Turtle

2021

paper, watercolor, copic marker, azteca marker, acrylic 

18”x24”

Drawn by hand, Turtle’s original energy was the pure joy of my 2 year old God-baby. I used to speak to this kid in an imaginary turtle voice and my kid would have full on conversations with this turtle! That is joy. 

Black life is joy and constant pain. Although I did’nt know it at the time, the day turtle began was the day Ahmaud Arbery was murdered. Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks were also murdered by police during Turtles incubation. The 28 diamonds that flank the border represent Black women murdered by police. Diamond ancestors include Sandra Bland, Ma’Khia Bryant, Atatiana Jefferson, and Kathryn Johnston (age 92 when murdered by police) Those are just a few names. 

 Turtle also carries the memories of Palestinian family members killed in 2021, the deadliest year for Palestinian children since 2014. Casualties of Israeli Apartheid subject to a never ending assault on their lives by the Isreali government, with funding from the U.S. 

I cannot imagine being a child in occupied Gaza, Sheikh Jarrah today. I cannot imagine any 2 year old in my village being killed by bombs of the oppressor. 

 If you can feel this Turtle, I hope that you too are educating yourself on the similarities between American Apartheid, South African Apartheid, and Israeli Apartheid. It’s heavy, but necessary. All of our village babies deserve to talk to an imaginary turtle, to maintain the joy of a child, to dream. 

Get Some

2022

Watercolor, indigo ink, acrylic, blue drafting pencil

18”x24”

This piece of peace is titled, CONTROL. GET SOME. Like all of my work, this is an outlet piece. A space for me to meditate and process things about our world that may be troubling me. I created this one after xxxxx mass shooting committed by whoever it was this time. This piece is a collection of different imaginary controls. As noted by NPR re: mass shootings… A staggering 98% of these crimes have been committed by men, according to The Violence Project, a nonpartisan research group that tracks U.S. mass shooting data dating back to 1966. NPR reports that young white men far outnumber others for these crimes. Certainly if you are paying attention, you know this. So why is there no National conversation around teaching cis males to take responsibly for themselves, and stop outsourcing their suffering? Why are there no emotional intelligence classes offered in elementary and middle school, teaching this demographic how to process emotion in a way that is generative, and not destructive? Certainly we ALL need these classes no matter the gender, but it cannot be denied that the failure to process and deal with a situation/emotion, results in the death of others most frequently when we are talking cis men. Who knows. I know it’s complicated. All I can say is…… CONTROL….GET SOME. And for all those who DO have control, and ARE emotionally intelligent…. Please…. Collect your friends.

Ode to New Mexico

2020

acrylic on canvas

16”x20”

While visiting New Mexico, I was fortunate enough to visit both the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. I found it both astonishing and disgraceful, that although we all grow up on Native Land in the U.S., I had never been to a museum filled with Native American art, jewelry, humanstory, and culture.

This piece is a meditation on respect, love, and admiration for brilliant indigenous cultures that have produced some of the most beautifully powerful art I have ever seen. It is my interpretation of a building in space/on water that carries with it infinite indestructible jewel based longhouses, hogans, wigwams, adobe houses, igloos, wattles, and daubs of the future. A celestial building carrying the power of future generations as well as the secrets and traditions prevalent before the destruction and genocide brought by Europeans. 

Black & Mexican Solidarity Flag

2019

Paper, Acrylic, watercolor, fine line marker, oil

14”x17”

Mass incarceration is one of the biggest human rights issues of our time. This flag is in honor of our shared struggles as Mexican people, and descendants of the enslaved in America. Honoring us as we survive being targeted by police and ICE as “criminals” and “illegals”. Words used to justify discrimination, disappearance, mistreatment, and murder by this country. It is a flag honoring our resilience in the face of oppression. It is a flag honoring our beauty as a people. It is a flag honoring our personhood, our potential, our families, and our human and civil rights. It is a flag encouraging us to fight and win together. Reminding us that we are one blood.

It is my wish, that through it all this piece provides warmth, happiness, and protection to all of us.

Pose

2019

acrylic paint, acrylic pen, micron pen

9” x 12”

This piece of peace is in honor of real life heroines like Miss Major, Marsha P. Johnson, Deedee Chamblee,  Bamby Salcedo, Stefanie Rivera, and Sylvia Rivera. It was inspired by a black dangly earring worn by Elektra Abundance-Evangelista (Dominique Jackson) on POSE. The earring was a beautiful onyx circle suspended between the legs of a black triangle. I took the very basic outline of that earring and created this piece.

It began as a protective love meditation on Black women of trans experience. Black trans women experience high levels of violence and homicide year after year in the U.S. Little is done about it. 

I have witnessed and lived some of the negative life impacts of discrimination based on - isms and -obias like transphobia and racism. It can feel almost impossible to live, let alone thrive. I have also seen these negative life impacts play out as a former attorney for the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and former Human Rights Investigator at the Southern Center for Human Rights. 

