1
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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
00:00:08,251 --> 00:00:10,561
[Drawing the Blinds, 2014]

4
00:00:10,561 --> 00:00:13,266
[The Jerome Project
(Asphalt and Chalk III 2014)]

5
00:00:13,388 --> 00:00:16,104
[Beneath an Unforgiving Sun
(from A Tropical Space), 2020]

6
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That's a complex idea

7
00:00:17,209 --> 00:00:19,949
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.

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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.

21
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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
00:01:38,014 --> 00:01:41,757
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
00:01:53,026 --> 00:01:57,113
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
00:02:02,743 --> 00:02:06,060
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
00:02:32,272 --> 00:02:36,205
and that's the conflict that I struggle
with so frequently --

48
00:02:36,205 --> 00:02:40,890
is I love the technique
of these paintings,

49
00:02:40,890 --> 00:02:43,604
I have learned from the technique
of these paintings,

50
00:02:43,604 --> 00:02:49,126
and yet I know that they have
no concern for me.

51
00:02:49,954 --> 00:02:53,515
And so there are so many of us

52
00:02:53,515 --> 00:02:55,865
who are amending this history

53
00:02:55,865 --> 00:02:58,631
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
00:03:04,210 --> 00:03:05,670
We have been here.

57
00:03:06,264 --> 00:03:11,932
We've continued to be seen
as not beautiful,

58
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but we are,

59
00:03:13,867 --> 00:03:15,351
and we are here.

60
00:03:15,821 --> 00:03:19,431
So many of the things that I make

61
00:03:19,431 --> 00:03:24,515
end up as maybe futile attempts
to reinforce that idea.

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00:03:24,515 --> 00:03:27,196
[Drawing the Blinds, 2014]

63
00:03:27,351 --> 00:03:30,224
[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.

66
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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
00:03:48,507 --> 00:03:53,522
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
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or two, to get you to focus
on the other folks in the composition.

72
00:04:07,718 --> 00:04:10,222
[Intravenous (From
a Tropical Space), 2020]

73
00:04:10,344 --> 00:04:15,414
So The Jerome Project aesthetically
draws on hundreds of years

74
00:04:15,414 --> 00:04:19,301
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
00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:51,409
I started a body of work

82
00:04:51,409 --> 00:04:54,615
because after being
separated from my father

83
00:04:54,615 --> 00:04:57,481
for almost 15 years,

84
00:04:57,481 --> 00:04:59,886
I reconnected with my father

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

86
00:05:05,975 --> 00:05:07,236
in my life.

87
00:05:07,456 --> 00:05:10,783
As with most things I don't understand,

88
00:05:10,783 --> 00:05:12,926
I work them out in the studio.

89
00:05:13,556 --> 00:05:17,314
And so I just started making
these portraits of mugshots,

90
00:05:17,314 --> 00:05:21,331
starting because I did
a Google search for my father

91
00:05:21,331 --> 00:05:24,227
just wondering what had happened
over this 15-year period.

92
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Where had he gone?

93
00:05:25,770 --> 00:05:27,093
And I found his mugshot,

94
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which of course was of no surprise,

95
00:05:29,169 --> 00:05:31,718
but I found in that first search

96
00:05:31,718 --> 00:05:36,403
97 other Black men with exactly
the same first and last name,

97
00:05:36,403 --> 00:05:37,814
and I found their mugshots,

98
00:05:37,814 --> 00:05:38,899
and that --

99
00:05:38,899 --> 00:05:40,001
that was a surprise.

100
00:05:40,001 --> 00:05:42,446
And not knowing what to do,

101
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I just started painting them.

102
00:05:45,003 --> 00:05:49,444
Initially, the tar was a formula
that allowed me to figure out

103
00:05:49,444 --> 00:05:53,605
how much of these men's life
had been lost to incarceration,

104
00:05:53,605 --> 00:05:55,907
but I gave up that,

105
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and the tar became far more
symbolic as I continued,

106
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because what I realized

107
00:06:01,504 --> 00:06:05,371
is the amount of time that you spend
incarcerated is just the beginning

108
00:06:05,371 --> 00:06:08,045
of how long it's going to impact
that rest of your life.

109
00:06:08,271 --> 00:06:13,043
So in terms of beauty within that context,

110
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I know from my friend's family,

111
00:06:16,636 --> 00:06:18,763
who have been incarcerated,

112
00:06:18,763 --> 00:06:21,159
who are currently incarcerated,

113
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folks want to be remembered.

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Folks want to be seen.

115
00:06:26,211 --> 00:06:29,495
We put people away for a long time;

116
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in some cases,

117
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for that one worst thing
that they've done.

