The Artists

I was born in the urban junglesÝto a fiercely revolutionary people of a tiny carribean state locatedÝadjacent to another fiercely revolutionary island nation--one that enignmatically posed a direct threat to the largest and most powerful country of the twentieth century world. Jamaica is not only my spiritual motherland, but also my autobiographical starting point. My parents and siblings migrated in the 80s. ÝI followed by the age of six after spending my formative years between the city of Kingston and theÝgreen country parish of St. Mary. America was literally a trip, and it still is.ÝI don't know if I've ever unpacked.

My artistic calling--and by thatÝI mean the voice thatÝmade me focus my energies in a career in art--came as my committment to Teach For America was ending.ÝÝSeveral studentsÝaskedÝme how to draw andÝinquired whyÝI had chosen to teachÝthem historyÝand not art.Ý I had no brief answerÝfor them--nothingÝÝthat would agrrivate their all too short attention spans.ÝÝBut their inquiry wasÝ starting point.

	The path to my current artistic station was not due to any formal training, institutions, or degrees. Morehouse College didinspire me--never had I seen so many genius and affluent African Americans in such a serene and progressive cluster. I was drawn there, following the paths of Martin Luther King, Jr., Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, and a host of Black celebrities and literati. But it was purely a socio-academic juncture in my development. Atlanta itself was the nucleus of the Black southern renaissance, similar to that of Harlem, and complete with a black mayor and the political elite. The soul there was thick enough to grease coarse hair. There was OutKast, Babyface and L.A. Reid, Jermaine Dupri, and a host of young entrepreneurial soldiers marching to the drums of their well-educated Civil Rights forbearers. I regularly saw Eryka Badu and India Arie perform to the anxious demands of audiences in a small brick-laid lounge called the Ying Yang cafe--all frills, no pretensions. Artist's Website: photobucket.com

	Vernando Reuben
	Mixed Media/Oil on Canvas	Brooklyn, New York