As an artist I strive for my work to be a representation of myself as it exists in this world. My aim is not be political but rather to be highly conscious of my emotions and my existence. Subsequently, I am aware that by being a colored man in the United states, my existence is inevitably political. My emotions surrounding this awareness often inspires me to use my infatuation for history, and more specifically, art history, to create pieces in which I seek to connect to with my audience in a way that informs, and perhaps intrigues.
Often my works are a result of research and narrative. This research is not specific to any specific era or event. However, my, narrative are usually very personal. Accustomed to expressing myself through poetry, the narratives of my paintings usually materialize the visuals I create, and then correlate to the findings of my historical investigations. As I previously stated, history has become sort of an infatuation of mine. I often find myself starting at a simple question, perhaps about my Caribbean heritage. It would lead to me researching origins of Caribbean folk. Which would evolve into exploring the connection of Ethiopia and Jamaican, or Perhaps the teachings of Marcus Garvey. Once I’ve found some personal experience that I’d like to express, I then allow these Ideas to visually flourish through the people that I feel to “carry” these sentiments. This makes choosing models very sporadic, with consistency of having a model present in my work. Because my work carries my emotion, I choose to often incorporate people in my paintings. I find this to be the easiest way to communicate emotion and situation. The people who appear in my work don’t always look like me however in more ways than one they represent me. And with that, every characteristic of every piece, from the colors of the represented items to the treatment of the canvas, is a considered attempt to convey an emotion.
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