Black Boy

These works on paper were created during the suspended years of Covid, between 2020 and 2022 a period marked by isolation, heightened introspection, and quiet endurance. The portraits, or “Faces,” emerge from people seen and imagined, woven together with elements of autobiography. Each figure carries an aspect of me: the solitary presence, the turned head, the sideways glance that suggests both distance and awareness. Every portrait stands alone, self-contained, yet deeply narrative. Their stories are told not through gesture or setting, but through the eyes. These are eyes that have witnessed much,  eyes that look beyond the surface, seeing past the glib and the performative.

The gaze is penetrating yet restrained, observant rather than accusatory. There is intensity here, but also gentleness: kind eyes, warm eyes, eyes that hold empathy alongside vigilance. They are windows into an inner world as deep and shifting as an ocean quiet on the surface, vast beneath—inviting the viewer not just to look, but to be seen in return.