We visited the multi-dimensional artist at his studio where he broke down the conceit behind each of his latest works-in-progress.
All photos by Sara Barron
Sheefy, Why Don’t You Love Me?
“My past few years have been like a big gumbo pot of so many different styles and different meanings and I’m just seeing what works, what doesn’t, and now it’s rounding off to a point where I’m putting myself into the work, it’s more personal. Like this one, ‘Sheefy, why don’t you love me?’ I’ve been in relationships where I put art before everything else — before my family, before love — and it’s just been a question I’ve heard so many times that it manifested into a painting.”
Black-Man
“This one is a pop-art and social piece. I named it Blac-Man instead of Pac-Man, so I made the Pac-Man into a minstrel character and I got cops chasing him — all the ghosts are cops. Then, I have stereotypical power-ups like money, liquor, drugs, chicken, watermelon … It’s sort of satire but, at the same time, I know a lot of people feel this way … like they’re stuck in the same level and this is all that’s put in front of them and they’re chasing it constantly.”
The Oracle
“This started off as a random painting for PBR, but the more I worked on it, I wanted to illustrate the black woman's spirit. Serene, powerful, and godly.”
Teal Dreams
“I was pushing myself to do something different because I have a lot of friends that work in digital media, so they really got me hip to using an iPad to draw. So, I would draw like I was painting and it made it so much easier because you don’t have to wait for layers to dry. My whole approach for this style is painting digitally but backwards. I just really want to step up my art to being museum-worthy”
“Sometimes you have your breakthrough, or you just get tired of doing regular shit and end up just throwing paint at the damn canvas.”
