The Kiss

The inspiration for this piece stems from a photograph from the 1960s, capturing a kiss between a Black man and a white woman.

Against a historical backdrop defined by segregation, antagonism, and severe taboos, such intimacy was anything but ordinary. Yet curiously, when draped in the cloak of "art," it seemed—in some sense within that particular era—to expand the very boundaries of art itself.

While painting, I deliberately used thick layers of pigment to erase the precise outlines of their lips.

I didn't want this to linger as just a passionate kiss. Instead, I was captivated by a physical fusion that transcends taboo: beneath the heavy impasto, their features blur, their flesh interlaces, and the two individuals seem to grow directly into one another.

I painted what intrigued me, employing methods both speakable and unspeakable.

During the creative process, there are times I think less. I just let the brush land.