(soulful tranquil music)
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)
- The protocol of painting is very slow and meditative,
and I think that's what I appreciate about it.
It's a space that I'm very comfortable in.
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)
I think it's become really good
for my mental health. (laughs)
There's a dynamism that happens with these images
where it becomes about that singular moment.
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)
(objects clacking)
Oh, it's on the table in the break room.
I was introduced to these bikers when I moved to Baltimore.
Although most people consider them a nuisance,
I think there's something so fantastic
about their ability to teach themselves
these highly skilled ways of riding these dirt bikes.
They're riding at this 12 o'clock position,
which is straight up and down,
but a lot of times their hands are off of the bike,
and there's a sense of freedom.
I wanted to try to capture this effect of, like, flying.
Although these are dirt bikes, and dirt bikes are loud,
these paintings are kind of quiet,
as if they've been lifted off the ground,
they're flying in the air,
and it's just like this moment of silence.
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)
(street bustling) (wind whooshing)
I was born in 1973.
We were always outside riding our bikes.
When we all turned like, I don't know, like 11 or 12,
somebody's parents got them like a scooter,
and then everybody got a scooter.
So all of us had...
It was like a gang of, like, 12 or 13 kids,
and we'd be riding around on our scooters.
It was an all-American childhood.
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)
I kind of feel like a giant in here now.
There's like the piggy bank (chuckles)
that I painted in art class in high school.
I used to push this window up
and put my boombox in the window,
and I remember memorizing
Prince: "Sign O' The Times," (chuckles)
and playing it over and over again
with my cassette tape player.
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)
Artists have been painting children for a very long time,
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)
so it feels like another way
of making a traditional painting.
The idea was having this slide in the sky, almost,
and it seems like he's just reached this pinnacle,
like, he's this pioneer standing on top of a mountain.
I wanted to join him in that moment of exploration.
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)
When I was living in Baltimore,
I had the opportunity to work on a farm.
It's some of the hardest work I've ever done,
and I have a great respect for the ministry of that,
of, like, growing food.
My model, his name is Denzel,
is just a very special person
who's very passionate about teaching people
how to grow their own food and where it comes from.
I named the painting "A God Blessed Land"
in thinking about American soil,
and my ancestral connections to farming and plantations.
Alongside that, I also want it
to just be, like, a regular moment of a guy's life.
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)
(metal screeching)
(metal clanking)
Because the work is evolving and I'm evolving,
I've had to change my process up some.
Painting this large is very different
from what I've always done my whole life.
It's something that I'm still getting used to.
Certain things have to be more exaggerated,
like, highlights have to be more exaggerated
to still come to life,
when you're, you know, 10 or 15, 20 feet back from it.
For me, it's really about getting the face in first.
Especially after I get the eyes in,
that's when the image kind of comes alive.
(intriguing tranquil music)
Hi, Alice.
I wanna like hop over, (chuckles) get closer.
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)
This one, when I look at it,
I don't see anything I wanna fix,
which sometimes I'm like,
"Oh, I wish I could do this to it, or do that to it,"
but I don't see anything that I wanna fix.
I love beauty.
I know beauty's a bad word,
but I like to make things that make people feel good,
and I think beautiful paintings are important.
(intriguing tranquil ethereal upbeat music)
I say figuration is like the soul food of art-making,
it's like what takes you back home,
and what you eat when you need comfort.
And we all need that at some point.
(intriguing tranquil ethereal music)