The following studies document my shift away from representational painting. Borrowing from 1940’s and 1950’s New York’s School of thought, I combine intuitive mark making with digital collages. This process contextualizes the way I remember personal events. Using photo references from various outlets, such as social media, movies, and shows, I construct various layers and create friction between memories that are forgotten and remembered. My reference materials allude to characters who have impacted me in unforeseen ways through their representation on screen. The resulting consequence is that I have informed myself using illegitimate sources. The people on the screen, while real, were figments of someone else’s imagination. They were misrepresentations of a black man. Since these oversimplified characters were my most prevalent roles models, I unconsciously inherited a false perception of the black man. The themes related are accurately described and depicted through the application of color and figure. My work aims to reshape my own identity by unraveling my own essential memories. By reformatting these ideas to various modes of painting I aim to emotionally connect to people who share my experience.
