ARTIST STATEMENT My art is the path to the best part of me, a chubby, shy, and girl crazy kid who sees a lot of untapped beauty and strength in and around his community. My artwork encompasses years of observations, emotions and thoughts given form, that I have amassed in my travels in my youth and in the military as an adult, all the while going through an evolution and growth artistically in my experiences as a black male maturing and navigating the waters of life. My artwork showcases LOVE for my people and the community in various forms, using conventional and unconventional imagery in the hopes of initiating deeper dialogues and fluid exchanges of ideas and consciousness. Jonathan Lamar Lewis... (A little more about me) Ever since I can remember I've always been creating artwork. It started with jacked muscle men(stick men on steroids), but my work has evolved into a cohesive expression of mind body and soul with just a touch of talent, I would also acknowledge the fact that my mother and father has been a direct influence and source of the power for all inspirations as well as my aunt and several other family members to my work and without them I would not have the present state of mind and motivation to be the the artist I am today ... I want people to feel what I am doing and not just see what I am painting, drawing and otherwise creating; by that I mean all of my pieces viewed together converge and intercept to one main group of themes; The fervours of my mind, fantasy, love, women, pain, beauty, music and life...and yet in viewing one of my works separately may not necessarily describe the whole accurately. The latter is what I strive to avoid, but as I see it that's what happens when there is distinguishable separate parts of a whole. We as people will try to break them all down and sometimes forget about the bigger picture... Nevertheless I will always welcome a dialogue when necessary... So again this website is dedicated to the promotion of the artwork of Jonathan Lamar Lewis... And to that end also to display a hearty array of my skills and imagination... I was born in Champaign IL. and was raised all over. Mostly in the South, but I have been in and to Maryland, North/South Carolina, Colorado, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Florida... To name a few I've also traveled abroad to Japan and South Korea, but that was due to my eight year stint in the United States Air Force... I've seen allot and done even more LOL... And my the accomplishment of getting my BA in studio art from Tennessee State University was milestone, as I'm putting it to good use... Enough about me though...