Work samples
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Unnamed Infant
Unnamed Infant
The Kittamaqundi Community Church (Columbia, MD) meets in a building that was formerly the stables of a plantation. Hearing the voices in the stones of their building's wall, they have taken on finding and returning the names of as many of those ghosts as possible, names lost to time and enslavers who kept better records of their horses than the people they held.
This painting depicts the enslaved peple and the names found to date, envisioning their names, them, and others still unnamed, in the stones.
The title, "Unnamed Infant" is from a property listing in one owner's will. The community has been unable to verify any further information about the baby.
Oil on canvas
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Redlined
Assemblage in response to Redlining, the discriminatory housing practice, which has its roots in federal, state, and local law. The foreground is a drawing of a transparent man, captive, over the original federal loan map of Baltimore, with clockworks to symbolize the nature of the practice both systemic and ongoing. Unoccupied areas of the map show the original restrictive city ordinance and a typical restrictive housing covenant. Through rowhouse windows and doors, you can see recent and contemporary effects. Oil, charcoal, collage, found objects.
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Ukraine
"Ukraine" Oil on Canvas, 2022-2023
This painting was inspired by a French news photo (from the previous Russian incursion) that just wouldn't let me go. Painting it gave me the opportunity make changes in the soldier's position and emphasize the yellow and blue in the background, portraying the biblical and contemporary references it stirred so strongly in me. -
Moishe Polinski Dreams of Children
With a background painting of a Holocaust victim and foreground paintings of child soldiers, this work features related objects in a slatted box: a child's toy, Nazi boxcars from a train set, and evocative natural objects. Oil on unfinished wood, objects. 21"w x 13"h x 6" deep.
About Ken
I have drawn, painted, and made things virtually my whole life, but I wanted more rigor. So I told my children that when they graduated… more
Unnamed Infant
The Kittamaqundi Community Church (Columbia, MD) meets in a building that was formerly the stables of a plantation. Hearing the voices in the stones of their building's wall, they have taken on finding and returning the names of as many of those ghosts as possible, names lost to time and enslavers who kept better records of their horses than the people they held.
This painting depicts the enslaved peple and the names found to date, envisioning their names, them, and others still unnamed, in the stones.
The title, "Unnamed Infant" is from a property listing in one owner's will. The community has been unable to verify any further information about the baby.
The search for names continues, and there is room on the painting for more names.
Oil on canvas
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Unnamed Infant
The Kittamaqundi Community Church (Columbia, MD) meets in a building that was formerly the stables of a plantation. Hearing the voices in the stones of their building's wall, they have taken on finding and returning the names of as many of those ghosts as possible, names lost to time and enslavers who kept better records of their horses than the people they held.
This painting depicts the enslaved peple and the names found to date, envisioning their names, them, and others still unnamed, in the stones.
The title, "Unnamed Infant" is from a property listing in one owner's will. The community has been unable to verify any further information about the baby.
Oil on canvas
Ukraine
"Ukraine" Oil on Canvas, 2022-2023
This painting was inspired by a French news photo (from the previous Russian incursion) that just wouldn't let me go. Painting it gave me the opportunity make changes in the soldier's position and emphasize the yellow and blue in the background, portraying the biblical and contemporary references it stirred so strongly in me.
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Ukraine
"Ukraine" Oil on Canvas, 2022-2023
This painting was inspired by a French news photo (from the previous Russian incursion) that just wouldn't let me go. Painting it gave me the opportunity make changes in the soldier's position and emphasize the yellow and blue in the background, portraying the biblical and contemporary references it stirred so strongly in me.
Redlined
The relationship of wealth, not to mention freedom, to whiteness is neither accidental nor individual. Governments at all levels, financial institutions, landlords, and real estate firms have created systems to maintain the disparity.
Several cities enacted racially restrictive ordinances in the early 1900’s, led by Baltimore in 1910.
