Art Studio, Visual Art, and Music Maker

This Body of work that I call “Musical Expressionism” is Black modernist Art. This body of work visually pays homage to the cultural genius of the progenitors and contemporary creators of the Black music. I developed this avant-garde painting style to represent the totality of the very colorful ever-evolving music of Black culture. I layer hues of paint to create shapes that radically distort the picture plane thereby creating a visually incongruent image. The figurative elements in the paintings depart from physical reality to convey and emphasize the emotion and denotation of the music.

In keeping with the tradition of Black American art my paintings are instructive and allegorical. The quilt-like quality of each canvas speaks to the field hollers and work songs created before the abolition of slavery; members of the Underground Railroad used quilts to mark escape routes and houses of refuge for runaway slaves. The triangle shapes around the edges of the canvas create an implied box representing the packaging and monetization of Black music. The box also refers to the limits that were placed on the Black music from outside forces, however the box could not contain or restrain the music so I paint the figure and the musical instrument in such a way that they are both inside and outside of the box simultaneously. The three white orbs represent the trinity’s contribution in creation: mind, body and spirit or wisdom, strength and Beauty or Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I create these mystical images of reality with highly intense color using brushwork and paint directly from the tube. I apply the paint freely and generously to create highly textured impasto Black Expressionist art.