Wax and razorblades, 70”x70”, 2022

This is Uvalde. I painted it with wax and razorblades in 2022. In this same year there have been 27 school shootings in the United States, and I have to add “so far” because there will be more. Since 1999, 392 people have been killed and 1,119 injured in K-12 school shootings. Most of them were children. You know the numbers. You already feel how you are going to feel about this. And if you don’t think this is a problem I doubt there’s a number of deaths that’ll get you to change your mind. If you’re numb to this I certainly cannot blame you. It’s too much. It’s all too fucking much. Children die. We scream. We make donations. We read stories of children covering themselves in their dead classmates’ blood to survive. We watch interviews with grieving parents. Some of us even make calls to our representatives and beg them to have the courage to do something they clearly don’t have the courage to do. We march. We watch videos of cops standing in a hallway doing nothing. We make dumb paintings. We process. Then we forget for a little bit, because otherwise we’d go insane. Then the cycle starts all over again. News alert on your phone. You hope it’s far away. It’s not. It’s here.

Lotsa details below.