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I believe there is beauty

2
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in hearing the voices of people
who haven't been heard.

3
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[Drawing the Blinds, 2014]

4
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[The Jerome Project
(Asphalt and Chalk III 2014)]

5
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[Beneath an Unforgiving Sun
(from a Tropical Space), 2020]

6
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That's a complex idea

7
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because the things that must be said

8
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are not always lovely,

9
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but somehow,

10
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if they're reflective of truth,

11
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I think fundamentally
that makes them beautiful.

12
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(Music)

13
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There's the aesthetic beauty of the work

14
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that in some cases functions
as more of a Trojan horse.

15
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It allows one to open their hearts
to difficult conversations.

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Maybe you feel attracted to the beauty,

17
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and while compelled by the technique,

18
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the color,

19
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the form or composition,

20
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maybe the difficult
conversation sneaks up.

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[Billy Lee & Ona Judge
Portraits in Tar, 2016]

22
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I really taught myself how to paint

23
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by spending time at museums

24
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and looking at the people that --

25
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the artists, rather, that I was
told were the masters.

26
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Looking at the Rembrandts,

27
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Renoir,

28
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Manet,

29
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it becomes quite obvious

30
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that if I'm going to learn
how to paint a self-portrait

31
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by studing those people,

32
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I'm going to be challenged

33
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when it comes to mixing my skin

34
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or mixing the skin
of those people in my family.

35
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There's literally formulas
written down historically

36
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to tell me how to paint white skin --

37
00:02:00,011 --> 00:02:02,743
what colors I should use
for the underpainting,

38
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what colors I should use
for the impasto highlights.

39
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That doesn't really exist for dark skin.

40
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It's not a thing.

41
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It's not a thing because

42
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the reality is our skin wasn't
considered beautiful.

43
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The picture,

44
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the world that is represented
in the history of paintings

45
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doesn't reflect me.

46
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It doesn't reflect the things
that I value in that way,

47
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and that's the conflict that I struggle
with so frequently --

48
00:02:36,313 --> 00:02:40,998
is I love the technique
of these paintings,

49
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I have learned from the technique
of these paintings,

50
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and yet I know that they have
no concern for me.

51
00:02:50,132 --> 00:02:53,647
And so there are so many of us

52
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who are amending this history

53
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in order to simply say we were there.

54
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Because you couldn't see
doesn't mean we weren't there.

55
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We have been there.

56
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We have been here.

57
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We've continued to be seen
as not beautiful,

58
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but we are,

59
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and we are here.

60
00:03:16,132 --> 00:03:20,116
So many of the things that I make

61
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end up as maybe futile attempts
to reinforce that idea.

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[Drawing the Blinds, 2014]

63
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[Seeing Through Time, 2018]

64
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Even though I've had the Western training,

65
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my eye is still drawn
to the folks who look like me.

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And so sometimes in my work,

67
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I have used strategies like whiting out
the rest of the composition

68
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in order to focus on the character
who may go unseen otherwise.

69
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I have cut out other figures
from the painting,

70
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one, to either emphasize their absence,

71
00:04:02,629 --> 00:04:07,747
or two, to get you to focus
on the other folks in the composition.

72
00:04:07,747 --> 00:04:10,251
[Intravenous (From
a Tropical Space), 2020]

73
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So The Jerome Project aesthetically
draws on hundreds of years

74
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of religious icon painting.

75
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A kind of aesthetic structure

76
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that was reserved for the church,

77
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reserved for saints.

78
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It's a project that is an exploration
of the criminal justice system.

79
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Not asking the question
are these people innocent or guilty,

80
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but more, is this the way
that we should deal with our citizens.

81
00:04:49,731 --> 00:04:51,697
I started a body of work

82
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because after being
separated from my father

83
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for almost 15 years,

84
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I reconnected with my father

85
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and I really didn't know
how to make a place for him

86
00:05:06,130 --> 00:05:07,400
in my life.

87
00:05:07,615 --> 00:05:10,881
As with most things I don't understand,

88
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I work them out in the studio.

89
00:05:13,715 --> 00:05:17,398
And so I just started making
these portraits of mugshots,

90
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starting because I did
a Google search for my father

91
00:05:21,415 --> 00:05:24,449
just wondering what had happened
over this 15 year period.

92
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Where had he gone?

93
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And I found his mugshot,

94
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which of course was of no surprise,

95
00:05:29,300 --> 00:05:31,849
but I found in that first search,

96
00:05:31,849 --> 00:05:36,534
97 other Black men with exactly
the same first and last name

97
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and I found their mugshots,

98
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and that was a surprise.

99
00:05:40,618 --> 00:05:42,667
And not knowing what to do,

100
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I just started painting them.

101
00:05:45,317 --> 00:05:48,718
Initially, the tar was
a formula to allow me

102
00:05:48,718 --> 00:05:53,806
to figure out how much of these men's
life had been lost to incarceration,

103
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but I gave up that,

104
00:05:56,085 --> 00:06:00,584
and the tar became far more
symbolic as I continued,

105
00:06:00,584 --> 00:06:01,634
because what I realized

106
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is the amount of time that you spend
incarcerated is just the beginning

107
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of how long it's going to impact
that rest of your life.

