How did growing up in Mississippi, in the late 50s and 60s, shape the artists you became?

J: It was a time of social/political unrest, even as you hear of today, of course. But growing up in South Mississippi, ... it was a little bit more personal for me, because I was in the midst of it. 
I was a sensitive, young child, surrounded by derisive racial attitudes, the war, and poverty. And having had an interest in art from the time I was 4 years old, I just wanted to draw. I had no idea what art was, or how it pertained to all that was happening around me. So I never thought of art for what it was, it was just something I did. 

At that young age, even though I didn’t have the words for it at the time, I did see it as a form of communication. Because I was shy, it was how I shared my thoughts with the world. I drew pictures of some little girl that I had a crush on (although she never knew about it). {laughs}But it was when I was probably 19 years old that I began to see art for the powerful tool that it is. I realized I could use it to address not only the social/political climate of the time, but how it was affecting me personally. 

There were at least two artists who helped make that point clear to me through their work. Gordon Parks: the photographer, poet, musician, Renaissance man, ... came of age during the Depression era in Kansas. He was dealing with some of the same social/political stuff that I was dealing with growing up, and in his autobiography he was addressing this frustration to his mother and she said, “Well, why don’t you do something about it?” 
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At some point, during that time frame, he picked up a camera and began documenting the social/political issues that were going on. His autobiography is called “A Choice of Weapons.” The camera became his choice of weapon to address these issues. And also growing up in that same time, was Charles White. He said, “If I could sing to address the issues of our time, I’d sing about it. If I could write, I’d write about it. I’m an artist, so I paint about it.” I heard that, I saw that. And through them, I saw how I could use art to address the social/political stuff that was going on, and at the same time, vent the anger, hatred and frustration that I was feeling. 

So that’s when art became ... what it is for me today.

Gordon Parks, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information photographer, standing in office with Helen Wool seated at desk

​Washington, D.C. Deacons' corner in the Church of God in Christ_1942_gordon parks

​Washington, D.C. Grandchildren of Mrs. Ella Watson, a government charwoman_1942_gordon parks

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