So LoNG

KILLING HER

Mixed Media on Styrofoam

Say so long there are only days to go. Winding time down like time is in slow-mo. Take a knife to my work and slit her throat. Gasping for air as she crawls to the door. Bleeding out paint all over the floor. Look into her eyes and I can see the past year stare back at me screaming don’t let this end. Look at yourself, look at what you are doing, look at where you have been. Don’t close those pads, don’t drop those pens. Leave those paint cans open, splatter those canvases again. Who are you to let this come to an end? You got us into this mess day after day. This is how we will be repaid? By killing the lifeline that brought you three-sixty-five. Turn your back on us and you are the one who will die…

STaRT SoMeWHeRe

 

DRIZZLE HONEY ON IT

16″ x 20″ Markers & Paint Pens on Canvas

 

Last night I was racing down the highway trying to get away from a bunch of teenagers that were throwing eggs at my car. I was going as fast as I could, but a hybrid is really no match for a Mustang. I got in front of them and the driver lost control. Light, dark, light, dark, light was the last thing I remembered before the crash. Three bodies sprawled out on the pavement in a red sea. I put a flower in one of their shirts. I drizzled honey in another’s wounds. And rested my head on the third’s chest and said,”there is no way you can like this on Facebook”. I counted to four, pulled out a brown marker and wrote “put it in the oven” across each of their foreheads. Then… I woke up! Man my dreams are gettin’ weird.

CoRNeRS oF DaRKNeSS

DEEP BLACK

10″ x 18″ Mixed Media on Wood

 

A darkness in your beauty. An innocence to your thoughts. Your heart taken for granted. For you it wasn’t just for fun. It wasn’t just a night in life. Meaning was there in the corner of your mind. Your heart fluttering as he walked out the door. Would it have been the same if you knew he was never coming back? Would you have given him another chance? Forgiven in your heart… he is sorry.

RaSTa WaY

RASTA ALL DANCE

16″ x 20″ Mixed Media on Canvas

 

Ratsa all dance to de positive vibe. Bangin’ on de drum feel de beat feel alive. Roll a little something ‘n’ pass it to ya friend. Pull it up from de ground, get it out de garden. Only put inna de body de food dat mek ’em feel good. Treat it like a temple, like ya know ya should. Be a good man to ya bredren, to ya sistren, to everyone dat ya see. Cuz ya know dat we all part of de same family. Give thanks, give praises up to de Most High. In de name of de father Haile Selassi I.

aLWaYS WeRe

 

THE SWEETEST THING

12″ x 24″  Mixed Media on Wood

Standing quiet in nightmares haunting without sound. Words fall upon deaf ears, words fall to the ground… shatter. Pieces picked up, but never fit back together right. Open wounds on hearts fill buckets that get flushed down drains. Always were the sweetest thing. Sweetest thing leaves sweetest pain. Night flashes tap brain… waves. Wake up, it’s just the rain. Like tears, like puddles, like fears, like floods… evaporate with you into forever. Always were… the sweetest thing.

MiDNiGHT MoViN’

NIGHT DANCER

12″ x 24″ Mixed Media on Omega Bond

 

Chains break in the darkness of the midnight hour. Held down no more, running for freedom, running for life. Hidden in the bush from firefly lights and cricket wing fights. Cold ground was her bed last night and rock stone was her pillow too. Dreams of better days made mosquito bites feel like soothing back rubs. High tide and sun rays breathe fresh life into the new day. Wake up and live, wake up and dance today. And when you dance in the air of the gift from tonight don’t ever forget what your yesterdays were like.

 

PoWeReD By THe SuN

SUNFLOWER

24″ x 48″ Mixed Media on Wood

Sunflower power flower powered by the sun. Do a little dance and have a lot of fun. Wave your arms from side to side, wave your arms way up high.  Get your head out in the sky, move your body cuz it’s time. Flower dance now everyone. Flower dance now for the sun. Feel the rays touch you on your feet. Get you up out of your seat. Move your body to the beat. People dancin’ in the street. The time is here, the time is now. Tell the people in your town. Have some fun in the sun. Cuz this summer is almost done.

