ABOUT THIS PAINTING

After reading this quote from Ms. Frazier, I painted her portrait:

“If you feel disadvantaged, like you’re invisible, like your life has no meaning or value – these are all things that I struggled with.  And these are universal feelings. You could be in Detroit; you could be in Korea; you could be in Palestine, Poland, Chicago – it doesn’t matter.  Industries and the economy are controlling our landscape and controlling our workforce everywhere.  One way to fight back is with creativity, but to do that you have to look at the situation head on.  You can’t run from it. I would’ve never been able to succeed if I ran from the poverty in Braddock, PA.  Instead, I went through it with my camera to analyze the situation as it unfolded.   My family was being dismantled and dying in front of me.  I didn’t have any power over that.  The only way for me to counter it was to make work about it so I could survive.”

Latoya Ruby Frazier, American Photographer