KKK: Kids Killing Kids
Mixed media

Responsible art deals with problems and solutions.  One problem is why are our children slaughtering each other including innocent bystanders year after year.  I ask myself. What am I doing about it? It’s my neighborhood also. As an artist, I am obligated to visually speak to the problem as well as the solution. It’s not enough to just paint pretty pictures. I have a gift like the other artists, and that  gift is our best weapon to combat this ugly situation. They are our children and it’s their future. I started this painting by thinking how would a writer approach this project? I wanted to be a visual storyteller using a strong narrative of mixed media, color and interesting design  all inspired by master artist  John Biggers.

I drew the head of a young man with a tear tattoo on his cheek symbolizing that he has murdered someone. Two tears equal two destroyed lives, two families. Anyone could fall victim to this mindless mentality. This cannot be normal behavior. The young man is wearing a hat  symbolic of the American flag except the colors are red, black and blue. Red represents the blood that has been shed  with black and blue representing youth wounded destroyed by stray missiles. Young people are losing limbs. The teddy bear recalls the many flowers, shoes and children’s toys hanging on graveyard fences as memorials reminding us that another piece of our future has been wasted. That reminder is depicted in my painting by the little girl with her chest exploded by a misplaced bullet for no reason. This is the problem. 

As our eyes move left to right we see a solution cast as a fence transformed into African geometric patterns. Very sophisticated, mathematical designs show that we come from a high civilization. Using  African themes, I painted symbols from Ghana—symbols that represent God supreme and our ability to prevail against all odds. Faith is evoked to build a civilization, enrich culture and to walk humbly with our God.

Now we see a child cocooned in a circle with many possibilities to fly once we teach her to believe in herself, and to reach as high as her imagination will take her. Two figures appear holding a brush and the pen—creativity and knowledge. With these we can recover our greatness as suggested by the Benin bronze sculpture.

We can’t keep digging holes to bury our children. Instead, we must  nurture them because black love matters.

“There is an epidemic in our cities and small towns. Young Black people are destroying their futures and our own communities. If we don’t stop the scourge of violence, what good are the gifts we’ve been given?”

—Paul Goodnight