[1] In describing his work, Holland wrote of the influences of “blackness in relation to HIV/AIDS, LGBT life, nationalism, and the racial implications of terms such as "outsider," "self-taught," and "folk" in American art”.

[7] Beset by widespread poverty, pervasive machismo, and the limited opportunities of the mining industry in Bessemer, Lockett never honed a trade.

[7] Coming-of-age after the civil rights movement, and dying before the novels of the 21st century, Lockett was stuck in a socio-cultural limbo.

Third, his preoccupation with instances of psychological transformation reflected a broadly vernacular emphasis on cathartic and ecstatic religious and performance rituals.

Fifth, he partook of the hermeneutic approaches of the root sculptor or the preacher, both of which seek prophetic signs in the found nature of a text—whether that text be the earth or the Bible—as a starting point for the communication of wisdom to others.

Instead of painting overt symbolism, he began to mold rusted tin from the side of Thornton Dial's storage sheds into 2 dimensional collages.