Black Symphony Supreme

60 x 48" acrylic, oil, oil pastel
Finished October 2023

Black Symphony Supreme is a visual composition honoring the complexity, resilience, and forward momentum of the Black experience. Inspired by John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, the work unfolds like a movement, layering history, struggle, memory, and hope into a singular narrative form. The central figure embodies both past and future: rooted in ancestral hardship while gazing toward progress, strength, and possibility.

Beneath him, skulls acknowledge the lives lost along the Black journey, while scattered white marks symbolize the many systems and forces that have attempted to suppress Black existence. Quotes from Black leaders rise above the composition as both testimony and affirmation, reminding us that despite oppression, Black life continues to create, endure, and ascend. This piece is not only a reflection of history, but a declaration of survival, brilliance, and becoming.