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Newsletter: June
16, 2009
To me, expressionist art speaks to the feelings and emotions of the times.
Want to HEAR the angst the people felt during the 1960's? Click HERE and listen to Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach's Freedom Now!! Suite!
Or you can listen to John Coltrane's Alabama. "Coltrane wrote the song 'Alabama' in response to the bombing. He patterned his saxophone playing on Martin Luther King's funeral speech. Midway through the song, mirroring the point where King transforms his mourning into a statement of renewed determination for the struggle against racism, Elvin Jones's drumming rises from a whisper to a pounding rage. He wanted this crescendo to signify the rising of the civil rights movement." - The Socialist Review, Oct 2003
Listen to Charles Mingus' Fables of Faubus. All of these works spoke to the struggle framed by hope that characterized those times.
I was listening to these and some other avant garde works of the 1960's as I worked on new pieces in the "Men of Color" Series.
In “Crown” (the piece show here) the crown is composed of 40 year old newspaper clippings featuring images of Nancy Wilson, Julian Bond, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. (Click on the art for more information)
Disparate elements creating congruence. Old meets new and each redefines the other. The biodegradable meets the archival. Monochrome and pigment. April 1968, November 2008.
Nancy-Julian-Jackie – The performer, the politician, and the privileged. Each relevant within context of each other.
I painted around the clippings, occasionally getting some paint on the clippings themselves. The construction is on gallery quality watercolor paper, reinforced with professional quality black acrylic gesso and paint.
He is a man of color The wounds of yesterday are still visible…the hopes of tomorrow, he holds in his hands… He moves into the uncertain…with certainty. Crowned in tears, he holds a scepter of wisdom borne of pain. He is king. Of a kingdom yet realized. - Harold Smith, 6/16/2009
For more information about this piece and others in the series, click HERE.
An eBook on The Men of Color Series is online. You can view or download it HERE.
Until next time,
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