My Painting: The Discovery

The Discovery

I am a painter, activist, and educator yet I have this tendency for blending all these (and more) interests of mine into one. I guess that is how my mind works, haha!

One of my interests as a youth was Hip Hop music, I still appreciate the older songs and recording artists and I can appreciate some of the new guys as well! I wrote in an earlier post about this love mine for the genre and how this influences some of my work.

I woke up one morning with this concept for a new painting in which I would attempt to capture the moment of how I felt when I heard Hip Hop music for first time. Since I am a figurative painter (of sorts) I had to find a subject who would sit for this painting and thankfully, I didn't have to look too far because one of my easiest to acquire models was nearby- my older son! He was about 12 years old at the time and fit just right for theme. I also decided to incorporate elements and icons of Hip Hop so I came up with: a turntable, some breakdancers, and DJs.

After a few days of working on the painting and having my poor suffering son sit for some of that time, I finally came up with a work that I felt satisfied with enough to call it finished.