Artist’s Statement
My purpose is to encourage people to think about what they are viewing. In creating art I reveal the depths of my thoughts and emotions. Often it is the journey I take in my mind to reach a thought that inspires me. Anger, frustration, and resentment towards systematic, afro-social alienation by the black majority is what has driven me to develop a culturally independent style of art . Anatomically exaggerated, super humanoid figures, cosmic landscapes or abstract anomalies are the types of subject matter I express in a multitude of media.
The scale I chose to express my work in a two dimensional perspective are drawings that range from 18”X24” to 24”X 36”. In painting I chose a scale of 36”X 48” to 48” X 60”. Clay is my choice to create medium sized (20 to 45 lbs) three dimensional works. Instead of being influenced by an entire movement I am influenced only by fragments of what I feel is the most appealing and innovative about artists like Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Henry Moore, Frank Lloyd Wright , and Monet. By also having a considerable background in graphic design and drafting, I believe many of my works reflect some of the aspects of these two disciplines.
I don’t believe one has truly created art, nor have they truly reached the mind of their viewing audience unless they capture a person’s curiosity to the point of feeling the desire to want to identify what they are viewing. Even though the works of art that I create represent specific thoughts or emotions that I am experiencing at the time, I have been witness to people identifying the three and two dimensional works I’ve created as objects or visions that I never would have imagined. I believe that my artwork is also a statement of who I am and what I stand for. In a country where African Americans are labeled as black doctors, and black lawyers I prefer to be thought of as a person, an individual.
Even though it is blatantly obvious that I am a black man, however, it isn’t my skin color that is responsible for my natural talent to create art. It would be easy to revert to the finite expression of “black” art or what I believe has been disrespectfully known in the past as “naïve” art and create scenes of urban strife, black folk art or pseudo afro-centric culture. However, that limited perspective of what is considered “being black” isn‘t the world I was raised in. With this thought it is my intent to make art that is universal not afro-centric or euro-centric. It is my belief that a work of art that is devoid of blatant or suggestive culture specific overtones will in effect achieve more of a universal appeal and be judged as art first and as an expression of an individual within my race second.
