INSIGHT: Symbols
Perspective
Interview by Atiba T. Edwards. Images courtesy of Khari Turner
AE: What inspired your passion for art? KR: My passion started with my grandfather. I would ask him to draw from a poster I had of airplanes. I would take the drawings he made and try to recreate them. Now my passion is internal. I couldn’t stop working if I wanted. I make work because it’s so closely tied to my happiness. I feel like my best self when I’m creating, so I create.
AE: Where do you draw your inspiration from for your pieces? KR: I’m inspired by so much. I am pulling every day from life around me. I’m constantly looking at work on my phone reading, articles and listening to spoken word poetry. I’m always trying to expand and get better so I’m constantly searching for something, I never know what, but it comes to me.
AE: Many of your recent pieces have abstract imagery but clear illustrations of a nose and mouth. Why this duality? What do you want it to communicate to viewers? KR: There is a lot that goes into the making of the work. The short version is the work involves ideas of negativity being overwritten by positivity and optimism. The nose and mouth have dual meanings and representations. The nose and mouth have a positive aspect as a celebration of historical Black features with the wider nose and thicker lips. The second is the negative aspect with a wider nose, thicker lips, and darker skin being connected to people and getting longer prison sentences. The abstraction is me trying to replicate the energy that lives inside of Black history. The use of these negative and positive energies colliding to create the beauty of around and in Blackness.
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