"Blockhead (2021) is a teenager’s face overlaid onto a landscape, creating an image that is intentionally open and unresolved.

The work is not driven by fixed symbols or a singular narrative, but instead operates through atmosphere and tension. The figure feels caught between interior life and external forces, reflecting the psychological state of growing up in environments shaped by instability, surveillance, and threat. The ambiguity of the image invites viewers to project their own readings, mirroring how young people are often forced to interpret and adapt to realities they did not choose.

When the painting was first shared, it was accompanied by footage from the 1985 PBS Frontline documentary on the MOVE bombing in West Philadelphia—an event that left a lasting impression on me.

The idea that a police department could deploy a bomb against its own citizens is deeply unsettling, and that history continues to reverberate in the present.

Blockhead remains relevant, in my opinion, when considered alongside the ongoing violence experienced by Black and brown communities at the hands of law enforcement.

Elements within the image reflect the scars of growing up under these environments —where fear, normalization of force, and ‘premature-maturity’ — become part of daily life for children and teenagers."