Ghetto Playstation is my response to the growing number of gang-related deaths afflicting our communities. The painting depicts someone controlling the 'real game' that exists within our urban neighborhoods. The object of the game is to see which gang member can destroy the greatest number of opposing members. There are many forces represented in teh picture that contribute to or are products of gang violence:

• Within the game are two gang member, one a Crip and one a Blood, facing eachother with guns drawn. Teardrops on the face of the Crip means he has killed someone.
• Between the two gangsters is the goal: a pile of drugs and money, stained with the blood of casualties.
• A police helicopter with a spotlight shining down on the money, hovers above.
• Spilled  blood flows through the streets and into the sewers.
• A chalk outline in the middle of the blood, represents the mounting number of victims of gang violence.
• Behind the Crip are prison bars, a policeman clutching a nightstick and a ferocious police dog, ready to take him down.
• Above his head are two hands releasing pigeons into the air, which is a signal in the hood that the cops are near.
• A car in the upper right corner displays the hydraulic acrobats that are strereotypical of gang members.
• Behind the Blood is a wheelchair, which represents the growing number of gang members who are disabled by policemen or rival gangs.
• The hand of a news reporter holding a microphone documents all the chaos.
• Nearly every major city in the United States has a street named after our slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ironically, much of the gang violence in our neighborhoods occurs on or near Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. This particular gang war wages on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Hope Ave.
• The remote control is white with red and blue buttons, representing the Crips and Bloods. The red, white and blue colors represent the United States of America.
• In the playstation window is the inscription Who's Really Controlling The Game?
• Above it all is a mother in pain, clutching the life-less body of yet another child caught in the cross-fire.

There is one catch to the game:

There are no winners among the Crips or the Bloods. The only winner is the beneficiary of the bloodshed. Who stands to gain the most by the total destruction of these two rival gangs?