This exhibition consists of select artworks that span from 2009 through 2023. The prevailing sentiment expressed throughout is that the people in our immediate vicinity will often teach us the most important life lessons.  I have included paintings of family members as well as paintings of people that I have only met once.  Each model has their own extensive network of loved ones that can speak to the nature of the integral roles filled by those individuals .
My persistent inquiry: Given the intensity with which I consciously and unconsciously respond to visual stimuli, how often does that hyperfocus limit my capacity to engage with the depths of who I see in front of me? When is my own complexion a distraction from grappling with other critical subjects? As I ask those questions, in the same breath I insist on the necessity of unapologetically celebrating the richness of all the various shades and tones of Black skin.  The challenge for all of us is resisting the centuries-old miseducation about the inferiority of darker skin.