Rooted in my experience as a Black man and Haitian immigrant, raised in an urban context in the United States of America, I explore the tension between self-actualization and social structures. Through conceptual, abstract and figurative painting, collage and drawing I examine a layered experience of identity. As a human being, an immigrant, and a racialized body, the negotiation of power dynamics rooted in historical systems and practices generates a particular type of pressure on both myself and other bodies of color; one that impedes our existence, our livelihoods and our ability to move freely within society. 

The title of this series, Spring Break: A Pursuit of Happiness, invokes the spirit of my college years as it relates to access and leisure; it also attempts to capture the complexities of the African American identity and its challenges and distortions at the hands of external pressures. Visually, at first glance the work suggests a certain playfulness through both form and content: colors, symbols, shapes, patterns, repetition, and the sinuous, flexible inflatable yellow tubes, all in a state of free flow and exhilaration. My work periodically inserts a protagonist whose smile acts as an immediate reminder to the viewer of the vibrancy and resilience of the inner self.

In short Spring Break: A Pursuit of Happiness is about the journey of self-discovery in pursuit of the American dream.

Francks F. Deceus