T . M . C

Rest in Power to Nipsey. The man was truly prolific, being ahead of the game in many regards. I didn't have the pleasure of growing up to his music but I've been listening to it a lot lately for inspiration for this piece. The man spit bars.

I used a Nipsey Blue daisy to represent his Eritrean lineage as his father immigrated from there. And then I used a glitch effect to distort the main flower to look wavy and crunchy, inspired by the west coast synth sound that rings through a lot of Hussle's discography. This also helped compositionally because the abstract shapes fit his side profile well, and the design wrapping around his face felt symbolic of continuity. The Marathon Continues.

This has officially been my most demanding painting clocking in at over 23h because I chose to paint all of the glitch effect by hand. I enjoy doing this because it humanizes the aesthetic with imperfections and symbolically I think it speaks to what I want my art to do to these icons.