FOCUS, painting series (2011)

What began as a fascination with the Color Neutralization Phenomenon (the mixing of complementary colors to arrive at gray), evolved into a deeper investigation of color theory and perception. In their debut series, Focus (2011), Tyler set out to achieve gray through each complementary pairing: red and green, blue and orange, purple and yellow. After successfully reaching neutral only once, through a precise balance of blue and orange, the remaining works became an expansive study of hue, chroma, and the subtle spectrum that exists between any two colors.

Each composition remains intentionally consistent and restrained, allowing color to operate as the primary variable. Within this fixed geometric plane, shifts in pigment fundamentally alter spatial tension, mood, and optical vibration, revealing how color alone can transform form.

Created largely between dusk and dawn while balancing academic demands, Focus reflects the artist’s lived experience during that period—moments of intensity, stillness, and fleeting light layered within a singular, unwavering objective. Across the series, color becomes both subject and metaphor: a record of endurance, process, and the clarity of keeping one target in view, Graduation.

Select works from the Focus series have been featured across commercial and branded environments, most notably in a Spotify® campaign. The paintings appeared within a international video advertisement starring Stephanie Beatriz, positioning the series within a intersection of fine art, music, and cultural in media.

Combs, painting series (2021-Present)

Combs series is both a celebration and a layered exploration of history, culture, and the chasm formed when ancestral and cultural ties are forcibly severed. As a Black American, the experience of feeling untethered from lineage is deeply familiar. This body of work emerges as a gesture toward reconnection.

Drawn to the many currents of the African diaspora, the artist depicts artifacts that span the African continent. These forms function as imagined totems, vessels for inquiry and reflection. Through them, the artist wonders what stories they may carry, mourning both what is known and what will forever remain unknown.

Radial tie-dye, a practice rooted in African tradition, becomes a meditative language within the work. Its vibrations invite stillness and contemplation, creating space where layered emotions dissolve into washes of color, existing and evolving with each viewer who stands before them.