Dear Rickey,
One of the gifts I was blessed with is the ability to see, feel, and love people beyond their worldly ways and afflictions. I could see your heart and feel your soul. All the reasons why I was able to love you for who you were and forgive you for who you couldn’t be. So I will always honor you.
January 17, 2021, a day stamped in time. I've thought of all the ways I could honor you today. Ways to reflect on the emotions I felt about the day you departed. Finally, I decided I would share the art, human connections, success, growth, and healing your passing sparked for me.
“Crossroads” was the first work I created in an effort to express my grief. It sold just two weeks after completion. the collector and I were brought back together in the most serendipitous way almost exactly a year later where we greeted one another like distant cousins and he shared how he felt my energy in the work and what “Crossroads” had come to mean in his life solidifying our forever bond.
“Good Energy” is the final product on top of a painting that I consider to be a very janky shooting star that I originally titled “Rickey’s Star” I started creating it with no direction I was just trying to do something with all the grief and sadness. After leaving it unfinished collecting dust for over a year I finally created “Good Energy” on top of “Rickey’s Star”. It has since been juried into multiple notable exhibitions and published. The finished product is good energy but Rickey’s star is underneath guiding the way.
“Good Grief” what I thought to be the perfect image for the echo in my soul when I was struggling the most to find words for my grief. “Good Grief” was the catalyst for a very intimate and vulnerable conversation between myself and very influential black man where I was able to hold space in that moment through the artwork because he resonated so deeply having recently lost his father at the time.
“It’s Today” poured out of me like an erupting Volcano just a few months after his funeral because I had never been so haunted by a set of words in my life. “January 17, 2021 wasn’t just the day my daddy died, it was the day I felt pain I had never felt and cried tears I had never cried” “It’s Today” hangs in my home and heals me everyday.
There is so much power in our pain only if we choose to use it.
-Love Can Heal, So Can Art