Oct. 10th, 2020
"My art's on my mind & my mind's on my art!"
The worth of great art and valued masterpieces is often the product of vetted narratives, insider politics, rarity, distinction, or simply the artist or the artwork being anointed by the powerful. Other instances assigns value due to the artist and resulting art having an undeniable impact on the cascade of World Art History. But the Artiste reserves the right to assert and declare value!
I have to make the most of this residency. Being at one with the art in the setting where it was manifested gives me that flow feeling......that grow sensation!
Every major collection deserves to have an Onli that is part of this Rhythmistic practice.
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The Kokomusik panel floors me with its exuberance and fun factor!
I grew up in Hyde Park community of Chicago in the 1950s. I was free-range and as a creative kid spent time with college students and Beat-Niks. They loved having this Colored Kid around who drew way beyond his years. Plus they often gave me super-large sheets of drawing paper if I would draw for them. It really made my Summers. I am still based in Hyde Park.
This neighborhood is home to the birth of the Atomic-Age and many Nobel Prize winners along with an array of major political or cultural players. Of course growing up there......in that ether.....that the child I was would grow into the experimental visual artist to expand on the Black Cultural Revolution to conceive of Rhythmism as an opulent universal visual art genre.
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Making art is often a nexus of time....materials..... ideas...expressions and concepts.
Though I am a Black Man, Rhythmism easily moves beyond the limits of what most call...."Black Art'!
I started this path before I knew I was Black. In fact we as a people were not yet calling ourselves "Black" when I first noticed this Rhythmistic thing seeping out of me in 1963. This is why I have been marginalized in most Black Art circles along with being overlooked by mainstream curators who are Black. This institutional notion that a Black person who is a gifted visual artist can not.....and ..... should not determine that anything or combination of practices could be considered as a "genre"! No way! My close friends, former girl friend types,,,,fellow visual artists, professors....instructors, wanna-be authorities, and more have all joined in on that trip. Issuing insults, curses....condemnations....ignorance....sometimes back-stabbing too.
Telling me that I can't do what I have already done.....? What is that dumb stuff about?
Hmm! My nick name is 'Turtle". Is stabbing a turtle in the back a winning strategy? Nope! I actually started this course in 6th grade. By age 18 it was on fire! They were all late to the party. These were not options to negotiate or insert naïve opinions....this was the Rhythmistic way. Do the work! Showcase the work. Present the work in the real art worlds. Observe traditions. Respect values, standards and oversight. Both fine and commercial. Apply the related concepts in art education and art therapy. Pay close attention. Live the art. Invest in myself. Make money to make more art!
Opinionate that!
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Rhythmsim is more than my truth. It is a gift to the Art World! From me and mine!
There is no force like an idea whose time has come.
What time is it! Its Rhythmistic Time!
Ownership is the highest form of appreciation!
The value of these and other Rhythmistic works is housed in the fact that their intent is to bring forth Rhythmism as a genre. Since 1970 I have been into this ongoing visual arts experiment. The Summer / Fall Flex Residency at the Hyde Park Art Center meets the time when Rhythmism pivots away from experimental to affirmed.
Rhythmism Lives!
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