Florida Showcase 6th Annual Exhibition 12/15/23-03/09/24

Opening night, gallery filled with expressive art, crafted cocktails, strangers in a room dressed to the nines. I really thought that nights like this were reserved for television shows and big city artists. I have never doubted my talent, I just never fathomed my journey as an Artist would resemble this version I had in my head. Dec 15th, 2023 forever changed that. I had th edistinguished honor of being a featured artist in the Florida Showcase 6th Annual Exhibition

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Icing on the cake: This night was already amazing for a plethora of reasons but the what made this night one for the books, was the sincere support I felt from the people that have been there from day one. I had friends from every segment of my life in attendance. Friends from my childhood, friends from college and work. I also had friends fly in from NY and CT as well as drive in from different cities.

I sincerely have a hard time celebrating myself and this night was a summation of years of hard work, creativity and support for loved ones even when I had no clue what I was doing. After 12 years with a camera in my hand I had given up on my life as an “Artist” looking a certain way. I was convinced that what I imagined being an artist was molded by what I had seen on TV and was actually what it was like in practice. The gall

An older gentleman in his early 70s asked me why I chose this particular subject matter, I shared some of the post-slavery history, how they had been demonized through media over the years, and how there is currently a reclamation with the association of grills and self-expression, and how most of the people I know with them are young professionals, engineers, doctors, software designers. This gentleman then shared his story and how in the late 1960s he had to have some dental work done that resulted in having to get a permanent gold tooth put in and how it always made him self-conscious because of the looks he sometimes received when people would notice it or the stigmas he grew up with and that he attached to gold teeth based off his lived experiences. He concluded that this resulted in him not smiling often or doing his best to hide it when he smiled. He admitted he was unaware of some of the post-slavery history and learning it gave him "a reason to smile harder moving forward", we parted ways and when he was leaving he called my name, I turned to see him walking out with a huge smile on his face, gold tooth exposed. That opened my eyes to realize how necessary this project was.