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acrylic prints portrait acrylic prints african american acrylic prints slavery acrylic prints slave ships acrylic prints black history acrylic prints

paintings portrait paintings african american paintings slavery paintings slave ships paintings black history paintings

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Amazing Grace is a portrait of a Black woman, with a backdrop of apparent arches or wings which on closer examination are actually cutaway images of the slave ships that brought her ancestors to the Americas. Through her shawl, we can see traumatic ancestral pressures that affect Black people's vision of their lives America. Yet, like the slave ship captain turned abolitionist who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace", the descendants of those enslaved people try to make this a better world.

Before becoming a full-time fine artist, I had a long and successful career as a lawyer and legal educator. But in the end, I came back to that which has been the enduring force in my life: fine art. I attended Cooper School of Art while in my early twenties. Even while practicing and teaching law, I continued to paint and develop my unique style. My paintings are largely based upon people who I've known or have met. I paint in pastels, oils, and watercolors. But pastels are my favorite! In what I call my Nubian Series I draw my subjects with soft pastel and use different mixed media to bring them to life. I use traditional African cloth and contemporary materials to separate figure from ground and liberate the subject from the...