Aaron and Elmer Dixon came on my radar in 2015 when a private patron commissioned me to paint African-American/Black Seattle Icons. My extensive research revealed who these fantastic young men were in 1968. Aaron was nineteen, and Elmer was seventeen; both were Benjamin Franklin High School students in the Mt. Baker district in Seattle, WA. Aaron Dixon founded the Black Panther Party Seattle Chapter, which his brother Elmer co-founded.

I painted Aaron with a backdrop of a silhouette of a BPP man wearing a black beret holding a rifle, painted on a red fence behind him. In the portrait, he’s 69, and the BPP is no longer operational. This painting is reminiscent of yesterday and depicts who he is today.

 Elmer Dixon is the younger sibling to Aaron, and I found a photo of him standing looking hopeful. I painted green, black, and red colors representing the Continent of African national colors and the BPP logo colors.

Above Elmer’s right shoulder, the green turns to a bright yellow because I saw him as enlightened and had evolved throughout the years. I saw him as an intelligent, warm human being.