Happy Mother’s Day
Tender love don’t change. Thank you to the ones who raised us, and strength to the ones still here carrying it all. 💐🕊️”
72” x 72”
Acrylic on canvas
2021
#jholmes214
Last Slide Raphael’s Madonna of the Chair (Madonna della Seggiola, c. 1513–1514)
“La goutte d’or and the Great migration”
Oil on linen
2026
This painting honors the Black expatriates who made Montmartre home since 1918, bridging Southern and African roots with the golden era of possibility. Sharing Montmartre with my ancestors is a special moment. I’ve heard plenty stories of the artist here but not much on the history of the blacks that migrated here. The glittering crows become even more potent as spirits connecting Sierra Leone to Louisiana to these hills in Montmartre.
I brought Jacob Lawrence’s crows into the scene. In his Migration Series, Lawrence used birds, often evoking the cultural trope of African Americans as blackbirds or crows, to capture the Great Migration. They represent freedom and hope, the instinctive drive to move for better conditions, yet also the push from Jim Crow terror and Southern oppression. Lawrence said we move like other animals for survival, for possibility.
Montmartre in the early 1920s was a haven. After the war, Black musicians, soldiers and artists found freedom from Jim Crow, creating spaces of Black hospitality—soul food, late-night music, laughter, and elegance—that drew everyone from Langston Hughes to European elites. This was more than entertainment; it was cultural revolution.
The crows remind us the migration never ends. We keep arriving and keep claiming space.
#jholmes214
This painting is a love letter and a confrontation all at once.
Painting far from home but surrounded by centuries of European art that once shaped the world I grew up in. Walking through the @museelouvre and seeing those Renaissance and Baroque works hit different when you carry south Louisiana roots. Caravaggio especially stayed with me, turning myths and saints into something human. I wanted that same energy in this work.
That “white Jesus” became a household figure across the south, parts of Africa and countries across the world—not by choice, but by conquest and missionary zeal. I needed to show how that image still lingers, even as we reclaim our own narratives.
Those dice aren’t just for gambling; they symbolize the choices we’re forced to make.
I gave one of the men golden angel wings, the kind you see in Renaissance paintings. But these aren’t distant, heavenly beings. These wings belong to regular people—men making decisions in real time. Salvation doesn’t float down from above; it lives in us.
This work fuses my south Louisiana heritage with the dramatic mythology I’ve been absorbing in France. I paint not only from the southern point of view but from an international perspective as I travel. What does salvation look like when we take it back?
#jholmes214
This frame from the 17th century used to hold stories of power and exclusion, now it hold life as I see it. My work keeps evolving from quick feelings on canvas to full narratives that bridge then and now.
#jholmes214
2025—the year of the Wood Snake—symbolizing wisdom, transformation, and growth, with the Wood element adding traits of resilience and adaptability.
I have to say I’m highly impressed with all of 2025. Moved to Miami and Paris within months of each other. Adapted to both environments, and I must say both welcomed me with open arms. Met a legend or two or three, and created some of my favorite paintings to date. Growing as an artist, as a father, and as a human was all part of the plan. I’m wiser, stronger, and more patient than I was in 2024.
Watching all my homies win in one year was fulfilling to my soul. Thank God we lost no one and we’re able to be fathers and mothers to our children.
Every time I called or texted my mom about being exhausted and wanting to move into a hidden tunnel, she pulled me back to reality and held the mirror to my face to remind me who I am and what my mission on earth is. Being an artist is great but learning yourself and growing as a human is powerful.
See you all in 2026.
#jholmes214
W.i.p. 🚧
“BEFORE JUDAS/Still at the wrong table”
34inx77in
Oil on linen
The fleeting beauty of life. For the folks who set the table with whatever God gave them and still found joy in the feast. #jholmes214
