Acrylic on Canvas | 2025
J. Cole’s face rises from a field of his own words, eyes closed, tears cutting clean paths down his skin. Around him the verses from “Crooked Smile” swarm in raw black handwriting — confessions, reassurances, quiet defiance — while bright yellow paint bleeds and drips like a crown that refuses to stay polite - a deliberate risk. This piece was never meant to be pretty. It was meant to be honest.Painted it in the middle of learning how to look at myself without flinching, Cole’s music has always felt like sitting in the dark with someone familiar saying the quiet parts out loud — the sins, the shame, the crooked parts we try to hide and the strange beauty that shows up when we finally stop hiding them. The tears are mine as much as his. The hollow drips under the eyes became a signature later, but they started here — marks of the things we carry that still manage to shine. This piece  is the reminder that being born into a mess doesn’t mean you stay there. You can wear a crooked smile, keep the crown slightly off-center.

Each print is a faithful reproduction of the original hand-painted canvas, capturing the texture, color, and attitude of the piece as closely as possible in print form.
 
© [2026] Ride or Dye Design, Amanda DeJong. All rights reserved. This is a reproduction of an original painting.