This is a 1/2 work depicting a young jiggy American just trying to survive. The tic tac toe board in the background depicts there is no winner in life, we all lose in the end. The phrase Don’t Die Live is a tag I came up with while being depressed one day. Although life may seem hard at the time being, living is always an option; no matter if you’re poor or rich, you can always choose to live. This work is currently hanging on a wall in East Lansing, MI., in a downtown apartment looking over into Michigan. It was created August 17, 2019 as well, in a span of 5 hours with various materials including: newspaper from that date, acrylic paint, and a handheld hairdryer. While on the way home from Michigan, I totaled my car around 12 a.m. and chose to live. Live on.

This is a 1/2 work depicting my cousin in his Kango hat. This work is currently hanging on a wall in East Lansing, MI., in a downtown apartment looking over into Michigan. It was created August 17, 2019, in a span of 5 hours with various materials including: newspaper from that date, acrylic paint, a zipper, and a handheld hairdryer. While on the way home from Michigan, I totaled my car around 12 a.m.

This work was created between June 25-30, 2016 in a small garage at my mom’s house located in the Shively area of Louisville, Ky. The media used is oil, acrylic, and newspaper on canvas. I was inspired by Jean Michele Basquiat as are a lot of my other works. The artwork depicts a hometown hero, Muhammad Ali through the eyes of an abstract expressionist. You can see the words “the greatest” and “champ” painted that represent what he truly was. Ali is a iconic figurehead for my city and around the world. This work currently hangs in my Bestfriend’s loft located in downtown St. Louis, Mo., a place I once occupied.

Titty Boi

acrylic and newspaper on canvas

March 15, 2020

Louisville, Louisville

ELI

This piece depicts the daily struggles of a inner city kid looking to get out. There are a lot of distractions that can keep you from remaining focus and making it out, for example your enviroment, your inner thoughts, your confidence, etc. The Ying & Yang symbol is placed in the painting to represent balance. There’s a heart tatted under his eye depicting death of love. Titties represent the lust for distractions. DIG symbolizing to dig deeper. Don’t Die Live is a saying I created around 2017, it has two meanings. One, I was at a low point in my life but suicide was never a thought for me; this is a gentle reminder to keep going. Second meaning comes from one of my close friends at the time Claudia (La Jefa) was going through breast cancer. This was also a reminder for her not to give up the fight.

This work was created in 2018 a few days after my favorite artist J. Cole released his album titled K.O.D. The album brought out so many creative thoughts and juices I decided to slap some paint on a canvas. My favorite song off the album was Window Pain and was played on repeat during the making of this painting. I used the color purple to show royalty, green to depict money and greed. The phrase “Kings on drugs” is stretched above the top of the painting because our young kings use drugs as an outlet/social outing to connect with other youths. The cut out is a representation of the reflection of self and how sometimes we use drugs to feel complete not knowing we are already whole while sober. The orange stripe slashing down the painting represents fascination and creativity while being on drugs. I used marijuana in the making of this artwork.

This artwork depicts a young king fighting against politics, police brutality, and I.C.E. He is a rebel and advocates for a society where everybody can be happy and live in peace. The triple X represents death coming in 3s. The bloody crown represents the battle/struggle to the top. The bloody face is a reflection of the rebellious king’s stress over his people’s safety. To dream that you are the one with the bloody face signifies that you feel you are in major danger as well. This can partially act as a prediction of future events for this rebellious king. This artwork was also created in a small garage in the Shively neighborhood of Louisville, Ky. It was originally created in the Summer of 2018 with oil and acrylic paint and newspapers and revisited again in March of 2020.

This artwork depicts two friends snapping it up right before going to the international fashion show on the University of Louisville’s campus. This is a mixed media piece created in the living room of one of my best-friends Robbie Dobbs apartment. That night we took a Vyvanse and stayed up until about 4 in the morning. Don’t do drugs. My mind was zoomed in that night, super focused, and we took multiple smoke breaks in between the paint drying. October 27, 2017. Louisville, Louisville.

