• Above: Full Image.

One Nation was the first painting I ever painted with my hands and fingers since kindergarten. With the country facing police brutality, racial discrimination, riots (which were also close to home), alongside my own personal and mental struggles, I hit a low in struggling to grasp where humanity had gone. And, I think that lack of grasp of humanity, with all the intense feelings involved behind my own problems and the world's, is what led to me starting to paint with my fingers. It was almost an emotional reaction, as well as trying to voice all this stuff and reactions I couldn't put into words. And fingers is what did that.

Hands put words into action, and action put words into a canvas. And both produced a voice not only for myself, but for the cultures and races depicted in this painting. And really, that's where my humanitarian paintings, cause filled, voice depicting, and narrative pieces started to come from: the solution to finding how to make a voice or voices heard, as well as the story; while also making a connection both physically and emotionally.