Where We Come From to Forever
Where We Come From to Forever 26 x 26 Acrylic on Wood, 2020
The title of this piece is “Where We Come From to Forever.” Listen below to hear me explain what was in my mind when I created this work, and check out the paired playlist that was the background sound for the creative.
I painted this on wood. It’s a portrait of Jamaican dancehall artist @popcaanmusic based on a photograph (album cover) captured by @ivar.wigan . Ok - now that it’s done I can tell you what this was about. All my life I have listened to dancehall and reggae and loved it because it reminded me of the Caribbean, of my culture. It’s raw. It’s funny. It’s great to dance to. But like a lot of music there were times the words, were not right for me, times where it seemed like the whole song was about a man proving he was a man via some narrative of violence, dominance of women, money, whatever makes people believe your d*ck is bigger, I suppose. It’s not a far reflection of a dying male culture overall. But I noticed in the last few years, not in all the guys, but in so many of them, that something maybe seemed to shift away from that. And I realized maybe the time has come for boys to not just to be allowed to share self expression, but to be appreciated more for the expression, encouraged to feel, and be made understand strength and love are not binary but in fact exist together. The @popcaanmusic album caught me off guard because it was so much about love I was almost confused at first. But I loved it. It’s probably my favorite album of his so far. This painting is about what sounded like growth (I know some of the lyrics are still wild) and also my flat out adoration of men who can express love without repression.
This is about the men I have watched evolve out of patriarchal mentalities to new ones filled with growth, it is about the beauty of that growth. There is a moment when I recognize who is backlit in a full softness they may not even recognize yet. The men who found the strength in words some self-perceived stronger humans still won’t touch out of fear of what it may mean. It’s about the way I fall in love with these parts of people the minute I can see them. That while the human may still feel that he is in black and white, I can begin to see the colors that he is bleeding out. For further exploring listen to the two albums this piece is based on (names in title), or check out the playlist I created for this piece below.
