YOU ARE ART: A Love Letter to 5th Ward

YAA is series started in spring of 2019 as a collaborative effort I was invited to participate in by Chap Edmonson to reflect the spirit of the residents of the iconic neighborhood of 5th, Houston, Texas. The original media for the first iteration of this work was digital with photographs made by myself, Mark Francis, and my good friend, amazing film maker, brilliant artist and long time collaborator Chap Edmonson. The culmination of our original efforts was an exhibition at MASA Houston during the Lions Avenue Renaissance Festival 2019.

My solo focus started during the height of quarantine, 2020, as a way to stimulate my brain outside of playing and talking to a toddler for 12-14 hours while my partner worked. As I got deeper in the creative process I realized the energy that I got from the people I was able to connect with came out of the work in a different way than the photographs. It became a way to honor these folks through the work it took me to recreate their images. After a couple years of creating these works I was able to share the work as the 2022 DeLUXE Show at the Historic DeLUXE Theater in the heart of 5th ward. The DeLUXE Show is a commemoration of the original DeLUXE Show held in 1971 as the first integrated art show in the United States, produced by the Demenil family.