One-of-one contemporary figurative art from Harlem artist Corey Wesley.

Being seen asks us to be vulnerable. Yet racial, cultural, and sexual barriers can make it difficult to let someone see who we are. We spend so much time judging our differences that we miss what we share. Something that should be simple becomes one of the hardest things.

I have met people only once who felt safe enough with me to share things they rarely told anyone. As I listened to their struggles and the mistakes they feared would define them, I saw beauty they sometimes could not see in themselves. Their circumstances were part of their lives. They were still living, still breathing.

Those encounters stayed with me. The emotion I felt afterward helped form the archetypes in Unapologetic Faces. These are not portraits of the people I met. They come from my writing, my experiences, and the feelings those connections left with me. Creating these faces gives me a way to express those emotions while keeping the people and their private stories out of view.

Some people I met had been hurt and still believed in love. Others no longer believed love was possible for them. That hurt me, because I have experienced a love that keeps me believing. That belief is part of these faces too.

At my exhibition, people asked who the faces were. I want to leave you with another question: what do you recognize in them? A feeling you have carried, something you have struggled to say, or a part of yourself you wish someone understood?

This is my love letter to the human experience. I want us to take the time to see one another.

Interested in the process?