FRoM THe CuP

 

THIRSTY

8.5″ x 11″ Pen on Paper

 

Last drop out the cup of the coldest water you were no more. Looking out of different eyes to see the daggers thrown. Words turned into whispers into blood. Pain that the brightest sky couldn’t cure. But the sun will always rise. It will always rise. Blood into whispers turned into words. Pulled knives from the heart let the blood flow out. Fill the cup so full it overflows onto the ground. He comes to your side. He lifts you up. Turns blood into water and you are reborn. Lift yourself up from off the ground. Find the strength. Find the fight. Find the way. Find the light. Drink from the cup. Get back up.

MeTaL GRoWTH

 

 

 

 

 

IRON & VINE

24″ x 48″ Mixed Media Sculpture

 

Would you miss the colors? Would it all just be gray? Would things look similar to today? Slowly strangling life, we’ve got to change our way. On a path of doom, listen to what she’s trying to say. Metal flowers can’t slip through cracks on sidewalks of our past. The time is now. The future is in your hands. We must slow down.

aLL HaNDS iN

FROM SOIL

11″ x 15″ Prismacolor & Sharpie on Watercolor paper

 

When is the last time you put your hands in the soil?  When is the last time you felt like part of this Earth?  Don’t get disconnected from your mother.  Don’t forget what life is worth.  Planted here for a purpose.  Planted here to grow.  Planted here to be a part of something bigger than you know.  If it were all just so easy.  If you didn’t need to try.  Would you still make an effort before you died?  Put your hands in the soil and become one with the Earth.  Plant seeds today and make the most of their worth.

BRoKen CHaiNS

SHE IS FREE

12″ x 24″ Mixed Media on Omega Bond

 

Black shadow dancing on Heaven’s horizon. Chains could never hold you back. Hopes and dreams and misery fade like exhaled cigarette smoke in the sky. She is free. Butterfly wings leave empty caves hollow and cold without feeling, without sound. Blurred reality mixed with dreams create memories that never happened. She is free. Drifting in and out of subconscious thoughts of light, scent and sound. Cold sweat night terrors and racing hearts. Three in the morning thoughts seem to last so long. Black shadow dancing right through the gates. Broken chains hang from her wrists. She is free…

MoRe WaTeR, MoRe SuN

FLOWEBURST

10″ x 15″ Mixed Media on Wood

Seed gets planted, just doesn’t grow. Not enough water, not enough sun. Needed more attention. Seed gets planted, something begins to show. Little more water, little more sun. Little more attention. Seed gets planted… BLAM!!! Something begins to SPRouT! SPRiNG! FLoW! More water!!! More sun!!! This could be big, this could be the one! Stars aligning. Planetary shifts. Cycles of the universe, bring this seed a gift. Let this flower grow, let it have a thirst. Let this growth be big. Let it be… a Floweburst. Happening for a reason, not just because of chance. Floweburst do your thing. Floweburst just dance, dance… dance.

WHeN We WeRe YouNGeR

GROWING UP  (GIFTED)

8″ x 36″ Mixed Media on Wood

 

I never really got why we’re here. Just look at all we build in our lives and we all disappear. A few of us are born with so much while most of us just chasing down a dream that we just can’t touch. So why we try so hard in this place? When pain and suffering is a guarantee and happiness is a phase. I wonder if one day we’re at peace or will this whole world just become like the middle east?

But when I (we) was (were) younger, when I (we) was (were) younger I had the answers, I’ve got to say. But all of my answers, now that I’m older turned into questions, in front of me

I wonder where we go when we die. If there is anything past our lost sun and our sky? Cuz airports only take us so high. Is it hidden in the stars? What’s the answer to your soul lying? I wonder do we get to come back. I wonder if I will remember these questions I’ve asked. Or will I just start over again? I hope it’s not too hard to find all of my old friends.

I wonder if we get one true love. Or maybe there’s a few out there. Or maybe not even one. I wonder if it’s made up by man. I wonder if love is what we make with our own two hands. I wonder why I write all these songs. I wonder if you know what you’re saying when you sing along. And will you know my name when I’m gone? Or are you just too sick of these love songs?  ~SOJA

No WaLL FLoWeR

PRETTY GIRL  (SOLD)

18″ x 18″ Mixed Media on Wood

“We felt the imprisonment of being a girl, the way it made your mind active and dreamy, and how you ended up knowing which colors went together. We knew that the girls were our twins, that we all existed in space like animals with identical skins, and that they knew everything about us though we couldn’t fathom them at all. We knew, finally, that the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them.”   ~ Jeffrey EugenidesThe Virgin Suicides