1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 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 c...

More drawings from the Lynching Blues series. Although I created these years ago, they have become even more relevant now during these troubling and deeply disturbing times, in the world today. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. Lynching Blues #11 displays a slave woman holding a basket of cotton over her head, perhaps preparing to consolidate it with the rest of what has already been gathered, from her labor of the day. This piece was done without my usual ballpoint pen lines, and laid out onto the paper with a brush and India ink only. The bold lines create a more statuesque appearance. I think this technique was very effective in bringing out the bushels of cotton, remaining on the dark stems in the field. 2. Lynching Blues #12 shows the horror and terror of Jim Crow, as the KKK terrorized African American communities. It suggest the painful realities of having to choose between defending the lives of your own family and surrendering to the hate crimes of a dominant culture. 3. ...