2008     oil on canvas     36×60″

One of three painting of the series of six paintings on Racism commissioned by the Racism Commission of the Diocese  of New Jersey.

Forming the backdrop to the contemporary family celebrating the Passover tradition, are the illustrated trials and tribulations of the Nazi years that the Jews endured leading up to and during World War II.  From the menacing Nazi sleeve behind the visible starved men, who despite their hardship, still dress for the day as  they normally would have, to the family descending the stairs, leaving their home and life, to descend into the abyss of the concentration camps where their will probably meet their death.  In spite of all that, there is humanity in the gentleness that the older brother seeks to extend to his sister, to comfort her, and disguise her fears.  Liberation, depicted by the American soldier and the resistance fighters of a village men who join to pull down the image of their oppressors, can not undo human devastation. that stares out at the viewer behind the barbed wires. Finally it is the efforts of those like Schindler or the French farmers who hid and saved many children, and the Nirenberg trials, that  choose defiance.  That history gives new meaning to the celebration of the biblical Passover that the family is free to partake.

2011    oil on canvases  48×36″

 Who do you see when you look at the woman praying at the Communion railing?  Most people call her a street walker or worse. Why?  And she knows it, which is why she is segregated from everyone else, against the edge of the painting…..most  people are repulsed by her loud  clashing colors, and  suggestive attire, but she’s in the right place.  If you look closely to see the reflection of her deep in prayer, you will see what God sees, His beautiful child, as beautiful as her name that is tattooed on her back.

                      2008                   oil on canvas                 36×48″

Portrayal of the Blessed Mary on Good Friday night, at a moment when she is alone.  She has just experienced the worse week of her life, and because she has been crying a lot her features (eyes and nose) are swollen.  The Blessed Mother is not the perky young woman that men often portray, as in Michelangelo’s Pieta, but is chronologically and probably more correct, as she probably was in her late 40′s or early 50′s, and in keeping with women’s bodies, reflect the same.  Her attire is that of a woman of that era, who is wearing daily clothes, and not more traditional fashionable dress, as she most certainly left her home in a rush at the news of her son’s capture by the Jewish authorities.  She leans against the side of the frame for support, as she tries to gather herself.  In the background, in the upper  left hand corner is the promise of and coming of the Resurrection.

2008      oil on canvas    36×60″

One of three painting of the series of six paintings on Racism commissioned by the Racism Commission of the Diocese  of New Jersey.

Fundamental to the  Black identity is its Christian faith and American personality that is deep involvement in the history of the republic.

2009      Asian Resistance     oil on canvas   38×60″

One of three painting of the series of six paintings on Racism commissioned by the Racism Commission of the Diocese  of New Jersey.

The background of this painting divides the painting into two parts, the left  depicts the plight of the Chinese community during the 1860s and the right that of Japanese  Americans during  World War II.  Both sides reflect the inhumanity of racism on innocent lives, how it enslaves, and steals the material possessions and spiritual identity of it’s victims: the Chinese coolies, the railroad workers, those working in the service of others, the citizens struggling to maintain their dignity and American way of life, loyalty,and service to country, in the face of internment in concentration camps.  The American flag intertwines throughout, but fades in intensity as it encounters the stripping of its  citizens’ rights.  The foreground illustrates their triumph over the relegation to obscurity, to be celebrated and  represent the culture of their nation.

The birth of the baby Jesus is the Solution to the story of Eve and Adam in the background and the demise of the Tree of Knowledge

The unusual alignment of the four canvases, contemporizes the situation that has befallen “those people”.