Everything is Everything

“Everything is Everything” is the title of a song on Lauryn Hill’s studio album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Hill is an American rapper and singer-songwriter. Her music inspired Clarence Heyward’s painting, Everything is Everything. In this work Heyward depicts his oldest daughter holding Hill’s debut solo album in one arm and a stack of books in the other. Her skin is painted in shades of green.

In my imagery, the media’s depiction of Black culture is referenced by the use of green skin. This is a direct reference to Chroma key, otherwise known as “green screen” technology, the process used for editing and shaping the perception of realities in film and television programming.

Clarence Heyward

According to Heyward the variegated leaf material he includes behind the subjects in many of his paintings (including this one) represents “the world in which we live,” or the world the subject knows. The lighter blue background, he says, represents “the world the subject does not know” or has not seen yet. 

Heyward was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He now lives and works in North Carolina. He is known for creating paintings and collages that challenge stereotypes and explore his identity as a Black American man, husband, and father. Heyward says his work is inspired by his memories of TV shows, movies, music, and pop culture. He often depicts his friends and family, as well as himself, in his work.

Positioning my family as the principal subjects in my work allows me to record our existence, absent of preconceived notions of Black culture and the superabundant depictions of trauma, and instead document the authenticity and realities of our lives from a first person perspective. Consequently, this provides an alternative entry into the conversation of existing while Black in America.

Clarence Heyward