KITH

MB: Robert, you recently debuted your collection “Brown Like Me” where you reimagined a few of your favorite TV shows growing up including The Peanuts, Jetsons, Flintstones and more. What inspired this series?

RM: There's a natural connection back to Africa consisting of textiles, dance and painting - it's all art so we all have these tribal characteristics ingrained in us. I have four different styles because I’m self-taught and resistant to the whole traditional profile of an artist that only paints one style. I started researching for Black or Brown artists that reimagined these iconic cartoons, but since I couldn’t find it I just did it myself. I did Lucy with a blue dress, cornrows, and the Charlie Brown stripes because it broke down some of the gender stereotypes. I eventually posted it online and the response from people was crazy. I usually think those are my least favorite pieces because of the lack of technical application but the emotional response from people is probably the highest because all races can connect to it.

MB: Robert & Ludovic, what message do you want viewers to take away from your artwork?

RM: I try to provoke emotion in my work. I have a written component with all my pieces. I realize there's learning styles in the human mind in terms of the way we process information - so I do that because I know half the people won’t read s***. It's also because I'm really fascinated with the person that's able to understand that written narrative without reading it. Those are usually the hardest to buy because I don't make them available. It's my journal. Growing up, I used to love these cartoons until I realized it was missing people that look like us. The earlier you can understand that representation isn't there and call that out, the greater the opportunities are.

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