This is one of my earlier works, a mixed media painting created in 2016, Louisville, Louisville. If you are from Louisville you know why we only recognize this city as the representation of Kentucky. I was inspired while listening to A$AP Rocky and decided to free flow this painting. I layered this artwork with oil paint, and created a nice long fabricated looking red background.

This painting depicts a man smoking marijuana. This is a small painting but one of my favorites, an oil painting created 2017 in Louisville, Louisville. Yes, I was smoking while creating this piece, and you can probably smell the weed on it if you get close enough. There are some weed nuggets/strands painted into the end of the blunt where you fire it up at. It SOLD during my first art show.

This painting was created in my loft located in Downtown St. Louis, Mo. on Washington Ave. If you know St. Louis, you know Wash Ave is the main strip where there are an variety of bars, small grocery stores, a bowling alley named the Flamingo, a cigar lounge named Stanley’s, clothing stores (DNA), art museums, etc. A week before creating this piece I was chased down an alley with my bestfriend Justus Jarvis, by an old man in an old brown pickup truck with a gun. We both split up and eventually met back up at our apartment, but was nonetheless a story to live and tell. Justus took action first and took off running (me being from the Westend of Louisville, I should’ve been the first one running). In the painting the face is not colored in because real leaders blend in with their surroundings and emerge when the time is right. That leader being Justus in our situation. You can see Don’t Die Live scribbled at the bottom right corner to represent us again fighting to stay alive. The running figure represents running for dear life.

Plant based

acrylic and newspaper on canvas

March 15, 2020

Louisville, Louisville

ELI

This work is for my plant based lovers. I went vegetarian for 2 weeks just to challenge myself and see if I could live off just the planet. I made it, and I felt the best I’ve ever felt. My energy levels were great, I had no morning breath, I slept better, My dreams were better, and my poop floated. During this time, I was creating my own cooking recipes to help keep me motivated. I won’t lie, I’d give me a 10/10 for cooking. I feel like we should all switch to a more plant based diet. Also shout out to P and Vic over at Shahar Cafe, they have the best plant based restaurant ever created. The food is flavorful!

Cheech

acrylic and newspaper on canvas

March 15, 2020

Louisville, Louisville

ELI

I dedicate this piece to my brother Jeremy Winters, also known as Cheech. Cheech always tells me when I’m in the wrong even when I feel like I’m not. We need more people like Cheech in the world. He helps me see a different perspective of things in the world and he’s always had my back through anything since college. Cheech is a survivor of a gunshot wound to the head. You’ll see Don’t Die Live scribbled on the work as another gentle reminder to fight through your battles of life.

THUMP

2/4/2020

Mixed media

Louisville, Louisville

ELI

This is a commissioned piece for Deon Yeldor. The work highlights pieces of his past and present life. We have the boxing gloves, a butterfly and a bee to represent Louisville, KY, the city where Muhammad Ali and Deon are from. His spirituality is represented through his favorite bible verse, Jeremiah 33:3. A mural of his bestfriend Los was added; who passed away at a young age. The number 82 represents his NFL jersey number; he played TE for the Kansas City Chiefs.

This piece represents my favorite basketball player of all time and the greatest player of all time: Kobe Bean Bryant. Kobe wore the number 8 in the beginning of his career and later switched to 24. Both number are now retired and he also has an entire day out of the year dedicated to him, August 24th (8/24). That just goes to show how great Kobe was. He adopted this phrase called Mamba Mentality, 'Mamba mentality' is all about focusing on the process and trusting in the hard work when it matters most. You can see pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the painting representing where Kobe is from, Italy. The trophies up top represent how many championships he won for his Laker organization. Mamba is his nickname.