108
00:06:08,586 --> 00:06:11,751
So in terms of beauty within that context,

109
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I know from my friend's family,

110
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who have been incarcerated,

111
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who are currently incarcerated,

112
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folks want to be remembered.

113
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Folks want to be seen.

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We put people away for a long time,

115
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in some cases,

116
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for that one worst thing
that they've done.

117
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So to a degree,

118
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it's a way of just saying ...

119
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I see you.

120
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We see you.

121
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And I think that,

122
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as a gesture,

123
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is beautiful.

124
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In the painting "Behind
the Myth of Benevolence,"

125
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
there's almost this curtain of Thomas
Jefferson painted and pulled back

126
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to reveal a Black woman who's hidden.

127
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This Black woman is at once
Sally Mae Hemings,

128
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but she's also every other Black woman
who was on that plantation, Monticello,

129
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and all the rest of them.

130
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The one thing we do know
about Thomas Jefferson

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is that he believed in liberty.

132
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Maybe more strongly than anyone
who's ever written about it,

133
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and if we know that to be true,

134
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if we believe that to be true,

135
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
then the only benevolent thing
to do in that context

136
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
would be to extend that liberty.

137
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so in this body of work,

138
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I use two separate paintings

139
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that are forced together
on top of one another

140
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to emphasize this tumultuous
relationship between Black and white

141
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in these compositions.

142
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so that --

143
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that contradiction,

144
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that devastating reality
that's always behind the curtain,

145
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
what is happening
in race relations in this country,

146
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that's what this painting is about.

147
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The painting is called "Another Fight
for Remembrance."

148
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The title speaks to repitition.

149
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The title speaks to the kind of violence
against Black people

150
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
by the police

151
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
has happened and continues to happen

152
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and we are now seeing it happen again.

153
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The painting is sort of editorialized
as a painting about Ferguson.

154
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's not not about Ferguson,

155
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but it's also not not about Detroit,

156
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it's also not not about Minneapolis.

157
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The painting was started because

158
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
on a trip to New York

159
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to see some of my own art

160
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with my brother,

161
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as we spent hours walking
in and out of galleries,

162
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we ended the day by being stopped
by an undercover police car

163
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in the middle of the street.

164
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
These two police officers
with their hands on their guns

165
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told us to stop.

166
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They put us up against the wall,

167
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they accused me of stealing art

168
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
out of a gallery space where
I was actually exhibiting art.

169
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And as they stood there
with their hands on their weapons,

170
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I asked the police officer
what was different about my citizenship

171
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
than that of all of the other people
who were not being disturbed

172
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in that moment.

173
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
He informed me that they
had been following us for two hours,

174
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and that they had been getting complaints
about Black men --

175
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
two Black men walking
in and out of galleries.

176
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That painting is about the reality

177
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that it's not a question

178
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of if this is going to happen again,

179
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it's a question of when.

180
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This most recent body of work
is called "From a Tropical Space."

181
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This series of paintings
is about Black mothers.

182
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The series of paintings takes place
in a super-saturated,

183
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
maybe surrealist world

184
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
not that far from the one we live in.

185
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But in this world,

186
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the children of these Black women

187
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are disappearing.

188
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What this work is really about is trauma.

189
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The things that Black women
and women of color in particular

190
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in our community

191
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
have to struggle through

192
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in order to set their kids out
on the path of life.

193
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What's encouraging for me

194
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is that this practice of mine
has given me the opportunity

195
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to work with young people in my community.

196
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm quite certain
the answers are not in me,

197
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but if I'm hopeful at all

198
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it's that they may be in them.

199
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
NXTHVN is a project that started
about five years ago.

200
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And NXTHVN is a 40,000-square-foot
arts incubator in the heart

201
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of the Dixwell neighborhood
in New Haven, Connecticut.

202
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is a predominantly
Black and Brown neighborhood.

203
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It is a neighborhood that has
the history of jazz at every corner.

204
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Our neighborhood in many ways
has been disinvested in.

205
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Schools are struggling to really
prepare our population

206
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
for the futures ahead of them.

207
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I know that creativity
is an essential asset.

208
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It takes creativity

209
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to be able to imagine a future

210
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that is so different than the one
that is before you.

211
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so every artist in our program
has a high school studio assistant.

212
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That's a high school student
coming from the city of New Haven

213
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
who works with them
and learns their craft,

214
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
learns their practice.

215
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so we've seen the ways in which
pointing folks at the power of creativity

216
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
can change them.

217
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Beauty is complicated
because of how we define it.

218
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I think that beauty and truth

219
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are intertwined somehow.

220
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's something beautiful
in truth-telling.

221
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That is --

222
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that as an act, truth-telling,

223
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and the myriad ways it manifests.

224
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's beauty in that.