The title, In Full Effect, I liked that term.

It was a term used and is used in inner cities, originated in what people call the hip hop culture, and it pretty much means what it sounds like.

In full effect means to the best effect.

The Reif Gallery on South High Street recently held an exhibition of work by 17 African-American artists.

Michael Sampson helped coordinate the event.

I got involved in this project through a fellowship awarded to me through Arts Midwest.

As part of my fellowship, Spaces Gallery had identified, along with the Ohio Arts Council, their interest in putting together an exhibition of African-American artists, especially artists from the state of Ohio.

In full effect was curated by former OSU professor and artist, William Hudson, who presently resides in Pennsylvania.

His duty was to basically choose from this vast array of artists who responded to our perspectives and to choose those whose work was very professional.

And also, those artists whose work fit into philosophy.

And that philosophy was basically diversity.

I'll name the piece Light Spaces, and the reason, there's two reasons, I work with installations because they're very much a source of life for me, you know, I don't sell them, you know, they're just, they are free.

I feel that light creates everything.

The absence of light, you're in a void.

What I'm trying to tap into is just to make the viewers more aware of their own lives, you know, to take time and perceive more things in life around them themselves.

I began to draw, first of all, with the quill and ink.

I was in my bedroom one winter evening, January 88.

And I am a born-again Christian.

And the Spirit of the Lord just spoke to me and said, pick up the pencil and draw.

And I have been drawing ever since.

Primarily, with the work that I do with the brush and the quill, it's a reflection of nature in my work.

I have a love of clouds I always have, and then the rest of the forms will come forth.

Another artist who I think is very strong in the exhibition is Harry Washington.

Harry Washington is a Cleveland artist, and Harry is also a sculptor, coincidentally.

Harry approaches his work from an historical perspective, and he deals with the periods of slavery of African-Americans.

And it's very interesting how he sees his own work.

People have really wanted Harry's work ever since he began doing his sculpture.

Before Harry will let you have a piece of his work if you're a gallery.

That piece of work has to have been seen by the children in the urban area of Cleveland.

He spends lots of time with inner city youth and he exposes them to what he's doing and And I'll see you in the next one.

The Ohio Arts Council was happy to support this because it's also part of our outreach mission.

I'm very pleased with this exhibition.

I think the work is very strong.

I think that there's a lot of energy in the works, and I think that sometimes with a group show, with a show that has as many artists as 17 represented, you don't know really what you're going to end up with.

I think works interface well together and I there's real strength in all the works that carries them as a group.

Every culture of people has their own art form.

My personal opinion is that there is black art, African-American art, and that there's an esthetic to that art.

I feel that way because after years of being around a lot of art and sometimes curating exhibitions after you put that show together and you look at that final result and you look around on the walls you see that work is so akin to each other.