Lance G. Newman II has a self-taught artistic practice that is varied, multifaceted and interdisciplinary. After 2 decades of poetry writing, performing and teaching he realized that a poem no longer allowed him to say all that needed to be said. So in 2017, he pivoted his artistic practice to focus on visual arts, a realm he had no formal training in. He realized a 3-minute spoken word poem had a couple hundred words to work with, but a picture was worth a thousand words and more. In 2021, he won the grand prize for the KY Derby Museums’ Black Heritage in Racing art contest. In 2022 he received Kentucky’s prestigious Bill Fischer Visual Arts award and in 2023 he had his first solo exhibition entitled, “A Thousand Words.”  Lance has since continued to be featured in group exhibitions and art fairs in the south and midwest. Lance is a multifaceted artist that is truly a “jack of all trades and master of none, but better than the master of one.” Warmly known as ‘Mr. SpreadLove,’ he seeks to explore, engage and express that love with the masses.