Self-Doubt, Motivation, Desire to be Better and Identity

These were all the motivations behind these faces

At the time I had spent a couple of months without drawing and painting, so I challenged myself to draw better faces.

I did a couple of sketches, and … DELETED all of them.

But the sentence “Trust the Process” kept coming back to my head whenever I was in an “up” mood at this particular time of my life.

So I would grab that little strength and left messages to myself in order to not forget. Or to remember.

As I felt more comfortable and in tune with the process I started to focus on little details.

Face tattoos are a very tricky subject. Although they are becoming a bit more mainstream they still provoke “side glances” on the general society. But on these I really wanted to try and see if a “model/style” could be created. 

And I think it did!

• The hexagonal shapes on the forehead I created as something to represent the body, mind and soul in unity.

• The sign on the Throat is an Adinkra, a symbol from the Ghana region of the African continent, this one called Epa  that means “handcuffs” and represents Law and Justice.
  Why is it there?
  Simple: “Speak Justice”. That was what came to my mind, or, “Be just with your words”.
• Under the right eye there are two other Adinkras.
  Wawa Aba: A symbol of hardiness, toughness, and perseverance.
  Akoma: means “heart,” and it is a symbol of love, goodwill, patience, faithfulness, fondness, endurance, and consistency.
  Between them is FÉ that in Portuguese means “Faith”
  All together it represents faith perseverance, faith and patience (and every other combination of the other meanings work also)
• The left eye is just my initials GRM…
• On the shoulders you’ll find the last Adinkra:
  Gye Nyame: expression that literally means “Except God.” It expresses the omnipotence and supremacy of God in all affairs.
• And on the hairline and behind the right eyebrow there are some numbers and letters that have personal meaning but it represents  the sentiment of “not forgetting where you came from”

Someone once asked me “Why do you only draw African characters?”.
The answer is simple. I spent the majority of my life seeing great art but rarely I felt represented.i
So I’ve focused on creating art that represents the world and skin tones that surrounded me growing up.

SOFTWARE USED