118
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So to a degree,

119
00:06:35,232 --> 00:06:39,078
it's a way of just saying ...

120
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I see you.

121
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We see you.

122
00:06:42,430 --> 00:06:44,338
And I think that,

123
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as a gesture,

124
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is beautiful.

125
00:06:49,157 --> 00:06:51,467
In the painting "Behind
the Myth of Benevolence,"

126
00:06:51,467 --> 00:06:56,549
there's almost this curtain
of Thomas Jefferson

127
00:06:56,549 --> 00:07:02,436
painted and pulled back
to reveal a Black woman who's hidden.

128
00:07:03,498 --> 00:07:07,854
This Black woman is at once Sally Hemings,

129
00:07:07,854 --> 00:07:11,087
but she's also every other Black woman

130
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who was on that plantation Monticello,

131
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and all the rest of them.

132
00:07:16,113 --> 00:07:18,975
The one thing we do know
about Thomas Jefferson

133
00:07:18,975 --> 00:07:22,312
is that he believed in liberty ...

134
00:07:22,312 --> 00:07:26,129
maybe more strongly than anyone
who's ever written about it.

135
00:07:26,129 --> 00:07:27,643
And if we know that to be true,

136
00:07:27,643 --> 00:07:29,281
if we believe that to be true,

137
00:07:29,281 --> 00:07:33,410
then the only benevolent thing
to do in that context

138
00:07:33,410 --> 00:07:36,476
would be to extend that liberty.

139
00:07:36,924 --> 00:07:38,798
And so in this body of work,

140
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I use two separate paintings

141
00:07:43,316 --> 00:07:48,419
that are forced together
on top of one another

142
00:07:48,419 --> 00:07:55,332
to emphasize this tumultuous
relationship between Black and white

143
00:07:55,332 --> 00:07:56,933
in these compositions.

144
00:07:56,933 --> 00:07:59,603
And so that --

145
00:07:59,603 --> 00:08:01,598
that contradiction,

146
00:08:01,598 --> 00:08:06,164
that devastating reality
that's always behind the curtain,

147
00:08:06,164 --> 00:08:12,228
what is happening
in race relations in this country --

148
00:08:12,228 --> 00:08:15,829
that's what this painting is about.

149
00:08:19,177 --> 00:08:22,518
The painting is called "Another
Fight for Remembrance."

150
00:08:23,075 --> 00:08:24,991
The title speaks to repitition.

151
00:08:25,273 --> 00:08:31,957
The title speaks to the kind of violence
against Black people

152
00:08:31,957 --> 00:08:34,323
by the police

153
00:08:34,323 --> 00:08:35,898
that has happened

154
00:08:35,898 --> 00:08:37,213
and continues to happen,

155
00:08:37,213 --> 00:08:40,240
and we are now seeing it happen again.

156
00:08:40,639 --> 00:08:44,827
The painting is sort of editorialized

157
00:08:44,827 --> 00:08:47,675
as a painting about Ferguson.

158
00:08:47,675 --> 00:08:51,304
It's not not about Ferguson,

159
00:08:51,304 --> 00:08:56,452
but it's also not not about Detroit,

160
00:08:56,452 --> 00:09:00,590
it's also not not about Minneapolis.

161
00:09:00,832 --> 00:09:05,093
The painting was started because

162
00:09:05,093 --> 00:09:08,232
on a trip to New York

163
00:09:08,232 --> 00:09:10,051
to see some of my own art

164
00:09:10,051 --> 00:09:11,950
with my brother,

165
00:09:11,950 --> 00:09:15,200
as we spent hours walking
in and out of galleries,

166
00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:20,074
we ended the day by being stopped

167
00:09:20,074 --> 00:09:21,656
by an undercover police car

168
00:09:21,656 --> 00:09:23,233
in the middle of the street.

169
00:09:23,233 --> 00:09:26,331
These two police officers
with their hands on their gun

170
00:09:26,331 --> 00:09:27,562
told us to stop.

171
00:09:27,562 --> 00:09:29,544
They put us up against the wall.

172
00:09:29,544 --> 00:09:32,131
They accused me of stealing art

173
00:09:32,131 --> 00:09:36,295
out of a gallery space where
I was actually exhibiting art.

174
00:09:37,020 --> 00:09:40,140
And as they stood there
with their hands on their weapons,

175
00:09:40,140 --> 00:09:44,722
I asked the police officer
what was different about my citizenship

176
00:09:44,722 --> 00:09:48,004
than that of all of the other people

177
00:09:48,004 --> 00:09:51,691
who were not being
disturbed in that moment.

