When I was growing up, my brother, Ryan always gave me the worst Christmas gifts...One time he gave me a Hot Wheels car for Christmas when I was 16! That all ended when one year my brother gave me a National Geographic book filled with portraits of people from around the world. At the time, my brother was studying painting and sculpture on the East Coast and was becoming accomplished at his craft. For the first time, I did not disregard this gift, but was inspired by it. I looked at the imagery and thought that I could tell the stories of the people in those photographs. It was then that I decided to use photography to express my story and the stories of others.

My brother, R. Rashad, has been my greatest collaborator. He is the person that I bring my most provocative ideas to and he challenges me to think deeper and make them stronger. Every so often, we blend our mediums and create work together. The image shown above is an example of such collaboration. I shot an image in film and had it printed on canvas. My brother then painted over top the image with oil based paint to create an added dimension to the narrative of the piece. This and a few other collaborative pieces will be on display at our gallery show this weekend. The show will also display our individual works of my photography and his sculptures and paintings. With the help of Melissa Taylor, owner of Beauty Lounge Minneapolis, and Adora Tokyo spinning, this evening will be one for the books!

Here is a preview of some of R. Rashad's work:

POP UP GALLERY SHOW

Both R. Rashad and Andrea Ellen Reed will be

accepting commissions and selling original work at the gallery show.