I & ME Print

I was introduced to the gift of art in the 1970s at Albright Knox art gallery, and over the ensuing years allowed it to casually dance in and out of my life. However, forty years later it formally actualized as an adverse effect to my approaching parole board hearing in Sing Sing Prison. A great deal of my art mirrors societal plagues, primarily sexual abuse and addiction, and how they are processed by a spectrum of its survivors. These perspectives were developed based on varying stories of survival as well as my own childhood sexual abuse-- a deferred perspective that six years prior would not have materialized. I had not found the courage to disclose my vaulted memories. My understandings, compounded on a refined scope of masculinity, is how I resurrected myself through a series of works. Art with messaging poignant enough to engineer society. The use of pencil as a focal point between my mind and paper presents the audience with the seeds to nurture their individual comprehensions. Besides grey--the love child of black and white--the color scheme prompts any emotional response to take place in the imagination. I do not believe a variety of hues are needed for my subject matter. The use of lips symbolizes the ability to communicate orally. They support the abstract expressionism without demanding a scholastic interpretation. The lips of both sexes are presented in my work, but the majority of them are female. At the time of these creations the Me Too movement was garnering light on most media platforms, which allowed my gift to come full circle clenched to purpose. My birth name signature* takes on a classic flow using cursive with at least one letter from all three parts. However, a personality shift prompted a visual refashioning of my signature, now, predicated on sound and appearance of the individual letter. Nzump (pronounced: en~zoom~pu) represents new perspective. It reaches a phonic apex with the letter Z, but would not reach this without the utility of the letter N. The letter U advances pronunciation into the safety of the letters M and P; thus, showing how forty years of an idling gift can push through a portal in time to rescue the artists. *Note: The signature sums the persona with every stroke. It can generate value long after its owner has transitioned.