Imar’s most recently completed collage on canvas is compositionally informed by the September 1963 special issue cover of Ebony magazine, celebrating the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. However, his creative license moves this initial reference into the realm of metaphor. Instead of the magazine’s black background, a deep chocolate evocative of ebony wood is chosen as the portrait’s foundation. True to form, Douglass stares into a distance, towards future progression with intentionality and authority. The tones and scripts used for the majority of his skin and hair suggest aged papers of historic documents onto which Douglass’ abolitionist efforts helped to ink enlightened ideals.