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Alienate (verb) · To cause someone to feel isolated or estranged from a group.
See also sever, divide, separate, discriminate.
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"Do i Look Alien to You?" is an ongoing series meant to pose the title's question to the viewer. While the subject in the piece may surely look strange with their dark purple skin, spiky cut, and hollow starry-eyes, the artist's intent with this question is to bring it out of this exaggerated state and
redirect it towards everyday life, where black people are seen as
foreign oddities meant to be gawked at, while they are distanced from
society, despite having such an incredibly influential part in its history and future. Black people are seen as something non-human, with our big lips, dark skin, and hair that grows up towards the sun we are treated like scum. Do I look alien to you? You can't help but treat me like I must be different, even though we scream that we are not. My biggest worry as a black artist is that I will firstly be viewed as a black artist and secondly as an artist. But that isn't to say that I don't want to be viewed as black, it's just to say that I don't want YOU to define me as such. My blackness is something I define for myself, not a label you get to attach to me like the difference of canned corn and canned peas. If I look alien to you then get rid of that strange feeling by exposing yourself to black voices regularly. Don't save us for February or for when another one of us gets killed (ACAB). Listen to us and open your eyes to the harsh reality of how we are treated. Abolish the difference and just let us through. Stand up for us when we are not looking, not for praise of a gold star but because you too have once felt alienated from the bigger picture. Do not steal what we have and then shun us for having it. Embrace the uniqueness every individual is born with. Personhood is the common ground we all stand upon. I'm sure you'd look alien to me, too, if I'd only seen you portrayed as such. Don't let their skewed script stop you from changing the narrative. It all starts with You.
+ Gouache on watercolour paper +
A close friend of mine sent me a link to a tumblr post that had an assortment of paintings of houses on grassy hill landscapes. I hadn't painted in a long time and was slowly coming out of a depression dip. this piece is what happened that day.
+ Gouache on watercolour paper +
u/htlaps on Instagram did his own take on Inktober this year and named it Frogtober. I did a few drawings to participate, but this was the only one i liked. the prompt for this day was "mushroom".
+ gouache and watercolour on watercolour paper +
This painting happened before "Do i Look Alien to You" was born. The intention was mostly just for technical reasons. I wanted to get better at characters and was thinking a lot about monochromatic and simple colour choices. Not a very interesting back story.
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+ watercolour on
watercolour paper +
This work is a few years old. i made it during high school. i liked them because they were quick and easy and fun. I'd dream up concepts in class and get to paint them when i got home. it was a nice way to keep painting even when i was too tired to come up with something cool enough to please others.
+ all are watercolour +
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