Session 6
36in x 24in 
Acrylic on Canvas
2023
$2,000
The same hands that can take a life can also uplift and save one. Growing up around gun violence in Chicago, survival started to feel like a badge of honor, even for me, despite a somewhat sheltered upbringing. I was exposed to so much at a young age that I became numb. Gunshots blended into the background, like fireworks or car backfires. It was that common. Some of my classmates in elementary school weren’t as lucky. For them, this violence became a rite of passage, a way to gain status in a world I barely understood.