'lightweight!', 2025, John Caleb Pendleton

Facing a world that profits from their disposal can be overwhelming for Black boys. And even still, young Black men offer their energy and power to make the world a better place.  “Even when it feels like heavyweight, it’s ALL light weight baby!” - Ronnie Coleman  'lightweight!'wood, oil paint, LED light // 14.25" x 24" * My art practice seeks to actualize the hypothetical world in which my parents were born in a time and place where they could self-identify as artists. Growing up in large, working-class families in 1960s rural Alabama, getting married young, and raising me and my two sisters, they worked jobs to provide for their family and community. Yet, they still created beauty for others via wood, flowers, fiber, and paper.  Growing up with this people-focused artistic heritage, I now use my work to provoke human flourishing, explore the freedom found in active grieving, and examine the relationship between the two. In 2010, I joined the Great Migration about 40 years too late