.P. (Very Important Poppa.) 😊
July, 2019
11" x 14"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000638
Inspired by the Gospel of Matthew 12:42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The Queen of the South refers to an African queen from Ethiopia who will rise up on the day of judgment and will have the power to condemn this generation. Most miss this. A woman with such power. A Black woman who has the power to condemn...
Rasta see women as equals in different roles.
May, 2019
26" x 16"
Acrylic on Cardboard
000625
A moment of reflection, hoping to always have that which is natural, always in my grasp and its light shining on me…what could be more natural than love.
Lion and the rose new words.
He threshes you to make you naked
He sifts you from from your husk ,
He grinds you to whitness
He kneads you pliant,
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire
That you may become scored bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that
You may know the secrets of your heart, and in
That knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart
But if in your fear you would seek only love's
Peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your
Nakedness and pass out of loves threshing floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh
But not all of your laughter
And weep
But not all of your tears.
Khahlil Gibran
February, 2017
18" x 24"
Acrylic on Masonite Panel
000552
To Sister Mo and the nuns and great people of Sinsinawa. I want to thank all of you who have written to me and for being open to hosting my show. The love and support has been amazing.
October, 2016
Acrylic on Watercolor Paper
000542
As a starving artist nothing is wasted, so even pieces I messed up are given new life. Jah Bless.
2015
20" x 24"
Acrylic on Particle Panel
000465
A lion in man’s clothing.
I was attempting to demonstrate what I long for: being with my own kind. My kind is not a color. It is a consciousness. It is the people who understand my religion and can help push me to being a better representative of my faith.
2015
17 1/5" x 24"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000462
Jimi Hendrix - To listen to all the greatness of his music is to understand the potential of my people when allowed to grow, explore and experience. This man took a feeling and made it electric without ever learning to read music. He understood it naturally.
“’Scuse me while I kiss the sky.”
2015
17" x 18 1/2"
Fredrix Soft Canvas on Cardboard
000447
Finally! I love this painting. The look on her face, the slightly parted lips, her hair whipping about. It is sort of based on the Asian looking woman from that TV show, Mistresses.
August, 2015
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
000434
I have an obsession with dark skinned women. In this painting, I love how the bluish tone contrasts against the red in her lips and the yellow towel across her shoulder.
This was a swimsuit model but the part that my eye kept going to was her lips and neck. The result is this sensual painting.
2015
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
000408
This painting was a happy accident.
I was suppose to be painting a famous person but she did not want to be painted and this woman kept coming forward. Every attempt to do away with her and bring the other woman back was thwarted. I finally gave up and allowed her to come forward and hopefully, whoever she is, she will see herself in this painting and do whatever it is this painting is meant to inspire her to do.
April, 2015
24 1/2" x 19"
Acrylic on Cardboard
000407
So many of Pac’s songs are like reflections of my thoughts and persona. I remember singing to a woman on the phone, “I wanna be yo ni-g-g-g-a, we can get drunk and smoke weed all day, it don't matter if you're lonely baby, you need a thug in yo life, them bustas ain't lovin’ you right.”
September, 2014
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
000399
This painting was based on someone I know. She had made equally opposing comments – that she felt lonely for me, yet with me when she thought of me. What the hell does that mean?
So I tried to envision how she might embrace herself to feel with me and also added a bit of nudity to represent the openness. I made the space behind her reflect chaos and light and used the contrast of warm and cool colors to represent the lonely aspect.
Most only pick up on the lonely. One person said it could even be regret. No one thus far has felt warmth of contentment that I imagined was the message that she is with me.