More Lynching Blues

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1.  Lynching Blues #5 is one of the earliest of the lynching series. I wasn't sure how far the drawings would go during this period, but I knew it was important for me to have this sort of creative documentation about a horrible piece of American history. Especially as it pertains to people who look like me. I've often imagined what it would have been like to live during this particular period as a black man, or even as a gay black man. This piece also displays my beginning to come into my own with the ink washes, I think.

2. Lynching Blues #25 expresses how the nightmarish injustices affected the consciousness of black people on a daily basis. It displays what the mental health must have been like for many who were affected directly, or indirectly as African Americans during Jim Crow.

3. Lynching Blues # 27 shows a tar and feather event taking place outside, by a white mob. It also tells how racism is definitely a taught behavior, as little children are exposed to such things without any regard to age or understanding of the inhumane treatment of other people.

4. Lynching Blues #2 is another early drawing of the series, in which I was experimenting more with my love of trees also, and combining them into different narratives.

5. Lynching Blues #4 was partially inspired by the song Strange Fruit, mostly famous as an important protest by singer Billie Holiday who gave a haunting performance of the tune. Within the lyrics is a description of " bulging eyes and the twisted mouth. " As it tells the story of lynching. I imagined the gagging as the noose squeezes the throat, when the victims weight is released to hang in the air.