My earliest encounters with art were unconventional but deeply formative. Growing up in Southwest Philadelphia, I worked in my family’s funeral home as an embalmer and makeup artist. It was there, as a child, that I learned the delicate art of honoring life’s final moments—where the details, the stillness, and the profound beauty of life’s fragility left an indelible mark on me. These experiences shaped my understanding of art as a medium to express the intricate balance between life and death, and instilled in me an eye for detail and a reverence for the sacredness of each passing moment.
However, my art is not an observational reflection from a detached perspective.
Having been a former juvenile prisoner, my work engages directly with the social, political, and cultural complexities that surround us. Through deconstructing beauty, struggle, dreams, fantasy, and faith, my work represents my emotional and intellectual responses to these themes. Each piece I create is a dialogue between color, texture, and form, blending abstraction with figurative elements. I work with bold, yet restrained palettes, using layered techniques that reveal depth and complexity. These layers invite the viewer to look beyond the surface, to peel back meanings and engage with the intricacies beneath.
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Creating art for me is an emotional process, yet it is also intentional and deliberate. My unconscious mind is the driving force behind the work, but I consciously merge traditional techniques with innovative approaches, allowing recurring themes to surface in new ways. Whether I’m painting, filming, or working with mixed media, the subject matter of each piece dictates the materials and the form, making each project distinct yet connected—a chapter in an evolving story.
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A central focus of my work is the exploration of faith and religion, and how these belief systems influence our individual and collective identities. I question how spirituality intersects with culture, power, and beauty, creating pieces that explore the tension between the sacred and the secular. My intention is to open dialogues about faith—challenging institutionalized belief systems while encouraging viewers to reflect on their own relationships with spirituality and the structures surrounding it.
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Art, to me, is a means of pushing boundaries and generating spaces for dialogue. Through my paintings, I aim to provoke thought and inspire emotional resonance, urging viewers to reconsider their relationship with the world and their place within it. By blending abstraction with figurative imagery, I strive to create bridges between different cultural experiences, fostering a deeper understanding of our shared humanity.
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Much of my work centers on underrepresented voices and untold stories, celebrating the resilience and complexity of the human spirit. I am fascinated by how beauty can emerge from our most challenging moments, and my art attempts to capture that paradox. Whether exploring themes of faith, culture, or survival, my pieces serve as invitations to dive into the layered emotions, histories, and meanings that define our lives.
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Ultimately, my work is an exploration of how we live, what we believe, and how we navigate life’s complexities. Each project—whether film, painting, or mixed media—acts as a window into the unseen and unspoken aspects of our existence. I think of my art as a form of visual storytelling: improvisational yet deliberate, inviting viewers to engage with the spaces I create for reflection and connection. My goal is to challenge perceptions and create meaningful dialogue, using color, texture, and form to explore the intersections of faith, emotion, and the shared human experience.
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-ZK