SPIRITUALITY
Featured
April, 2020
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000703
In these days of darkness the world is frozen in fear. My mother is in and out of the hospital with a bladder infection. I feel life is tying its noose around my neck. I'm trying to be me. I'm trying not to make my problems other people's burden to bare. Just when I needed it I was able to hear some music again. I closed my eyes and let the music invade my mind, cleanse my spirit. The darkness slowly drained away like someone pulling the plug on a stopped up tub. My fingers talked. My foot twitched. My head nodded in time. 'Fore I know'd it I was in the middle of my cell dancing, tears fell down my cheeks and my soul smiled. Music, dancing and joy have been the ingredients that has sustained my blood long before it ever ran through my veins. Being children of the sun, our Father's love warms and heals us and dancing free's us.
April, 2020
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000704
In these days of darkness the world is frozen in fear. My mother is in and out of the hospital with a bladder infection. I feel life is tying its noose around my neck. I'm trying to be me. I'm trying not to make my problems other people's burden to bare. Just when I needed it I was able to hear some music again. I closed my eyes and let the music invade my mind, cleanse my spirit. The darkness slowly drained away like someone pulling the plug on a stopped up tub. My fingers talked. My foot twitched. My head nodded in time. 'Fore I know'd it I was in the middle of my cell dancing, tears fell down my cheeks and my soul smiled. Music, dancing and joy have been the ingredients that has sustained my blood long before it ever ran through my veins. Being children of the sun, our Father's love warms and heals us and dancing free's us.
August, 2019
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000657
I heard from a guy who was well versed, in my opinion, of Egyptian beliefs and he said some see the “eye” of the Ankh as the gateway for souls to ascend to paradise.
Some say the eye(s) are windows to the soul.
The soul is of the creator and therefore never dies. It is eternal.
But how does one keep his eye on the divine when facing Evil?
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.
September 2, 2018
24” x 18”
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000
Funny how when things get a little rough we all cry out and seek reassurance.
Made for Payne Theological Seminary, Ohio
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.
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
48" x 36"
Acrylic on Canvas with Satin/Gloss Varnish
000418
Donated to Zion City Church
I have seen paintings that showed JAH on the cross and in the back I could see the other two men that died with him. But I wondered what did this look like from another perspective so I played around with several sketches until I had a drawing that I liked.
Some fathers happily claim their children.
May 16, 2015
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Canvas with Satin/Gloss Varnish
000414
Donated to Zion City Church
All the pictures I have seen of this moment have been very beautiful but I always wondered where was the emotion, the blood. They all looked so serene and this garment was clean and pure white. He was beat and tortured. There had to have been some blood. To take away the horror and anguish is to undermine the courage and power of that moment.
Take up your cross and follow me.
May, 2013
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000304
A very special thanks to Judy Adrian and Rev. Tina Lang for putting together and hosting my first solo exhibit at First United Methodist Church, 203 Wisconsin Avenue, Madison, WI 53703. This painting is my way of saying thank you. As a kid my grandmother use to make us read the Bible and Jah (God) said he made man in his image and likeness. But every picture I seen was depicting Jesus as white (pale skin, blond hair and blue eyes). That did not reflect my image or likeness so was this not my God too? Was I always doomed to be controlled by white men? When I got older I read Rev. 2:18. When I kept reading and learning I questioned how could Jesus be of that land with pale skin and blue eyes. His skin would burn and the sun would damage his eyes. But what if his hair was like wool, like mine? His eyes the color of coal. His skin the color of brass as if it was burned by the fire, like mine? Would whites accept and love a Black Jesus the way Blacks accept and love a white one? What if “I am” means I am what or who I am at the time I am it or them? Would that mean Jesus’ color is the color of the person he wants to reach or connect with at that time. I am all things. I am nothing. All praises be unto H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, Jah Rastafari, the most HIGH God. The image or symbol doesn't matter as long as we understand, embrace and live out the message seeing God as MY God too helps me do that.
18" x 24"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000170
Remember that if you believe in a higher power, that belief is there for a reason. Maintain it in times of hardship. The representatives of your higher power will show up and clothe you in the armor of that belief.
When an inmate sang his song about pain, I envisioned a man that was downtrodden but seeking redemption, hoping that there was something to hope for. I was deeply hurt and hurting in a way I hadn't felt in a long time. But I held hope that Jah was going to heal my pain. The short dreads symbolize the beginning knowledge or recognition that there is a God and that we are connected. INI...The Angel with the flag, Angel of Jah, is there to remind me of Zion. The promise that the god spirit in me is empowered to achieve...and the shield of David to protect INI. I was trying to show hurt, despair and, yet, hopefulness.
August 3, 2010
14" x 11"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000158
Jah put man asleep and took one of his ribs and gave it to the creation bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. I love women and I believe that they're among the greatest of Jan creations. In all shades, colors, short, tall, young, mature, slim and robust. It's the personality and spirit of the woman that makes her unattractive. Meanness has never been attractive. But still she is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.
June 1, 2010
18" x 14"
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
000132
Since I first created this painting, my insight into the basic concept of it has grown as I have grown. The man emerging from (being pulled into) the heart. The bittersweet feeling of loving and being loved is tainted by the limits and strains of prison. I was saying that I am trapped by love, the very thing that I claim as my freedom -- the inability to fully explore and express that love. This is the promise of a new day, a wiser (the dreads) stronger version will be born when I look up, metaphorically, placing my thoughts and emotions on a higher plane. I am placing myself in a position to watch the sun rise and find the key in the light I could not find in the dark.
Love sets free. Love heals. Love refreshes and love incarcerates.
April 20, 2011
32" x 20"
Acrylic on Canvas Paper
000109
I've had to battle depression my entire life. Painting and the belief that the spirit of God is in me helps. Some days I feel like the Lamb and then I remember the Lion of Judah.
My only surrender is the Most High Jah Rastafari. Each day I seek out the spirit of the conquering lion. HIM spirit fills my lungs, starting a fire inna my soul. Its smoke comes from my center, through the pores of my flesh seeping from my high tension wires. This is a self portrait. There is darkness around my eyes. There is sullen sadness in my eyes. I was deeply sad when I painted it but wishing brightness would be in my future to remove me from the darkness. My arms out like that of a crying child wanting to be picked up and held. Peace was not a part of that painting.
July 18, 2009
000038
Acrylic
I was in solitary confinement. I had not eaten in five days. I was on observation status. I could not imagine living my life like that for the rest of my days. I was about 24 at the time and made a very serious attempt to end my life. That’s how I ended up on observation status.
On that status they don't give regular food. They give this loaf that looks like and smells like a log of shit. I would not eat. They took all of my clothes. No sheet. No blanket. Not even a mattress. I drifted in and out of a long slumber, thirsty. My body was sore from the cold hard concrete.
23” x 17”
Acrylic on Cardboard
000
I was reading and learning about centering and grounding when I got the news that my grandmother had died. The tears that dripped from my face landed on my pallet and mixed in with my paint as I dealt with the “loss” of someone so important in my life. To hold on to the dead is to hold on to that suffering. Just as a tree sheds a leaf and moves on with its life, so must we.