The Imperfect Journey

The Imperfect Journey examines the tension between America's founding ideals and its lived realities. This series interrogates the constitutional aspiration toward "a more perfect union" by confronting the contradictions that both challenge and define the American experiment.

Through mixed media and video projection, these works navigate the space between patriotic attachment and critical engagement—investigating how democratic principles operate within systems shaped by imperialism, racial inequity, and institutional violence. The paintings document moments of national fracture while acknowledging the resilience of democratic aspirations.

The work explores the peculiar alchemy by which flawed systems might still yield transformative outcomes—how the Constitution, despite its compromised origins, established frameworks that enable their own critique and reformation. These pieces contemplate both the messy genesis of American governance and its contested evolution, suggesting that meaningful progress emerges not from ideological purity but through continuous, imperfect striving.

The collection becomes a visual meditation on social contracts, questioning whether national self-determination requires a shared willingness to confront uncomfortable truths about collective responsibility and historical inheritance.

A Hard Look in the Mirror

Speech, 2020
Mixed Media on Canvas
72in x 36in (Three Panels) | SOLD

Commissioned with the open-ended theme of "speeches," this triptych became an exploration of oratorical tradition during the politically charged atmosphere of 2020. The composition incorporates photographic elements from historical figures including MLK, Ghandi, Lincoln, Obama, Malcolm X, Kennedy, and FDR, overlaid with imagery representing the societal challenges their rhetoric sought to address—injustice, oppression, and inhumanity. The creative process became a cathartic journey, with visual elements incorporated to bridge historical contexts with contemporary struggles. The piece invites viewers to confront uncomfortable truths about national identity, institutional failure, and collective responsibility while simultaneously acknowledging the persistent presence of hope, represented by birds in flight above scenes of conflict.

2020 - 2024

Brooklyn Twenty Twenty, 2021
Mixed Media on Acrylic Panel with Video
27.5in x 15.5in | $4500

A visual chronicle documenting the 2020 protests and the aggressive police response to demonstrators. The work captures the visceral experience of witnessing law enforcement tactics deployed against citizens exercising their rights in Flatbush, serving as both documentation and indictment of institutional violence against protest movements.

Problem Statement, 2021
Mixed Media on Acrylic Panel with Video
15.5in x 27.5in | $5500

An exploration of American foundational contradictions, tracing contemporary societal fractures to their historical origins in the institution of slavery and the original compromises that shaped the republic. The work suggests that present-day social problems cannot be addressed without confronting these foundational tensions.

Blood & Treasure, 2022
Mixed Media on Acrylic Panel with Video
27.5in x 15.5in | $5500

This piece examines the parallel development of the prison-industrial and military-industrial complexes as interconnected manifestations of the same fundamental problem—systems that apply growth-oriented mindsets to human subjugation. It critiques how both institutions rationalize the exploitation of vulnerable populations who lack the resources to resist.

Occupation, 2022
Mixed Media on Acrylic Panel with Video
15.5in x 27.5in | $5500

This work extends beyond conventional American exceptionalism to confront the nation's global military presence and the dehumanizing consequences of interventionist foreign policy. It questions the moral contradictions inherent in projecting democratic ideals while engaging in occupations that erode human dignity abroad.

Processing

2016-2020

Processing, 2020
Mixed Media on Canvas | 48in x 36in | $4800

Begun days before the 2016 election as a civic engagement piece encouraging voter participation, this painting transformed into a living document of a turbulent political era. As election results reshaped national discourse, the canvas itself underwent continuous reimagining—each layer responding to evolving circumstances and deepening inquiries into American identity.

Over four years, the work accumulated visual references to American imperialism, suffragist movements, Black Lives Matter protests, climate crisis, and the historical exploitation upon which national prosperity was constructed. The painting's palimpsest quality mirrors the ongoing process of wrestling with complex questions: What does America represent? Where do we proceed from here? What futures might emerge from this fractured present?

Throughout Trump's presidency, the canvas became a space to process disappointment, anxiety, and determination—a visual record of returning repeatedly to the same surface, responding to unfolding events while refusing to accept that America's potential had been foreclosed.

A timelapse video documents the creative process from beginning to end, revealing how each layer evolved in dialogue with the next.

Shut Out, 2016
Mixed Media on Canvas | 36in x 48in | SOLD

A meditation on gender politics and power structures in contemporary society. Created during the 2016 election cycle, this work contemplates the paradoxical position of women as essential yet marginalized citizens—tolerated within systems of power but systematically excluded from their highest echelons.

Law for Thee, Not for Me

2012 - 2016

Work that examines the uneven application of justice and institutional power across American society, revealing systemic inequities embedded within ostensibly neutral frameworks of law and governance.

Celia Coleman, 2015
Mixed Media on Canvas
36in x 48in | $2500

This painting examines the complex moral position of Celia Coleman, the Black domestic worker whose changing testimony proved pivotal in the sensational 1914 trial of Florence Carman for the murder of Lulu Bailey. Standing at the intersection of race, class, and justice in early 20th century America, Coleman initially provided Florence Carman with an alibi before later testifying that she had witnessed her employer leaving the house before the murder.

The layered composition—featuring historical photographic elements overlaid with gestural yellow brushwork—visualizes Coleman's precarious position within the white power structures of both the household and legal system. The work invites viewers to consider the impossible choices facing a Black woman whose truth was simultaneously demanded and devalued, suggesting that Coleman's shifting testimony might reflect not dishonesty but rather careful navigation of a system where her own welfare depended on strategic alignment with competing white interests.

Through this historical lens, the painting asks us to consider whose stories become evidence, whose become sensational newspaper fodder, and what remains unspoken when justice is filtered through racial and class hierarchies.

Tamir, 2015
Mixed Media on Canvas with Video Projection
48in x 36in | $9500

The work confronts the devastating reality of youth vulnerability in public spaces and the fatal misperceptions that mark certain children as threats. It explores the psychological distance between law enforcement and the communities they patrol—how perceived danger overwhelms humanity when a child is seen through a lens of fear rather than innocence.

Vulture, 2015
Acrylic on Canvas
18in x 24in | $800

An examination of the school-to-prison pipeline and the transformation of carceral systems into profit-generating enterprises. The piece interrogates how these systems have reconfigured childhood and education into components of an assembly line that prioritizes margins over human development.

Syria to Paris, 2013
Mixed Media on Canvas with Video Projection
60in x 36in | $9500

The work contemplates the harrowing journey of families fleeing conflict zones and the stark contrast between those living in safety who remain disconnected from their struggle. It examines our collective responsibility toward displaced persons and questions the systems that should integrate and support them but instead remain indifferent to their plight.

Further Work