That was a great question. "What made me go air-brush during this overwhelmingly computer based era?" Now I do digital as well. However I was introduced to air-brush by my good Brother Prof. Bob Erickson in 1969 in Art 101 class at the Southeast Community College in Chicago. He could tell it really blew my mind. He insisted that I wait until my actual art making skills and concept evolved and matured before taking on the air-brush as a tool. I accepted those terms and added that goal set to my arch.

I knew that being touch sensitive mechanical yet organic, planned and spontaneous , classic or innovative....I knew I needed to grow from that state into a full bloomed Rhythmistic Artist before taking it on. That happened during a cold Chicago winter in 1983. I was in frigid live-work-placelock-down...learning the ways of the air-brush.

Per this current Residency I am picking it up to got forward. I love the power of the digital progress but in this effort the cyborg-like mechanics of the air-brush is my One. my Way. My Rhythmistic tool. I find it a bit more "future-primitif.

 " This is a photo from my studio in Chicago's River West area during the late '80s. When I was contracted to produce Rhythmistic treatments for stage performances for the International Limelight Clubs chain a lot of Black folks, curators and critics again defaulted to state that my efforts were not really "Black" nor "Afrocentric"! Before then  and since I always maintained the work was "Rhythmisitc". Plus the fact I was experimenting with manifesting it, Rhythmism, and future-primitif were a difficult sell in the 1980s when the competition called "Multiculturalism" was raging."

 " During that time in Chicago, New York and London tons of Art Directors, Graphic Designers and Curators were getting these publicity invitations and postcards with my work on it.  In graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago my Thesis Chairperson was shocked when he realized I was the person dong the work.  His disbelief ruled the day.  He couldn't merge his bias toward me...a Black grad student...with the reality that I was actually an artist/illustrator operating on an international scale.  Not stuck in some "Ghetto" role.

When I would show up in their offices, they often had this work in full display on their bulletin boards.  But they were not going to assign anything to this Black Male Illustrator.  Some even exclaimed I could not have done that work because it came from the Limelight.  Being the Limelight Clubs were not seen as associated with anything a Black person would be party to.  This was well before terms like "Afrofuture" or "Post Black" emerged."

"This was my first book-cover design / illustrations for Holt, Rinehart & Winston.  I was particularly proud ad satisfied with the results.  Air-brush & colored pencils seemed ot suit my future-primitif experimentations in the Visual Arts be they Fine Art or Commercial Art. But in an art world that was resistant to me for being me....Black-Male....there was the added resistance that my practice reached deep into Fine Art & Commercial Art.  They seemed to want a more narrowly focused one-trick pony type of artist.  Where if you have seen one you have seen them all. More of a predictable commodity."

Seems like a lot of folks are looking for ways to learn a bit more about African and Black History. A while back....deep into the "Multicultural' and "Afrocentric" curriculum days. I was fortunate to have done an air-brushed illustration that was used on the cover of "The Rebirth of African Civilization" from Third World Press. They still offer that title and a lot more. Third World Press has a focus in this area. Since the late 1960s.