Reflections On "The Visual Side of
the Blues"
The series of photopaintings I am sharing here with you honor
the Blues as an American art form, giving recognition to the people who have
played, sung and lived the Blues for most of their lives. I offer you a view of
the Blues as seen through my eyes as a visual artist.
The
Blues musicians that I have portrayed since living in South Carolina are very
special people to me. They often receive limited national recognition, and
little in the way of financial security as compared to the far more commercial
pop/rock stars heard on local radio stations.
What I admire most about these people is their honesty and unpretentiousness as
they continue to sing and play for the love of the Blues and the belief that
they are in their own way carrying on a tradition: they are the keepers of a
legacy and understand their responsibility to the next generation of Blues
musicians and listeners.
What is it about this simple yet
haunting music that stirs the soul? One day Brownie McGhee gave me an answer,
“Man...the Blues is the Truth.” When my good friend Sonny Terry, one of the most
wonderful harp players, passed away in 1986, I felt the world as well as I had
lost a piece of the fabric that is America.
Long-time traditional Blues artists of the most essential
style are few in number, many moving on in years, some of the best already gone.
Brownie McGhee died in 1996. We lost Jimmie Lee Robinson recently. The one-man
show awarded to me for October 2002 at the Kershaw County Fine Arts Center in
Camden, South Carolina, prompted me to develop a visual tribute to Jimmie Lee
and Sonny. Twenty-one of my photopaintings were also put on exhibit. Here is how
they came about.
11/1/2002
