Obie Weathers III is the artist formerly working under the pseudonym Moyo – Swahili for “heart”.

Obie, who as a teenager was arrested and sentenced to death, has spent the last 23 years in solitary confinement on Texas Death Row.

Using found material and media acquired anyway he can, his work emerges from a dim hole in American culture, arriving with the visions of what it is like to be poor, Black, hopeful and sentenced to death in the 21st century.

The existential, political and spiritual themes of his work are often filtered through the Buddhist and yogic practices which have helped heal and sustain him through years of isolation.

“I try to make use of discarded or ignored bits in my art because we all have something worthwhile for another, we just have to find it – and it took me coming to death row to find my worth as a human and as a citizen of the world. 

I have committed some grave acts in my life and I will never be able to undo them. Yet the very least I can do is to improve myself.

It is my hope that someone else will also take control of their narrative and tell themselves a new tale, a grander story of themselves. For all of our benefit.”

Obie’s loved ones maintain a beautiful website and IG account to share his art and writings.

Inquiries can also be sent to obieweathersiii@gmail.com