Christian Abernathy is the type of young man who would make any parent proud. In fact, he would make any adult proud. Christian, a senior at Center for Creative Arts, was inspired during the Coronavirus pandemic. So, like many, he made time to focus on using his creative skills. In this case, it was art.
The 17-year-old has been developing a gallery-stock full of art collections that include one of his most cherished, “The Life of a Black Woman.” The color pencil, inspiration for his work goes back to the tragic murder of Breonna Taylor, a young woman in Louisville, KY, who on March 13, 2020 was shot by police officers as she slept on her couch. He began to wonder how he could contribute to the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I’d been seeing it everywhere. I had been trying a way to use my white privilege, even though I am mixed. I was trying to come up with all of these concepts of how to get a story out about black women,” he said. “I tried to put a path in the background to show the struggle she has to go through in her life. Because there is such a long way black women have to go to go to a certain point,” he said.
Christian is the son of Susie Abernathy, and today is a student at Chattanooga State Community College, where he is studying art.