This piece represents the struggles of being a person of color in the world. It’s whiteness overpowers the original colors of the painting. The newspaper in the piece has dual meanings, one representing a piece of history, and the other represents how the world sees black & white instead of color (which is a issue within itself). The world constantly tries to whitewash the history books. Blanco is white in Spanish.

Canvas handmade by me, painting inspired by the famous Bape print and my cousin “Boo-Man,” also known as Marq.

You know, they say veggies are good for you, but they don’t tell you all the pesticides used to preserve the veggies, so I wrote out a list for you to look up and research. The process of this painting included a 2 week vegetarian diet, no harm was done to animals in this process. While on the diet I felt hightened energy levels, and enlightened overall. The figure is a representation of an FDA agent.

This piece depicts capitalism. You have the Monopoly board representing Capitalism itself along with different symbols of money recognized across the world. If we all see what capitalism really is maybe the world would be a better place. Return the power is written on the painting to let the people know we are the ones who possess the real power. Open your eyes and see what’s going on in the world. You have more power than you realize. Strength in numbers.

This piece was done around 3 AM while listening to Frank Ocean’s album “Blond”. A lot to dissect here, so let’s start with the background color -- Orange. Orange is my favorite color, due to the warmth it gives & the vibrancy it brings, it mirrors my personality in a way. In the piece you’ll see the phrase “Fish Don’t Fly” which stems from one of my favorite sayings “You can’t judge a fish on it’s ability to climb a tree.” The shirt is an actual custom shirt I made for my brand Richh Frank. The tic tac toe board symbolizes life; sometimes there are no winners, we just play to play. It was also a real game played between Robbie and me. You’ll also find writings around me like “Basq” to represent my favorite artist, a plant to represent my love for plants & nature, the spatula hand represents to things; my love for cooking and The Hash Slinging Slasher who was just misunderstood. The fish represent my zodiac sign: Pisces, and just different moods. “We may be fish, but we’re all different”

This painting is inspired by my cousin Jason Howard. Jason sacrificed his freedom to ensure his family never went hungry. Some people judge others not knowing the “why” in someone’s actions; you could be perceived as a villain to some but a hero to others. We are all products of our enviroments. In the words of J. Cole, “Some people have to walk through life, some people roller skating, some people bypass steps, some people chose to take them; and for that fortune, some people sold their soul to Satan.” This painting highlights the injustice in America. Prison is nothing but legalized slavery. Just because someone made a mistake doesn’t mean they should rot away in prison for 30 years. Why is it child predators get much less time than drug dealers?

Picture yourself on a beach and just hearing the waves crash against the sand, so peaceful. I am a water sign so water always calms me personally. LED lights were used in this piece to get that glowing/radiating look in person. Once I painted the base I had this piece under a blue LED light for up to 30 hours and then I painted another layer on and sat it under a green LED light for an additional 20 hours.

This piece was done based off how I was feeling on a particular day. Orange is associated with meanings of joy, warmth, heat, sunshine, enthusiasm, creativity, success, encouragement, change, determination, health, stimulation, happiness, fun, enjoyment, balance, sexuality, freedom, expression, and fascination. Orange is the color of joy and creativity. This is exactly how I was feeling. It’s also chaotic in a way but it flows, just like my mind.

This piece is of my favorite singer Rihanna. Rihanna did this shoot for British Vogue in 2020 and her outfit really stood out to me. She had this oversized red blazer on with a white button down, red tie, paired with these green satin looking pants and green leather boots. The hairstyle was remarkable as well. Everyone mistakes this for Smino another music artist I like.

This was a commissioned piece done for my friend Nigel Irvin. This is his favorite car of all time he called me up in April of last year and asked me to do this piece for him. It’s actually my first time painting a car and background like this. A real challenge, but I did love expanding my creativity.

The Rules:

Respect her mind

Feed her soul

Protect her peace

Guard her heart

Poverty creates crime.

How much does a dollar cost? Street kids just run around trying to get a dollar by any means, but what’s the cost?