Sunny Days is a self-portrait of Holmes, his reflection presented in a mirror situated between two mobile homes where his family lived on Narrow Street. The artist has included the image of a mirror in past works, and its presence has come to symbolize the process of traveling into his past to revisit and reframe childhood memories as he works through healing from early trauma. Here, a bright sun is central in the work, a signal to his former self that a brighter future lies ahead.

Spring in Thibodeaux brought the Fireman’s Fair. For Holmes, Sundays of his youth are a blur of days spent watching his mother do the wash in hair curlers as she tried to gather her kids for mass. If they behaved she might take them to the fair to ride the bumper cars. Sunday was always chaotic, and as a boy, he had conflicted feelings around religion that only grew as he did. Says Holmes, “Religion now means something different. We were living in a reckless environment, so church felt like a safe haven and a place to listen to life lessons. Our reverend lived in the hood and talked about real things happening.” Floral wallpaper is sometimes incorporated into Homes’ paintings as in All on a Sunday - often depicted just behind a male figure - meant to symbolize the need black men feel to present themselves as unthreatening in order to stay alive.

Holmes has spent the last few years working through past traumas, and much of the work he has done has paired cognitive therapy with artistic expression as seen in Second Childhood: “I’ve never had a birthday party, not ever in my life. With painting I can give myself a second chance.” His practice has been an immeasurable tool in his personal healing, and has brought purpose to his pain.

My Grandmother was an Usher presents a close bond between Holmes and his grandmother, who holds her Sunday church fan that depicts an image of Moses Baptist Church, where his family attended service regularly. Now in her 90s, Jammie is determined to spend another Sunday with her at mass in Thibodaux while she’s still able to attend. A blue color field with the text ‘water’ is a regular occurrence in his works, symbolizing baptism and rebirth, as well as the burial of a former life. The grey concrete grounds the work and represents a hardened past.

Holmes’ grandmother was an usher at his community church in Thibodaux, having been involved with the congregation from a young age. Ushers captures her in celebration with a group of women, bible and church fan in hand. Their passion is evident through the motion within the composition, as one figure raises her hands in exaltation. To Holmes, the piece recounts “the essence of what it was like at a southern mass.”

This set of paintings (American Neighborhood #1 and #2) reflects the pressure on children growing up in disenfranchised neighborhoods to ‘be strong’; take care of themselves and their families from a young age; and to normalize exposure to threats of crime, violence, or abuse. Holmes remembers looking up to the older guys in his neighborhood and wanting to be just like them, and the kids depicted in the two works fall within a vulnerable age, somewhere between 8 and 12 years old. Their gestures reveal two different sides of vulnerability, where one figure displays premature confidence while the other reveals reticence. Each has a pop gun nearby, reminiscent of earlier works by Holmes that paralleled kids growing up in rough neighborhoods to child soldiers in Sierra Leone.