This is a peace uplifting the beauty, resilience, brilliance, softness, power, and fortitude of the living. It is a black futures piece conjuring the light that would radiate if my sisters were able to move in a world where the burden of hatred was removed entirely. It is also a peace honoring the memory of the dead.

Beekeeper

2017

paper + gold calligraphy pen + watercolor + sharpie

14" x 17”

This textile was created to outfit a melanated working Royal. 

This textile was made using my Beekeeper original drawing.

This piece of peace was a meditation on intense communal effort resulting in the production of enough honey to feed the entire village. The art is a reflection of an ecosystem designed to protect, preserve, and pollinate the flower of life. There are two representations of the flower of life in this peace. If you look hard enough, in this ecosystem you will find the flower, the water, the sun, the soil, the internal geometric matrix of the all-female worker bees, and the special coordinates of the all-powerful Queen. 

This piece really was a dedication to the brilliance and work ethic of Black women. And I’m so happy the original lives with my big brother, Justin Lufair, someone who uplifts and respects that brilliance. Justin uses his position to be a servant and elevator of Black women around him. He understands that economic empowerment for one black woman is known to provide for at least 20 others in the community. Black women work hard to provide enough honey for the entire village. I designed this piece to ensure those same Black women get their flowers, and have their honey returned to them three fold. 

Black Wall Street Exoplanet

2021

paper, water color, acrylic, copic marker

14”x17”

An exoplanet is a planet outside the solar system. It can be seen by humans but cannot be reached. The Black Wall Street Exoplanet was born out of the idea that Black economic belts should be free to thrive and generate generational wealth for black people. 

Outside of enslavement, black folks enjoyed economic success in communities around the country. Our wealth and ability to build communities opulent in spirit and economy was well known.

Consumed by the need to ensure Black people were confined to a lower caste, white delusionists destroyed black towns around the country. 

Note: (white delusionist is a term I use instead of “supremacist” because white people have never been supreme. Using white together with any derivative of the word supreme, even with the intent to deride, legitimizes the ideology of supremacy. Delusionist/delusionism should be used instead of supremacist/supremacy, for the sake of accuracy. Language is important)

It is important to remember that the white delusionists  who bombed Black Wall Street from the air, and burned it down from the ground were not in Klan robes, they were government officials, doctors, lawyers, insurance agents, bankers, white ministers, and of course police. 

I have placed the generational riches of Black Americans, descendants of the enslaved,  in this Exoplanet, out of reach. Melanin is the key to entrance. 

In this exoplanet we can dream, create, build, organize, grow, and develop our villages in peace. Here, we enjoy joy and prosperity in peace. 

To get an understanding of just how much Black people have built and lost to the terrors of white delusionism, I encourage everyone to begin their investigation with the following: 

Black Wall Street  massacre (Tulsa Oklahoma)

Red Summer of 1919

Bombing of the Move House in Philadelphia

The Springfield Massacre

The Polk County Massacre

The Slocum Massacre

The Elaine Massacre

The Rosewood Massacre

The Flooding of Black towns

Sleeping Faces

2018

paper, micron pen, acrylic paint

14”x17”

Since I am an autodidact, I use every piece of art to teach myself something. The original was my attempt at practicing depth through a series of arrows, nets, line direction, and color blocking. 

It is named Sleeping Faces because when I showed my Mom the original and asked her what she saw, she said Sleeping Faces. Do you see them? 

Ellaina Lewis as Cassandra

2024

watercolor, acrylic

18" x 24”

The Story: This painting was created for the brilliant Soprana, Ellaina Lewis. The artist L.Haz has long dreamed of designing for a Black Opera star, and Ellaina Lewis was kind enough to participate. This is the first intentional concept to stage creation for L.Haz and will be featured on Ellaina Lewis in the first ever opera rendition of the story of  Cassandra.  

Cassandra’s story is rich with the pain of knowing the truth but vocalizing what others perceive to be lies. I created this work as a cloak that would give Cassandra her voice back and strengthen her as she battles to share truth.

The work is grounded in the color blue because blue is the color of the throat chakra. When in balance this chakra speaks the highest truths. When out of balance, it is powerless. 

Blue ombré is used vertically in this piece to signify the journey of the voice moving from outside of Cassandra into her core. 

At the highest point of this piece, I have placed the vocal cords. The vocal cords are meant to sit at the top of the cape to remind Cassandra to be bold in telling her story, to defeat all fears associated with exercising her voice.  

The work includes my interpretation of decorative elements found in Greek Pottery, specifically water and floral motifs found in ancient Greek vases. 

The waves lined in the middle of the work symbolize the elimination of inner stains, and the warding off of malevolent forces. Waves in this way are a protective element as seen in many cultures in Africa.  

At the bottom middle of the piece, you may see the face of the praying mantis. The mantis arrived as a warning sign to those who may seek to have unwanted physical contact with Cassandra knowing her story would not be believed. In such cases, regardless of the magnitude of contact, the assailant would be killed and devoured. In this way, Cassandra is not helpless, instead she protects herself by wielding the ultimate power over life and death.