Growing up in Washington D.C. in the in the 2010’s I have personally watched as places I have known and loved be destroyed or removed due to gentrification. Gentrification a process in which a poor area (as of a city) experiences an influx of middle-class or wealthy people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses and which often results in an increase in property values and the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents. Gentrification in DC has mostly effected the black community in the city. Between 2000 and 2010, more than 20,000 Black residents in DC were displaced. And in the past five years, 16 percent of DC neighborhoods with lower property values and lower-income residents gentrified, making it one of the top 15 most intensely gentrified cities in the US. In this work I painted a African mask black to represent the spirt of a Black person then I attached a paint brush to the top of the mask with a streak of white paint following it to give the illusion of a invisible hand that is trying to paint the entire mask white. The floating paint brush on the mask also refers to the many people in gentrified cities that never see the people who displaced them, but still can feel their effects. This is my personal representation of gentrification not only in Washington D.C., but other inner cities in America who have this problem. "Gentrification #2", 2022 Wood, Acrylic Paint, and Paint Brush 16 1/2 × 7 1/2 × 6 1/2 in 41.9 × 19.1 × 16.5 cm Special thanks to @pitterpadder for helping place this work !