About Me
Growing up in New York City, I spent most of my working life as a software developer for Fortune 500 companies before moving to the Dallas area in 2004. I moved to Texas in pursuit of a new life after the events of Sept. 11th, 2001, tragically changed the trajectory of my life. In seeking to rise out of debilitating depression, I sought solace and rebirth in the art of photography.
In the fall of 2013, I decided to seek a formal education in studio art eventually leading to a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Now, having found a fulfilling connection with expression through art, I am continuing to grow as an artist currently by matriculating as a studio-arts MFA degree graduate student. I work with photography, video, sculpture, and technology.
I can be reached by email...
In the fall of 2013, I decided to seek a formal education in studio art eventually leading to a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Now, having found a fulfilling connection with expression through art, I am continuing to grow as an artist currently by matriculating as a studio-arts MFA degree graduate student. I work with photography, video, sculpture, and technology.
I can be reached by email...
History of my Personal Artist Statements
Dallas, TX
|
August 1, 2022 Are people who inhabit black bodies effectively a second-class citizenry in America, or in the world for that matter? My current work considers American society from the perspective of a person inhabiting a black body. It illuminates experiences that are a result of the dysfunction of systems that are expected to protect and empower a citizen. These failing or outright oppressive systems are represented by a lack of protection under the U.S. Constitution, inadequate education, and media misrepresentation. The works also confront issues centered upon the poor relationship blacks have with the white establishment. December 2, 2021 (Grad Seminar) Are people who inhabit black bodies, effectively a second-class citizenry, in America, or in the world for that matter? Each of the works question the systems that should empower a citizen and challenge the relationships blacks have with the white establishment. The works are 3D, sculptural, and use steel, extruded polylactic acid, wood, and integrated video, while the shapes and forms I use are abstractions of the human form, many times with video suggesting its consciousness. October 2021 (Grad Seminar) My work is about the poorly understood effects of the many systems & structures that represent the hidden aspects of racism which are baked into our society; these systems continue to adversely affect African-Americans in a debilitating way, despite the passing of the Civil Rights Act over 57 years ago. The work I make is informed by personal experiences growing up in New York City, and conversations with contemporaries of diverse ethnicities and social backgrounds. I am considering aspects of the American social fabric that may directly empower African-American's ability to rise out of the tar-pit of poverty that the majority of this minority are stuck in. The mediums and methods, that I find most inspiring at this time are video, sculpture, and contemporary technologies, like smartphones, machine learning, and other digital tech.. Using these mediums, I am making artwork that is a form of self-portraiture, or other times symbolic work that shines light onto the divisiveness of status quo governmental politics, and the ugliness of racism. August 2021 (Summer II) My work is about the poorly understood effects of the many systems & structures that represent the hidden aspects of racism which are baked into our society; many of which have affected my life in post-Civil Rights Act America. The dialects of art, i.e. the mediums and methods, that I've found most inspiring at this time are video, sculpture, and contemporary technologies. Using these mediums, I am making artwork that is a form of self-portraiture, as well as is work that shines light onto the divisiveness of status quo governmental politics, and the ugliness of racism. July 2021 (Summer I) Art in all of its many forms is truly a universal language, although one with many dialects. Through art, there is an implied unified thread. This thread is sensed as we see themes of humanity repeatedly sung, played, danced, painted, sketched, sculpted, and so on. For me, art illuminates the nature of humanity in all its many modes and moods. The dialects of art, i.e. the mediums and methods, that I've found most inspiring at this time are video, sculpture, and contemporary technologies. Using these mediums, I am making artwork that is sometimes self-portraiture or other-times is work that shines light onto the divisiveness of status quo governmental politics, and the ugliness of racism. My work is also about the poorly understood effects of the many systems that represent the hidden aspects of racism baked into our society; many of which have affected my life in post-Civil Rights Act America. My current project is titled e/Mergence. It is an installation for which I am fabricating steel forms and integrating video with other materials and sculpture, The project is an illumination of the aspect of American culture which antithetically allows black bodies such as my own to be subject to destruction. It is a destruction that can occur anywhere and at any given moment, despite the protections and rights granted by the constitution and laws of our country. I am using pyramidic forms as an abstract representation of the body, as it has historically represented the essence of the power of a culture or society. Here, however, I am representing the black body in an inverted pyramidical form. The inversion is an expression of this power as usurped in the context of American Culture. December 2020 I make artwork using video, sculpture, and computer based technologies. The work is about exploring who I am in the context of all that I have experienced as a Black man in America, who doesn't completely identify as being Black, and about examining the disillusionment I feel toward myself for decades of believing that I was part of an egalitarian society. My work is also informed by traumatic childhood experiences, the self-marginalizing persona that has developed as I prioritized assimilating the culture of the majority, and responds to the divisiveness we are experiencing in our society today. August 2020 Art has inspired in me a desire to understand who I am, in light of all that I have experienced as a Black man in America, who does not completely identify as being Black. My art deals with the disillusionment I feel toward myself for having lived for decades with the belief that I was part of an egalitarian society. The art is about discovering how much of myself I have not enjoyed as I repressed memories of rocks being thrown at a school bus, and the myriad of other experiences that created a self-marginalizing persona as I focused assimilating the culture of the majority. Using video, sculpture, and contemporary technologies, I make artwork that is self-portraiture, and work that shines light onto the divisiveness of status quo governmental politics, the ugliness of racism, and the effects they have had on my life in post-Civil Rights Act America. October 2018 Is my work substantive and what is it saying…am I compelling anyone to listen? Is there a conversation stimulated that is greater than a brief obligatory statement? Despite constantly questioning myself, as I examine these questions, I feel emotion begin to stir…my thoughts and feeling, rise as as a wind, stirring and gusting as if a storm approaches. Thinking from the inside out, I decided, I would embark on a journey of creating photographs that share ideas of what I feel and have felt. Searching my heart and mind, I find questions about the past and how it has shaped me into who I am today. This is a journey of moments of elation, riddled with sadness due to circumstances, washed by Mild Bipolar Disorder, seasoned by foster homes, and ghetto life experiences, all garnished by experiences of life in America as a black man. This work is meant to share the dark and the light, the fantasy and hope, the frustration and fulfillment that are collectively a self-portrait. |
History of my Art Project Statements |
February 2020
You, Them, They, We! So, this is the project statement, not an artist statement... 
| ||