Beauty for Ashes

For the past 8 years, I have used figure drawing and portraiture to explore issues of Black masculinity, fatherhood, faith, and mental health, in the context of divorce and Family Law. The result is Beauty for Ashes, a project which unpacks my healing journey after escaping a toxic marriage. Beauty for Ashes refutes the social narrative that “Black men are absentee fathers,” and confronts the diabolical ways Family Court marginalizes Black men. Ultimately, Beauty for Ashes underscores the resilience of Black fatherhood.

This project requires art techniques/processes which embody the ordeal, and the beauty, of journeying through grief in search of joy. Therefore, I prioritize materials ordinarily considered “trash”- court document ashes, glass shards, metal fragments, etc.- in order to re-center the importance of Black fathers in discussions about the Black family. Furthermore, I employ the Japanese water print-making method of Suminagashi because it can be guided but not controlled. These prints symbolize tangled familial histories, story arcs that give context to my life.