The Beginning

First and foremost I like to draw, always have. As far back as I can remember its pretty much how I reacted to life around me. (Reader eye rolls.) When I think back to some of my earliest memories of drawing they were of males and the "box" haircut of the time.

I find it rather interesting if I juxtapose this with my art intentions and practice today. While it could be a bit of a stretch to say that I was "documenting", its not so dramatic to say that I was aware of my environment and drawing was a response to this stimuli. They were unforced, void of ambition and for the most part, genuinely innocent. They remained this way for some time, and peaked, or so I thought. So, I tried graphic design, which worked and didn't at the same time, and eventually went on to painting. "Its a natural progression," I thought. This was a success for the most part as all my art today begins with a quick illustration. Although, there were times when I felt I should return to what was a more relaxed practice. And so, the story of RounHeah is exactly this re/pro-gression.

I've always been infatuated with lions and have the same sense of awe with my own culture. Its also possible that I am just as bewildered by politics, relatively speaking. Furthermore, it is my belief that any visual association(s) with each of these entities is constantly re-enforced by their actions, which are referenced against perceived motivating factors for them. Whether they're right or wrong. (A painting I completed recently makes reference to such misconceptions. You can view it here.)

As mentioned, I've consistently tried to play with these ideas within my work. Those that I've come to think exist as a shared collective of visual associations related to cultural sociology and ideas of power. So, it could be called poetic, but really-its the most concise of terms, that upon hearing a song, a rap song, that I thought of the exploring these ideas, using the pride structure of lions as the foundation. By drawing anthropomorphic lions that appear somewhat as African-American (with rap culture signifier's) and juxtaposing the pride structure with that of politics because of the male majority and its power complexities, I felt that I could scrutinize it all further. *A note about hair, power and black culture: its common knowledge that hair has held a significant share of identity related issues in black culture. Though, I won't go into detail here, I took proper note of this as I integrated the Rastafarian statement made with hair into account and construct of the story and characters.

The above images should not to be taken into a specific hierarchical account in regards the creation and story of RounHeah'. They only serve to reference, loosely, the collection of the parts.