178
00:09:52,300 --> 00:09:55,996
He informed me that they
had been following us for two hours,

179
00:09:55,996 --> 00:10:00,511
and that they had been getting
complaints about Black men --

180
00:10:00,511 --> 00:10:03,127
two Black men walking
in and out of galleries.

181
00:10:04,154 --> 00:10:08,890
That painting is about the reality

182
00:10:08,890 --> 00:10:11,872
that it's not a question

183
00:10:11,872 --> 00:10:16,538
of if this is going to happen again,

184
00:10:16,538 --> 00:10:18,508
it's a question of when.

185
00:10:20,886 --> 00:10:24,353
This most recent body of work
is called "From a Tropical Space."

186
00:10:24,353 --> 00:10:28,047
This series of paintings
is about Black mothers.

187
00:10:28,643 --> 00:10:34,506
The series of paintings
takes place in a supersaturated,

188
00:10:34,506 --> 00:10:36,522
maybe surrealist world

189
00:10:36,522 --> 00:10:39,738
not that far from the one we live in.

190
00:10:40,004 --> 00:10:41,637
But in this world,

191
00:10:41,637 --> 00:10:45,767
the children of these Black women

192
00:10:45,767 --> 00:10:47,186
are disappearing.

193
00:10:49,431 --> 00:10:52,775
What this work is really about is trauma.

194
00:10:53,571 --> 00:10:57,154
The things that Black women
and women of color in particular

195
00:10:57,154 --> 00:10:58,344
in our community

196
00:10:58,344 --> 00:11:02,890
have to struggle through
in order to set their kids out

197
00:11:02,890 --> 00:11:04,484
on the path of life.

198
00:11:05,742 --> 00:11:08,238
What's encouraging for me

199
00:11:08,238 --> 00:11:13,145
is that this practice of mine

200
00:11:13,145 --> 00:11:15,834
has given me the opportunity

201
00:11:15,834 --> 00:11:19,452
to work with young people in my community.

202
00:11:19,718 --> 00:11:22,943
I'm quite certain
the answers are not in me,

203
00:11:22,943 --> 00:11:24,496
but if I'm hopeful at all,

204
00:11:24,496 --> 00:11:26,861
it's that they may be in them.

205
00:11:27,369 --> 00:11:31,418
NXTHVN is a project that started
about five years ago.

206
00:11:31,676 --> 00:11:34,803
And NXTHVN is a 40,000-square-foot
arts incubator in the heart

207
00:11:34,803 --> 00:11:37,122
in the heart of the Dixwell neighborhood

208
00:11:37,122 --> 00:11:38,557
in New Haven, Connecticut.

209
00:11:38,557 --> 00:11:41,541
This is a predominantly
Black and Brown neighborhood.

210
00:11:41,541 --> 00:11:47,800
It is a neighborhood that has
the history of jazz at every corner.

211
00:11:48,165 --> 00:11:52,049
Our neighborhood in many ways
has been disinvested in.

212
00:11:52,605 --> 00:11:58,074
Schools are struggling to really
prepare our population

213
00:11:58,074 --> 00:12:00,426
for the futures ahead of them.

214
00:12:00,651 --> 00:12:05,753
I know that creativity
is an essential asset.

215
00:12:06,657 --> 00:12:11,054
It takes creativity

216
00:12:11,054 --> 00:12:14,872
to be able to imagine a future

217
00:12:14,872 --> 00:12:17,805
that is so different than the one
that is before you.

218
00:12:18,149 --> 00:12:24,662
And so every artist in our program
has a high school studio assistant.

219
00:12:25,185 --> 00:12:28,799
That's a high school student
that comes from the city of New Haven

220
00:12:28,799 --> 00:12:32,138
who works with them
and learns their craft,

221
00:12:32,138 --> 00:12:34,287
learns their practice.

222
00:12:34,287 --> 00:12:36,267
And so we've seen the ways

223
00:12:36,267 --> 00:12:41,349
in which pointing folks
at the power of creativity

224
00:12:41,349 --> 00:12:42,794
can change them.

225
00:12:44,015 --> 00:12:49,763
Beauty is complicated
because of how we define it.

226
00:12:51,152 --> 00:12:56,135
I think that beauty and truth

227
00:12:56,135 --> 00:12:59,052
are intertwined somehow.

228
00:12:59,553 --> 00:13:05,731
There's something beautiful
in truth-telling.

229
00:13:07,631 --> 00:13:09,819
That is --

230
00:13:09,819 --> 00:13:13,802
that as an act, truth-telling,

231
00:13:13,802 --> 00:13:17,751
and the myriad ways it manifests.

232
00:13:18,173 --> 00:13:20,011
There's beauty in that.