'Still Searching Project' focuses on often overlooked missing Black women by Suzanne Hanney & Paige Bialik
Artist Damon Lamar Reed was just a child in Phoenix when his aunt and two cousins, ages 6 and 8, were killed: an unsolved murder to this day. Sometime in the past year, Reed’s mother created the spark for his latest project when she reposted the story of his aunt’s and cousins’ deaths. As Reed went online researching their case, he came upon more information about unsolved murders in Chicago. There were 51 women murdered near Washington Park in the last 20 years, including a large number found burned in an alley or a trash can. Could it be a serial killer? “Sometimes you say you got a good idea and sometimes a ‘God idea,’” Reed said at an October 22 panel during the opening of his “Still Searching Project” at 345 Gallery in East Garfield Park. “I am thinking somebody is going to see my paintings, call the police; someone will get found and we are going to change the world,” Reed continued. “I am very optimistic. As they say, ‘Shoot for the moon and land on the stars.’” Reed chased conspiracy theories and truth as he listened to podcasts and viewed Facebook groups. Finally, he inboxed one group’s administrator about providing him a list of people he could paint, which became the “Still Searching Project”: 16 portraits of well-known and lesser-known women who have been missing for as long as 40 years. A Kartemquin documentary collaboration is also in the works. The first portrait he painted was of mail carrier Kierra Coles, who was three months pregnant when she disappeared in 2018. The second was of Diamond and Tionda Bradley, ages 3 and 10, respectively, when they disappeared from their mother’s home 20 years ago. Yasmin Acree and Sonya Rouse are among the other portraits. There are still women for whom Reed can only find names, weight, height and date missing. They may not have much family left. They may have been on the street, so that perpetrators assume no one will look for them, he said. Human trafficking can take three forms: labor, sex trade and organ harvesting. “All the cases are equal to me. No woman is more important than any other,” Reed said in a telephone interview. “[But] If I started out with the more high-profile cases, it would help raise the profile of the less known.”
TOP: Reed's first portrait of mail carrier Kierra Coles. BOTTOM: Reed's portrait of Diamond and Tionda Bradley. Images provided by Damon Lamar Reed. OPPOSITE PAGE: Reed at work in his studio. Photo from stillsearchingdocumentary.com. Learn more about Damon Lamar Reed and his projects, including "Still Searching Project" at damonlamarreed.com
