I must become personal in order to explain this painting, so I will tell you a bit about me and what I was thinking when I painted this piece.
I am a biracial human— Black & White which has never made sense to me— the phrasing — Black & White. Especially when people describe me or when I have described myself as half-Black and half-White, as if my two core ethnicities are somehow divided evenly inside of me, hence the black and white stripes inside of the woman— me— in the painting. Oh yeah, this one is a self-portrait.
Take a closer look at the hair and the hints of octopus. Why? Octopus are smart and mysterious, like all of us. Indeed, we are all more complicated than those boring binary definitions they would have us believe about ourselves.
The two tears on the right breast represent death. The Arabic on the left arm is ‘love’ and the crown on the right arm is my homage to Basquiat whose work taught me that it is ok to paint outside of the lines.
I like all of us who have been through trauma can either rise out of it or be devoured by it. I am learning how to rise out of it, hence the hint of the mythical Phoenix in the form of a burning feather on the left arm.
Original Created:2019
Subjects:Love
Styles:ExpressionismFigurativeSurrealism
Mediums:Oil
Materials:Canvas