05/04/2026
Usually I don’t know what I’ll be doing when I enter my studio. This painting forced me to alter that approach as I instinctively knew it was a going to be a pivotal piece and one that would require immense and prolonged focus relative to my own norms.
“Skools In” is a monotype on viscose and was painted on four glass panels - two large main panels, and two smaller at the top. It measures roughly 2x3 meters and is in many ways an impossible piece.
It portrays my last school photo before departing England to move to Denmark when I was 6 years old. An even more pivotal moment in my life than this painting can ever be. Anyone could see themselves in this image and ask themselves ; “who was I and who could I also have become, of the circumstances were different” or “how did this environment shape me”. I’m almost certain that if I’d stayed in that class I would never have become a painter and would never have had this intense source material to work from.
I wouldn’t change a thing. I never felt at home in Denmark. I never felt English. I’ve felt Puerto Rican over anything else, though that’s the most absurd.
A dream is unfolding at in Denmark these years however. For every day that passes I’m becoming a better painter and I resonate with artists like and Bad Bunny at the moment for their independence, courage, ability to hold the torch for outsiders.
I might make beautiful paintings with likable colors- but don’t get that twisted. They all carry a home run swing attempt and Skools In is a hell of an example of what I’m capable of doing when I do hit that home run.
