Throughout my life, "people" have said to me, "Trip, wow, you're very talented. You should be a professional artist." The phrase, "starving artist" truly is an appropriate designation for the overwhelming majority of Black visual artists.

1. With very few exceptions, Black "visual artists" are NOT financially supported by Black people via the purchase of paintings, gallery showings, etc. Most importantly, to be fair, the overwhelming majority of Black people do NOT have the financial resources to support Black visual artists.

2. With very few exceptions, and primarily as "tokens and/or Uncle Tom's," Black "visual artists" are NOT financially supported by White people, especially "elite," politically powerful and affluent White people, in particular White men who ultimately own and/or control all aspects of private sector and public sector business in the United States of America. For example:

I was twenty-one-(21) years old, and I vividly remember Northern Illinois University’s Dean of the Art Department, Robert Even, as he held my “Pure Smokey” painting in his hand, and broke eye contact with me as he said:

"I see your grades are very good, and you've got some good work here, but we've never had a Black person in our graduate program at NIU, and we're not going to start with you. At best, you can enter as a student-at-large and then, later, we can see if we can get you into the program."

If you ask a White, Black, Latino, Asian, or Tribal/Indigenous people to name three-(3) famous Black visual artists, like Picaso, Michaelangelo, or Rembrandt, etc., it's extremely unlikely you'll get a response. Of course, there are extremely talented Black visual artists, and many of us retain our creative interest and talent, but "we" primarly generate work product as "pro bono" or discounted or for our own personal benefit. Plus, oil painting, in particular, is an extremely time-consuming process, the supplies are expensive, and it requires a dedicated space/location to work. In my personal experience, I've NEVER been in a relationship where my "partner" was committed to the "time and expense required" for me to become a self-sustaining artist. Instead, as expected, an actual "paycheck" always held greater value than "hope."

Presented below are a collection of images of "works in progress" and drafts of future projects. One day, "hopefully," I'll have an opportunity to complete many or all of these projects.