Artist Statement

Must one be Black or Brown to care? This is one of the self-imposed questions that led me to create A Marked Man back in 2018.

It's hard for me not to feel like a marked man when the very people sworn to protect are executing countless murders of unarmed men and women who look like my aunts, my uncles, my brothers, my cousins, my neighbors, and me. Every one of these murders feels like a threat. The victims did nothing to justify being killed. The one commonality is the hue of their skin, which designates them and me to the lowest rung of our American caste system- make no mistake, what we call ‘race’ operates as a caste system in America. And in this caste system, my life is worth bullets, so Black people get all the bullets they can - or can't - stand. One must simply see the countless unarmed Black people being murdered while driving, walking, running, sleeping, and breathing to realize there's a crisis at hand. Feeling strongly that we in America need to have this conversation, I decided the only way to start would be through the truth. My truth.

A Marked Man is a self-portrait of my physical and inner self. Even at 6'2", 210lbs, the threat I feel is omnipresent. Despite what America has taught you to think of me, the reality is that I am the hunted. I needed to be totally vulnerable and honest in sharing this reality with those who may not be able to relate. If they could literally see what I feel, then maybe they could feel it too, or at least feel safe asking me questions in a conversation I had started. We must be willing to have these conversations. Our futures may depend on it.