art A Piney Woods Renaissance
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903-241-1974 Page 06 - June 2011
The marvelous explosion of Black culture and art of the 1920s and 30s known as the Harlem Renaissance birthed now legendary visual artists, poets, and musicians such as Jacob Lawerence, Conutee Cullen, and Duke Ellington. Most of us may not have had the opportunity to experience firsthand that movement of art and expression. Far removed from New York City, there is one happening in East Texas. Several local black artists are doing their best to share that same air of inspiration and creative genius with the community of East Texas, and ultimately the world. Self-taught muralist and portrait artist, Wensley Stephens, is a native of Longview whose works of art have been displayed in and around the Piney Woods region for several years. For the past five years, Wensley has been honing his skills, almost oblivious to the art scene around him. Recently, he discovered Longview’s artistic set and they discovered him. He specializes in water media techniques of acrylic, watercolor, and sculpting out of clay. His mastery of the media makes it hard to pick one as the best. Stephens renders portraits with such realism they seem to capture bits of a person’s essence which he offers as gifts to be appreciated by the masses. “Seeing the end result of what I create is always what I look forward to most,” he says. Visual artist and writer, Candace Williams, happened upon East Texas on the winds of a storm. Native to New Orleans, Candace and her family have made East Texas their home since Hurricane Katrina. This modern day folklorist’s art is reflective of her experiences as a woman of color and depicts familiar scenes of motherhood, family and culture. Williams is a student of Fine Art at a local college pursuing a career in the education and instruction of art. Candace is a multimedia artist capable of utilizing the bold tones of pastel or the subtle tones of graphite to emote to her audience. James McLemore has a traditionalist approach to the creation of his art. It is poignant in subject matter and imagery. His oil on canvas work is stunning - capturing your attention and pleasing the soul. James is prolific in his timeless works. He uses oil on canvas, and his work is stunning; it captures your attention and pleases the soul. McLemore was born and reared in Longview, Texas. He graduated from Longview public schools and went on to earn a BFA in Industrial Design and Art at the California
College of the Arts in Oakland, California and a masters degree from the University of Texas at Tyler in 1978. He has also studied art at Stephen F. Austin University. His varied career includes time as an illustrator in the U.S. Army in Germany and in Vietnam and as a senior designer in engineering for two Fortune 500 companies. For more than 18 years he taught art in public schools. He attended Longview public schools and then went on to earn a BFA in Industrial Design and Art at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California in 1966. He earned his masters at the University of Texas at Tyler in 1978. He also studied art at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, Texas leading to an MFA. He has won several awards in art competitions. Talented young graphic artist, Jeremiah Shepherd, uses his understanding of digital media, and his love of fine arts to create masterful displays of visual media, but he is equally fond of the written word.Shepherd is a poet. ”Writing can also be sentimental. When used correctly, it can be extremely expressive. I enjoy and write everything with a purpose, and my goal when writing anything is to affect someone else,” he says. “For years, I have written whenever I felt inspired, now I write to inspire others.” To see more of his work: shepstyle. com. Although the Harlem Renaissance is mostly rooted in popular music of that era, had it not been for the cultural emancipation that the Harlem Renaissance allowed, we would not enjoy the cultural diversities in art of all forms today. One of the lasting legacies of the Harlem Renaissance was that it gave African Americans a united culture. Previously, middle-class black people living in New York had tried to integrate with the local white population. What the literature and music gave them was a cultural heritage to be proud of. It blended the soul and jazz of the southern immigrants with the piano, considered a more middle-class instrument than the brass of the jazz band and a staple of the more affluent New York African Americans. The artists, both mentioned and unmentioned, offer a multidimensional view of the modern day African American existence in East Texas community.
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