The Black Pieta

This is inspired by "The Pieta" (1499), a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture by the renowned artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Where Michelango portrayed a youthful Madonna to symbolize her incorruptible purity, I sought to portray a black mother's painful and fearful dilemma ('Sorriness') on how to enable her black son to flourish as a man, and at the same time, ensure his safety and survival in America.