The biology of skin color involves a balance of getting the nutrition it needs. Anthropologists have found that the area of the most intense UV rays are in northern to central Africa. They have also discovered that area's climate was previously extremely fertile and allowed shade on natives. The ancestors of northern and central Africa were in fact "white" or had much lighter beige skin. As the climate changed, their melanin adapted and genetically transferred to their children in order to serve as a barrier to the intense UV rays. Although now that we have reached an age of modern traveling means, skin doesn't have a chance to adapt to different climates, therefore darker skin in normal UV ray areas suffer from Vitamin D deficiency and much paler skin suffer from sun overexposure leading to skin cancer and burns.
These few pieces are deconstructions of portraits of various skin tones. The lack of knowing exactly what the person in each one looks like, what they are wearing and what portions each of their features are allows the viewer to really engage in the color. To lighten the mood, you'll see a smiley face staring back at you if you look closely in the center. The color of skin can be uncomfortable depending on what background the viewer comes from. As the artist, I am not interested in advocating any anti-discriminatory campaigns with these images. I believe the word racism takes on an element of hate and I think we are beyond that motivation. Although, there are some who still struggle with generalizing a population of people based on what color they are and I hope to enlightened them visually with this collection. The first one titled 1 2 3 4 is my favorite because you can really see each skin tone in unison. It reminds me of what a sea would look like if it were made of nothing but people.
