We Are Rock & Roll
This suite of over 30 pieces will document and examine the Black inventors, contributors and driving spirits behind the music that we refer to today as - Rock. Though African Americans created Rock & Roll in juke joints and bar houses across the southern United States, this still remains a little known fact to the younger generation. This has caused a warped view of this form due to our absence in a contemporary sense.
I felt it very necessary to educate all people that will have the opportunity to view my work of this fact. I also, felt the need to place artists within the series that are not instantly thought of as rock. Artists like Nina Simone, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk therefore became subjects of my portraiture, due to their lifestyle and contribution to the evolution of music. Artists like these have helped to take the music from a voice and a guitar to highly conceptualized and intricately written compositions, thus opening the doors to progressive and alternative forms still explored by modern rock musicians.
The portraits for this series were rendered mainly in acrylic paint on canvas or paper. I also worked in a new style for my study series (the 8 x 10 pieces), occasionally using colour to enhance certain images. For these pieces I completed the study on paper then mounted the paper on canvas to create a fusion of street, pop and fine art.
My hope with this series is to educate the younger audience that feels trapped by today’s typical 16 bars and a hook approach to music. To extend their appreciation and knowledge of their ancestors that truly dedicated themselves to the discovery of new sound. We are Rock & Roll, and there is a higher education to be found in the sincere listening of our music from Leadbelly in late 1800’s Mississippi to Wu-Tang Clan in 90’s era New York.
I felt it very necessary to educate all people that will have the opportunity to view my work of this fact. I also, felt the need to place artists within the series that are not instantly thought of as rock. Artists like Nina Simone, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk therefore became subjects of my portraiture, due to their lifestyle and contribution to the evolution of music. Artists like these have helped to take the music from a voice and a guitar to highly conceptualized and intricately written compositions, thus opening the doors to progressive and alternative forms still explored by modern rock musicians.
The portraits for this series were rendered mainly in acrylic paint on canvas or paper. I also worked in a new style for my study series (the 8 x 10 pieces), occasionally using colour to enhance certain images. For these pieces I completed the study on paper then mounted the paper on canvas to create a fusion of street, pop and fine art.
My hope with this series is to educate the younger audience that feels trapped by today’s typical 16 bars and a hook approach to music. To extend their appreciation and knowledge of their ancestors that truly dedicated themselves to the discovery of new sound. We are Rock & Roll, and there is a higher education to be found in the sincere listening of our music from Leadbelly in late 1800’s Mississippi to Wu-Tang Clan in 90’s era New York.
