Some friends don’t feel random at all, and King is one of those people who was clearly sent into my life for reasons. I met King freshman year of High School and her love and creativity have deeply transformed my conception of what its possible for me to create. I have no memory of King without a camera, and I mean a nice one. The courage and bravery it takes to repeatedly choose to document what you find beautiful, or interesting, or important has been a deep inspiration to witness.

The first camera I ever picked up was hers, and she was the subject. She was the first person I ever saw draw on printed out pictures like I always wanted to. As I grew by her side as a painter, ideas percolated.

In 2019, King enlisted my help in shooting some portraits of her for her MAD series. The beauty of the photos unlocked something in me that allowed me to start saving money on a camera. Watching what King did with her photos and the couple photos I took further inspired me to expand my conception of the lines between digital and tangible creation.

I was and am forever a phone photographer, but once I finally got my current “nice” camera, I couldn’t help but notice the way my eye had been inspired by what I saw with her, shot with her and saw her shoot. Once I looked back at my photography from my new camera, the urge to paint and collage on them was impossible to resist.

The first photo series of mine that I painted on was the Reclaimed Root series. This series evolved from my curation of Quadre “REDD” Curry’s art show and the subsequent job photographing one of Redd’s performance art events a few weeks later. As I began painting the energy I saw in REDD’s photos on to the prints, I was struck with the memory of King’s MAD series. In that moment, I knew I wanted to pay homage to the inspirational role she’s played in my life and creativity by featuring some of her work along side mine. Though the subject matter of Reclaimed Root is different than that covered in King’s MAD Series, the way the stories speak to each other is divine.

Coming Soon