"We Were Six"

We Were Six

Ken Oswald “__yak” Vann, Jr.

Mixed media on unstretched canvas

60 × 36 inches

2026

In We Were Six, five young Black boys move together beneath the weight of a shared burden. Rendered in urgent red against a distressed field of white, black, and earth tones, the figures appear both unified and exposed. Their bodies merge with the object they carry, collapsing the distance between grief, responsibility, and survival.

The title reveals what the image withholds: there were once six. The absent boy remains present through the labor of the five who remain. Their formation is therefore both a procession and a count—one made visible through loss. Surrounded by open space and offered no adult assistance, the boys must carry grief among themselves while their numbers continue to diminish.

Layered paint, abrasion, drips, visible canvas weave, and raised surfaces give the work an archival, weathered quality. The unstretched canvas preserves its material vulnerability, allowing the painting to exist not only as an image of burden, but as an object bearing physical evidence of pressure, damage, and endurance.