Chocolate Keys Culture Portrait Symbolism Overview

CHOCOLATE KEYS Culture Portrait | Back Story + Symbolism

A tribute to Alicia Keys

Green wall with Yellow Painting of Queen over a brown leather couch.

THE BACK STORY

Chocolate Keys: the 2nd in the Culture Portrait Series

This Culture Portrait was created when opportunity met creativity. We were invited to exhibit at a chocolate-themed group art show. It was immediately after the Badu-ism/20 Years of Paint Culture Portrait birthed this portrait style... and we had NO chocolate themed artwork! We were on a roll in our entrepreneurial journey and could not pass up an opportunity to exhibit, network and sell products... so we went to work!

What many may not know about me is that I LOVE Alicia Keys; her music, her vibe, her style. I took this opportunity to create a Culture Portrait in tribute to her. It was the second in the Culture Portrait series. The process was still being created, its components were not solidified yet. The style was still birthing itself!... so we went to work creating a tribute portrait for her.

The "Chocolate Keys" title is a play on words... get it? Chocolate... dripping onto the {piano} KEYS! Her last name! I love the image. It is sexy, sultry, musical.

I laid out the basic components and started building her facial structures using the same tribal lines used in "Badu-ism/ 20 Years of Paint" that started this whole thing.

The mechanical components in each Culture Portrait are inspired by Steam Punk, a retro-futuristic sub-genre of science fiction that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. The Culture Portrait style started "having rules/ components/ form."

THE SYMBOLISM

Detail of Black Panther painting: Panther reuniting with his love in the town square.

Every Culture Portrait includes a water element. Alicia's water element is a tall waterfall kissed by. a warm sun.

Detail of Black Panther painting: portraits of the Wakanda tribes.

The Culture Portrait's title is a play on words... "Chocolate {dripping on the piano} Keys"

Detail of Black Panther painting: Black Panther and M'Baku fighting in the water at the edge of the waterfall.

Alicia's chest area is made of wood; specifically the wood of a violin. The carved holes mimic the shape of a heart.

Detail of Black Panther painting: Black Panther in the afterlife with his father. Large black tree in front of a sunset of orange and yellow.

I wanted to show the weight of the dripping chocolate and to give it a small, bright highlight so the viewer only catches a glimpse of it. It just felt sexier that way; less obvious.

Detail of Black Panther painting: Kilmonger African mask

Throughout the Culture Portrait, Alicia Keys' amazing musical talent is highlighted. Here a musical clef is folded into her headwrap.

Alicia Keys' song, "New York State of Mind," is one of my favorites. It reminds me of those bright-eyed, "the world is mine to create" feelings I had when I went to NYC to attend college; gives me hope.