PRODUCT DETAILS

Composition: Acrylic on canvas

• 36 x 48 inches (91 X 122 cm)

• Hand painted in 2025

• Signed by artist

• Krause Gallery

“Mickey State of Mind” tells the story of a young Black boy learning to wear different masks just to move through the world safely. The painting is split down the middle to show two sides of the same person: on one side, there’s a familiar character—that childhood symbol of possibility, where anything feels achievable and dreams actually do come true. This is who the boy wants to be, living openly and chasing what matters to him.

The other side tells a different story. The Pinocchio nose represents the small lies we tell—not to deceive, but to make others comfortable, to smooth over moments that might otherwise turn tense. White gloves aren’t just playful—they’re a way of appearing less threatening, of manipulating yourself to fit into spaces that weren’t made with you in mind.

The blue background keeps a sense of hope alive, that youthful optimism that still believes things could be different. But the painting holds both truths at once: the dream of living authentically and the reality that sometimes survival means hiding parts of yourself. It’s about the weight of constantly adjusting who you are depending on where you are—and the quiet wish that one day, you won’t have to