There Comes A Time When You Have To Give Them Back

The portraits were painted on an old painters drop cloth, which had been owned by a friend who had died, but his footprints were literally stamped in paint in a few places, that image of an old footprint was the starting point of the project. The artworks were representations of loved ones lost to AIDS, with symbolic faces and crowns. The faces were drawn with soluble charcoal paint, intended to slowly fade while the permanent crowns remain.

In June 2019, White Eagle hung his initial portraits as a temporary public art installation at the future AIDS Memorial Pathway site. They were stolen almost immediately. Having the painting ripped down too early is a more accurate illustration of the what the Plague years were like. So there is a certain poignancy to the act of vandalism. Placed In the old works stead, was a collection of empty frames made out of a variety of different ribbon and hung by the community to reference both the loss of the art and the loss of lives in the AIDS crisis. ⠀

The project is about loss, what could be more perfect than to have them taken early and without warning.