What does it mean to be a man? To perform ascribed roles ingrained into ones upbringing and expectations for social norms? As a boy, my father would tell me not to cry. As an athlete, my coach demanded to fight through the pain, nothing less then victory. Boys would compete and degraded each other for validation. Without knowing it, I was learning the lessons that would shape me and other Black boys. Being a sensitive child, sensitivity felt at odds with the version of manhood held up to me.

My work grows from this tension. As a painter, I explore the inner worlds of Black men and boys. Worlds that are often flattened, confined, or misunderstood. Through techniques of multiple layers of glazes that build depth and atmospheric presence, abrasive scrubbing and mark making to create ambiguity, and repeatedly reworking paint surfaces till precise focal points are smooth. Saturated, moody colors evoke psychological depth. Hues not just aesthetic choices but operate symbolically as emotions, reflecting vulnerability, restraint, tenderness, and quiet endurance. I build compositions that feel unsettled and layered. These techniques mirror the emotional strain embedded within the figures themselves.

From the collective Black consciousness and my own lived experiences, I develop recurring symbols in my work that reconstructs and reimagines Black folklore. My paintings exist where interior and exterior worlds collapse into one another. I gravitate toward enclosed spaces: rooms, gardens, tight enclosures that verge on the feeling of claustrophobia. Suggesting safety, containment, and retreat, but also pressure. Through surreal imagery, these spaces interact with figures in the paintings. Spaces seen as a sense of comfort in a world that sees Blackness as a target, until pervaded with covert racism, expectations of masculinity, and double consciousness. Functioning more than just physical settings but are psychological landscapes. A space when unfolded dwells within dusk and dawn.

My practice looks beyond the hardened exterior to give blossom to the interior. Breaking boundaries, I look to refine what it means to be seen. And share with Black kids how to navigate a world that is constantly at war with you. Each painting becomes a site where complexity is allowed to exist, where Black masculinity is not performed, but felt.