Then, during the Depression, the federal government made maps of over 150 urban centers, coding the "financial security” of neighborhoods. The lowest-rated areas were in red, originating the term “redlining." But the map areas weren’t just based on financial experience. Race and ethnic origin were explicit factors.
Banks charged higher interest for loans and mortgages in redlined areas. While rates stayed high, even when overt housing discrimination became illegal, housing value fell, leaving marginalized people, primarily people of color, unable to move, improve their housing, or accumulate wealth, only one way to go: further into the red.
Landlords who do not want to invest in deteriorating units, predatory lenders, hiring discrimination, neighborhood covenants, informal home sales agreements, and real estate and college admission policies that made even the G.I. Bill inaccessible to minorities have forced the relative wealth of people in redlined areas to decline. Renters and owners, underwater financially, are stuck.
Even after 80 years, Baltimore city, the City Paper, and others have published maps of incarceration, failure to pass the MD High School Assessments, graduation rates, life expectancy, unemployment, and so forth. You can overlay them on the 1937 map of Baltimore and the worst areas almost exactly correspond to the red and yellow (“declining”) areas in the 1937 “Security” map.
The work features gears and clocks to symbolize the systems and their continuation. You will find maps and posters, along with sections of the original ordinances and covenants. In front, a man on his knees, hands behind his back, and in back, flames.
Man in the Moon/Mask
Typewriter
Matchboxes
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Yellow Box2011. Locket, rust, chinese coin, objects
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PensSeahorse, computer board, objects
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Paper WebPaper, objects
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Woman HeartJewelry, photo, objects
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FilmFilm, gold leaf, objects
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FastenersPaper, bee, objects
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CyrillicKey, computer board, objects
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Butterfly wingButterfly wings, objects
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EgyptianMatchbox assemblage. Photo (my ancestors), seahorse, objects
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Air mailMatchbox Assemblage. Found objects, film
Valentine Book
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Valentine book, coverObject, made of natural materials, cut paper, and glitter, accompanies the book.
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Valentine Book endpaperPapers
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Valentine Book, p.1Objects, papers, hand stamp. Center area on all pages is inset.
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Valentine Book, p.2Collaged objects, papers, hand stamp
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Valentine book, p.3Collaged objects, papers, hand stamp
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Valentine Book, p.4Collaged objects, papers, hand stamp
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Valentine Book, p.5Collaged objects, papers, hand stamp
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Valentine Book, p.6Collaged objects, papers, hand stamp
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Valentine Book, p.7Collaged bjects, papers, hand stamp
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Valentine Book, p.8Papers, hand stamp
Moishe Polinski Dreams of Children
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Moishe as displayedThe assemblage includes the slat hanging to the left. The background and the child soldiers are painted (oil) on the box and slats.
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Moishe DetailDetail of assemblage, showing boxcars (It was hard to find these models of German boxcars c. 1939. I repainted them to make them appear to have been used.) Also shown: handmade barbed wire and various objects. The slats were originally the bottom of the box, a plant tray. I moved them to create the feel of imprisonment.
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Detail: Roots & WingsRoots grow into the box from the top. The (real) butterfly in the background actually protrudes past the top of the box.
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Moishe: DetailOil on wood painting of child soldier. I painted the child soldiers relatively thinly to keep the wood grain and keep them from jumping out of the slats.
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Moishe: Background DetailHere's part of the oil on masonite background painting of Auschwitz prisoners.
Balance
Wh...?
This assemblage a narrative, but it is open, so you can have your own story or questions.
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Wh...? Overview.The background is an oil painting of a woman over a collaged scan of a (real) butterfly, itself painted over, and collaged photos. There are closeups of some of the objects in the detail photos.
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Wh...? Detail: Pendant and photosYou are looking at the pendant in the left space and vintage photos. I selected these to give a feeling of backstory without enough details to define the story.
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Wh...? Detail: TextYou are looking at text transferred to multiple layers of acrylic medium, and assembled butterfly wings.