Set against the spiritual backdrop of New Orleans, this piece explores the uneasy dance between fear and fascination. In a city where the air is thick with history, spirits, and secrets, Black spiritual traditions like Vodou are often treated as tourist attractions — photographed, sold, and distorted — while still being deeply misunderstood, even feared.
This painting draws inspiration from Papa Legba, the gatekeeper between worlds in Haitian Vodou, a figure honored in the deep roots of New Orleans spirituality. In these traditions, nothing is given without cost. A candle lit, a door opened, a whisper in the night — they all carry weight. A favor given… a favor owed.
Through dark, surreal imagery, the work calls out the contradiction: how something sacred can be both romanticized and rejected. It asks: What do we owe the things we borrow? And when we knock on doors we don’t understand, do we know who’s listening?
This isn’t just a painting. It’s a spiritual transaction — layered with beauty, warning, and the echo of footsteps in a city that never sleeps alone.
