"Shelton Johnson Calls" by Amuri Morris

2023 Celebrature Winner - "Shelton Johnson Calls" by Amuri Morris 

Medium | Oil Painting

Note from the Artist

This piece focuses on where the intersection between race and class has informed my and many of our collective childhoods. I often think about how overlapping adversities of being black and from a lower class makes areas of "play" inaccessible as a child. One recurring point of inaccessibilty coming from these intersections is the inaccessibilty of greenspace due to the mandated infrastructures of poor black neighborhoods. I want to acknowledge the inaccessibility of some children to a truly fruitful childhood. In these childhoods we can't remain blissfully unware of the impact of our adversities. Some elements from my past childhood may seem collaged in with my reimagined space, such as in “Shelton Johnson Calls”. In instances such as this I like to imagine that these dual worlds are in the beginning stages of aligning, this early phase in the process may lead the scene to be less cohesive and lead to things such as distortion of scale. In this piece Shelton Johnson calls the children from these government regulated neighborhoods back into the natural world. His life's mission is to encourage black people to reconnect with the natural world. People of disadvantaged groups need to be invited into the space of imagining what a just world is so we can begin to craft it.

• Art by Amuri Morris | Follow on Instagram @miss.muri

• Pieces: 1000

• Puzzle Size: 20x27 in

• Box Size: 10x8x2 in

• Made with recyclable materials.