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Two Miami Artists Shine Light On Gun Violence Through Their Work

Left: A painting by Markeven Williams of Malcolm Nicholas III, a rising basketball player who was killed in Overtown. Right: A drawing by Chire Regans of Tavarus Moss, he was shot on his way to school in Miami Gardens.

Two Miami artists are creating a visual archive of the toll gun violence takes by drawing portraits of people whose lives ended abruptly by bullets.

Chire Regans and Markeven Williams embarked on their individual projects around the same time, but they didn't know each other. Regan, a teaching artist at the Perez Art Museum, and Williams, a corrections officer, both say they were moved by the killing of six-year old King Carter in 2016. King was going to buy candy outside of his North Miami-Dade home when he was shot. 

Williams took out a canvas and painted a picture of King with angel wings and a gold crown atop his head. Regan sketched the six year-old's small face with white pencil on black paper.  The two artists connected one day on social media and have become friends. 

They say it is their duty to confront through art the horror many families in South Florida face when they lose a loved one to senseless shootings.

They talked to WLRN reporter Nadege Green about why they do this work. Read excerpts of their conversation below.

Credit Courtesy of Chire Regan
Chire Regan draws portraits of local gun violence victims. Left: James Reid III, 19, was killed in 1996. He was her good friend and a graduate of New World School of the Arts. Right: Helena Ramsay, 17, was one of the 17 victims killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High on Feb 14, 2018.

Chire Regans  

His name was James Reid III.  He was supposed to come visit me down south.  I found out later that he was shot and killed. I was 17 so he had to be 19 when this happened and this was my first experience with gun violence.

This was more than 20 years ago and it still affects me like it happened today. I didn't speak his name for years after it happened.

It's like I have to tap into this experience because I'm seeing it in other teenagers.

I have a Facebook page dedicated to my art and I remember — this had to be over a year ago — a kid who was a junior at Miami Northwestern, he messaged me.  He wanted to say, "I appreciate what you do and thank you."

And he said, “So many of the people who you've done portraits of, they were my friends.”

That's a reality for so many teenagers and it should not be their reality. I can't stop it from being a reality, but I can tell stories because every victim has a story and their life was important.

The first portrait I ever did was of King Carter. I did his portrait because I wanted people to know that this baby is more than what happened to him.

Chrie Regans

After I did his portrait, in the process of doing research, I started to see that there are so many other victims. I did more.

Then people started to tell me stories of other children. And then I started to tell those stories and then it just went on from there. Then I saw what a problem we have in South Florida. What a problem we have. It’s an epidemic.

The role of the artist is that we are storytellers; from the beginning we are the storytellers. And we have a responsibility to tell the truth.

Credit Courtesy of Marveven Williams
Six-year old king Carter was killed while going to buy candy. Markeven Williams painted his image after the shooting.

Markeven Williams

Art is a way out. Pick up a paintbrush. Not a gun.

I believe the first painting I did that addressed the issue of gun violence it was called “POV: An Angel’s Point of View.” It was some of the kids from Miami who passed away from gun violence and I incorporated them looking down at Earth. And that was my spark.

It's sad that it happens every day. It’s contagious, it’s like a disease and I wanted somebody to actually use my art to bring attention to the actual situation.

My uncle, that was my first tragic situation. He was shot and killed. My cousin got shot in the back of the head.

To this day I don't know who killed my uncle. I don't know what happened to my cousin. And it's, you know, an expectation that in this community that the murders are not going to be solved.

So it's kind of therapy. Every day I get off work and paint.

It's not about money. It's not about fame. It's just about trying to do something good.

I think my role right now as an artist is to start a movement. Educate people and inspire people. Maybe upset some people at some point.

The reason I paint and give it to the gun violence victims' family is to show them that someone has heard their story. This child hasn't even lived up to 10 years, hasn’t lived up to my age of 30 years. They didn't have a chance.

When I see it, it weighs on me tremendously.

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