The Brand

My piece titled “The Brand” is another 14x17 inch piece made from charcoal and pastels on heavy-weight paper. The concept of this piece is related to the topic of sex work and is an illustration of a black woman standing in front of a bathroom sink. She is half naked as she has no shirt and no pants, she is only wearing light blue underwear. In the center of her back is a bloody brand that takes the shape of the Onlyfans logo and her back is faced towards the audience as she is leaning on the vanity in from of a mirror. The setting is in a dark bathroom with black wall tiles and a golden trim that separates the tile and the mirror. On the left side in the reflection of the mirror is a man with a black skin complexion, who is standing behind the woman. He has a video camera as a head which insinuates that he is the videographer of the content that is being created. The cameraman in this piece is also not wearing a shirt which suggests that he is not just the videographer but the male starring in the Onlyfans video.

These past couple of years I have been working on my relationship with God and battling lust. I have abstained myself from having intercourse and even stopped pursuing romantic relationships until I can control my lustful desires. This also means that I have stopped indulging in pornography and sexualizing women online. With that being said, I came to the realization that I had a problem of viewing women as an object of pleasure, especially to women who go out of their way to sexualize themselves or even sell their bodies for money. It was hard for me to be able to separate sex worker’s from their occupation and lifestyle. It was like that was all I was able to see them as, no matter what they were doing or if they got a different job or a change in life style. The problem is that I didn’t respect them or respect their value as a human being. The more I would continue to think like this and treat women this way the more I became a tool of capitalizing the sex industry.

This is a common theme within our society and it’s a concept that I wanted to illustrate. With this piece, I want to show how it is the audience, the viewers, of porn that brand these women and don’t allow them to become something more than just and object of pleasure. We as a society will judge and objectify women but then fail to realize that their lives has so much more value. If something evil happens to these women, like being sexually assaulted; then we as a society sometimes justify or will make light of their trauma by saying that they deserved it or just blame the victim because of their profession/lifestyle. This is a mindset that I wish to challenge and/or break. I want my audience to look at this piece and see a reflection of themselves. We should take a minute to look at ourselves and see how we our conducting ourselves in our day to day lives and treating others. I want to be a kinder and strong person who doesn’t define a person by their looks or place value to them just based on their ability to please me. I don’t want to use people as tools nor do I want to see them being used in such a way.

Working on this piece helped me realize my purpose and the kind of art that I wish to make. God has given me the command to do two things; to illustrate the good and the holiness of man as well as illustrate the ugliest parts of ourselves. I will show the world the love and glory of living a life with God and the consequences of a world without my Father in Heaven. This purpose ultimately starts with myself. I must learn more about myself, the good and the bad, in order to become the man I was designed to be. My ambitions as an artist has grown tremendously after making this piece.

“The Brand”, fills my soul with self-loathing because of how awful I am. I asked myself, “How could I treat people like this and not have a care in the world?” I’m still battling lust even today. I’m having a difficult time overcoming this sin of mine because I am undisciplined. I fall short in multiple areas of my life such as; laziness, pride, and gluttony. The desires of my flesh control every decision that I make so I still find myself satisfying these cravings. My mind is weak and I am filled with shame. However, my faith is strong. I will overcome these obstacles and do the right thing because I have to. I have no other choice. People are counting on me; people who I’ve never met, people who don’t even know I exist yet. This is far too important for me to mess up on so I cannot give in.

“The Brand”, is very precious to me. I pray that this piece reaches every person who needs to see it. I have created this piece, and now I will allow God to do the rest.