Growing older has made me more conscious of my mortality.  Moreover, I've become more aware of the tremendous impact the love of my family and friends has within my life.  All of the Prized Profiles serve as exaltations of the very important people who love, support, and inspire me.  This series is ongoing.

I believe that everyone must fight to make an impact on the world in the time they have been allotted on this earth- whether our actions are positive or negative is a matter of choice.  We are all combatants who fight for/against something.  The most critical of these battles is the one that takes place inside us daily when we reflect on how our experiences have affected us throughout our lives.  The works in this series encourage us to ask ourselves this question: what are you fighting for?

Statistics prove that in areas where people are economically deprived, high crime rates persist. Considering that the majority of these areas are populated mostly by African Americans, Latinos, and poor Whites (un-coincidentally), these demographics tend to have the highest propensity toward serving time in prison. Upon the election of President Trump, purchase of stocks in corporations that function in the private prison sector skyrocketed. His promise to implement a national stop- -frisk campaign to curb crime in American inner cities signals likely profits for the private prison industry, as arrests and convictions (whether false or not) are thus likely to increase. Profitability is even more likely as the Trump administration has already dissolved the policies President Obama put in place to phase out the use of private prisons. The spike in purchases of stock brings to mind the California Gold Rush that began in the middle of the 19th century. Major cities will become the mines, with "criminals" being the key to striking it rich.

Violence is an ugly aspect of the human experience, but for the protection of oneself, it is sometimes a necessary evil. The paintings in this series are fueled by memories of  fights I've had during my now, 30 years of study as a martial artist.

A series of paintings that examine the awkward and uncomfortable role racism plays in African American life.  Moreover, later paintings offer commentary on notions of hope and resilience.

As a nod to the African American-Modernist works by artist Aaron Douglas, these pieces investigate the nuances of the human experience that are introduced by factors such as race, class, or gender.  Unlike Douglas' works, the figure is absent from these paintings to connote the various layers of the human psyche that are impacted by the nuances the aforementioned factors introduce to it.

These paintings address profiling and the negative affects of having those types of experiences.