How have the Arts impacted your life?
The Arts have impacted my life in many ways. In my industry you have to think outside the box to separate yourself from the crowd. Real Creators Create is a motto I live by.

Tell us about your company and your role.
G2 Hoops, LLC is a sports marketing event management company specializing in promoting the game of basketball at the grassroots level. We have provide skill development, consultation and speaking engagements domestically and internationally.

How have the Arts impacted your life?
The Arts have been a healing mechanism during my entire life. It’s literally and essential worker in our world. It has been a healing agent of laughter, expression, and translation of the countless stories that allow a safe place to share our emotions, thoughts and opinions. It’s also a place that has taught so many life lessons that I use today.

How important are the Arts to our youth?
The Arts are the Essential Workers of our youth. Most children would not be able to manage the stressors of this world without the creative expression of Arts in our community. It’s the backbone of mental health. From a laugh to a healthy cry having a place to relate in this world has become harder and harder for youth. I remember growing up and playing with neighbors and now children are unable to do that but through Arts they are able to connect and share thoughts on the latest episode or dance challenge. It bridges the gap in ways that truly needs more attention like never before.

How has art impacted your life?
I have found art to be an excellent vehicle for communicating deeper thoughts and complex issues that many people can relate to. Art is also a way of revisiting the past without opening painful wounds.

Describe your art style.
I would describe my art style as layered collage using found objects, vintage photographs and ephemera to tell a story and develop a visual narrative.

How have the Arts impacted your life?
Ever since I was 5 years old I knew I wanted to be an artist.  At every phase of my life art was at the intersection, guiding me, informing me, and enriching my vision of my self and the world around me.  I see everything through the lens of an artist.  I am constantly observing, analyzing, and decoding the things I witness in my quest for deeper understanding and living my fullest life.  I have dedicated my life to making art about the human condition and living by the credo derived from Proverbs 18:16 which states, "A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before the great."

Describe your style of art.
The majority of my work is derived from my imagination and deep affinity to history, in particular Civil Rights history.  I construct my compositions like a conductor directs an orchestra.  I carefully think about the juxtaposition of forms, the intersection of complex narratives and symbols, and the poetic structure of the human form and its myriad expressions that communicate to my audience.  Stylistically I have drawn from the Surrealist movement, the panoramic story telling murals of the 1930's, the African American aesthetic during the Harlem Renaissance, the protest posters and murals of the Mexican Masters, the German Expressionist woodcuts, and the salient voice of the Black Power movement of the 1960's.  My figures are charged with vitality, they appear to be heroic as their sinewy muscles bulge.  The exaggerated forms project into space through the mechanism of perspective and you are aggressively pulled into the compositions and are left to ponder your agency.  My art is bold, unapologetically Black, sometimes confrontational, but mired in love of self, community, and society.