Artist Statement
As an artist, I am most interested in creating works that range from socio-political topics to creative portraiture. My BA project focuses on the absence of fathers in Black households in the United States. I aim to explore how the lack of a paternal figure impacts the development and mindset of children. As part of my research, I conducted interviews with six Black men, to gain a variety of perspectives on this important issue. I then explored the topic in portraits that I created of three of the six men I interviewed.
The interviews gave me the opportunity to dialogue with Black men with a variety of experiences with fatherhood and/or the absence of fathers in their own families, and to learn more about the ways in which that reality can be detrimental to children. I had interviewed three men in my age group: Antonio Brown, my fraternity brother who grew up with his father; Julian White, a colleague at UW-Milwaukee who grew up with his mother and father; and Steffon “Brooklyn” Dixon, another colleague at UW-Milwaukee who grew up in a home with both parents.
After these interviews, I decided to have dialogue with those who grew up without a father. My fourth interview was with a young man named Ime Williams, a high school colleague who grew up without a father. My fifth interview was with my half-brother, Teven Hendon, a father of two children and grew up without our father. My final interview was with one of my college mentors, Ray Fikes, a father and retired Scholarship coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. All three men had their own takes on the challenges of Black fatherhood, and they also had different adjectives to describe themselves as men.
The three portraits are inspired by Kehinde Wiley, who is known for creating portraits of Black men using ornamental and floral backgrounds. I chose to use this style for my paintings to create positive depictions of young men of color who grew up without a paternal figure. Often, children who grow up without a father are deemed troublesome and/or helpless, and many of these children happen to be Black. Although being raised without a father has its consequences, I thought it would be refreshing to portray Black men who are prospering, and to depict them in a positive light. The flowers are symbols of adjectives that my three interviewees used to describe themselves. Irises represent faith and wisdom, roses symbolize love and courage, and daisies represent innocence and/or humility.
The interviews I conducted reinforced how prevalent the issue of the absence of fathers in Black families is. The purpose of each painting is to communicate the thoughts and feelings of the people I interviewed regarding black fatherhood, victim mentality, and development of fatherless children through text and symbolism with flowers. My project is designed to initiate more nuanced conversation on this matter and what we can do to stop this cycle from reoccurring time and time again.
