My name is Tim Davis. I’m a mosaic control artist working in the DC area. And the work that is going to Malawi is very colorful, very bright and ambassador like the colorful and bright work, but is also very involved with sorts.

And so, for instance, one piece that is going to go is a piece about a story that my dad told me about waiting and kind of sitting and waiting and looking. These three individuals who are just waiting for the bus and they’re waiting and they’re in a patient mode for this bus to come.

And this was down in Mississippi. And so I can buy some photos with this sense of oneself. So and then lots of colors, kind of combinations. I think one of my goals for a long time is to spread the work as far and wide as I can.

You know, I’ve shown a lot in Washington, New York and then all the states and so forth. I’ve shown a couple of places overseas in the past. But, you know, working with the embassy program and the vastness of it, how many people will see it is really very exciting to me.

So I’m happy to be part of this. And, you know, it’s just it’s a good blessing for me. You know, I create in various ways in writing. A lot of times comes first. I have a sketchbook and some sketches are just writing, so it’s pages of that.

And then of course the research and then the photography that’s combined together before I kind of work with the composition of work that got created, and then I move forward with my color combinations. I might use colored pencil or whatever in my sketchbook to work with that, but most of it is really interesting.

And you’ll see blue and white colors a lot for many reasons. First of all, a sign of hope, because, you know, again, going back to what the blue was, is is very significant in the black community, the identity of of things because blues was coming its name from gospel and color of Blue also as the

music of blue, the sound of blue. All those are heavy are colors that we think about. And then I like bright colors. I like the family of the reds, the yellows and the the the greens, the yellow greens and blue.

And, you know, I use I like to use all of those colors together that suggests hope. And just, you know, life and body of work is, again, kind of concentrated with many materials. And I tried to use used, you know, collage a few different areas that suggest what I want to say.

So it’s a it’s a process of thinking it through, waiting on, you know, the work. But it’s very intuitive, you know, creating the work and not thinking about, oh, this is crooked or this is straight, although they have that as part of my work too.

So I want to work with this intuitively. I want to to a line and a shape intuitively so things with my spirit has to come to me in terms of what my subject matter is, in terms of what the color will be, the surface will be, and all those other things that are necessary for the work coming

from Chicago. Basically, this was the time of the Equal Rights Amendment, the things that were happening, changing from integration to segregation, segregation to integration and problems that we were having to face. And, you know, I’m part of growing up in a all black community and then integration was set and we were bused to a white community to

go to school. And that’s not a bad thing. That’s a good thing. However, that was a situation that stuck with me because we weren’t accepted to go to these communities. You know, it’s hard to go to a place where you’re not wanted, you know?

And we were the first challenge. We were the first group that was out of the junior year in high school, going to another community to go to school and finish. So yeah, that’s one that stuck with me and that basically caused a lot of tension within both communities.

But at the same time, there was also that opportunity because they had the best it was the best schools. They had six teachers in the Department of Law. And so that was like, this is great. And then that’s when I met the teachers who were like, You have talent.

You should go into art. Because I quite frankly, lots of, you know, students my age, kids my age basically didn’t think about going into college. There’s always been one of those questions. Can art change lives? I believe it can.

I believe it can spark some attention. You know, I like to record history. I like to create work that really inspires others, you know? And so I think it’s a it’s a duty and a responsibility for any artist to create what they see, what they feel.

And not only that, but also a gift that can be given back, even back to the community, giving back to people who would see it. And so I consider myself an activist in many ways. I like to activate through my work and challenge the viewer in many different ways, on my own experiences in the life happenings.