Occupy Personal Power Lives at Transit Arts, a community safe space in Columbus, Ohio.
Created as a submission to Art for Life, an art auction benefiting Equitas Health.
Honoring Angelo and those we’ve lost to AIDS.
Out of respect to Angelo’s friends and family, no prints will be made available for purchase. The original was sold at the Live Auction, my third!
Please consider commissioning me to create a similarly styled Ode for to honor the loved one you lost. Grief can be healed by sharing your story.
2023
24×24″
watercolor pencil, neocolor pastel, graphite, acrylic, love, hope, and power on wood panel
While making this work, I practiced the letting go process to those I love who are now gone. I use my talents to support access to healthcare so there are even less stories like Angelo.
Statement
When I decided to submit for this exhibit, I asked who was the most recent person in Columbus that died of AIDS, thinking it was back in the 90’s. I was shocked to learn that this young person, Angelo, died in his early 20’s, less than 2 years from today, and well before his life was able to take shape. This knowledge hurts deeply, because a world that is taking Black lives in a myriad of other violent ways, we are *still* also being taken by HIV/AIDS at a much higher rate than the rest of our community.
Please let Angelo be the last of any more of us in Columbus and Ohio, where Equitas Health strives to reduce the number of us lost to this virus. Let his memory be inspiration to those of us who are here and still fighting!
Reflections
I did not know Angelo, but we have a few friends in common, and the ones I know are in the work of protecting young Black men like him. I honor his memory, and am thankful to have made connection to his Mom, soon after I was on the news with the piece. We keep in touch to this day. I am thankful for my bridge work.
