by Ayiana Viviana
Carlin. He was a 15 year old boy who lived in my neighborhood and who I thought I was deeply in love with. "A king with a crown that be down for whatever" is a nod to Method Man and Hip Hop but also to the fact that because of the environment that Carlin was a product of, he was down for whatever.
Even things that probably weren't in his best interest. Those very same things were later what led to him becoming incarcerated and spending years in prison. At the top of this piece is a yellow crown and this is meant to position Carlin as king. Even if his environment was not conducive to nurturing that aspect of who he is, I wanted to imagine the idea of what a world where not only Carlin but countless other black and brown boys were not victims to the system and actually existed in the potential of their royalty.
This piece is a confrontation of the ugly truths that exists in environments like the one I grew up in. Under the crown and to the left are prison bars set against a brown background and under that, are three separate colored areas that come together to form an abstract paint brush. Carlin ended up in prison and I ended up an artist. We both come from the same neighborhood. What makes the difference?
Sometimes art gives us answers. Other times, it poses questions. This piece asks more questions than it answers, but it does invite the observer to actively imagine a world where little black and brown boys live with crowns and what they're down for isn't destructive or harmful to their being.
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