"I turned 70 this year. 70 years old with over 50 years practice as a professional Visual Rhythmistic Artist committed to establishing Rhythmism as a genre and style that is Future-Primitif and a conduit for genetic memories. Beyond the limits of protest art and "Black Art" that isusually about suffering of a few historic people,...... I adhered to rigorous standards that were in place long before I arrived and an array of design and intellectual principles of my own Rhythmistic consciousness. Not the usual Blakc folks be about passion but never logic stuff. Hmmmmm.....70!
My gift to myself will be to produce 70 works of art before I turn 71 Each one at the level of professional illustration or ready to exhibit in a major gallery level Rhythmistic Fine Art. Not fluff, poorly executed Photoshopped montages or simple quick sketches.
Oils. Acrylics. Watercolours.....the stull of real organice human concieved and made genius reeking Art.
Plus, I am part of a clique of Balck Men that was started during my middle school and high-school years. We call ourselves "The 7th"! As in 77th Street and Halsted area of the South Side of Chicago circa 1960s. We were an anti-gang-alliance to make the successful transition, alive and well, from 6th grade to manhood. In some ways I, Rhythmism, and so much more happened at world class levels because of that pact. "The 7th"! The core of us are still in touch today.
Since I was honored and featured on the outside of the important Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago last Spring and Summer of 2021 per its landmark "Chicago Comics: 1960 Until Now!" dynamite group exhibition by having my first Rhythmistic character on the Musuem's outer wall, I am now in that "NOG" creative mode.
"NOG: The Protector of the Pyramides". The Nubian of Greatness" was created by me in the late 1970s and first ran as a comic strip in theChicago Defender Newspaper. I later expanded it then published it as the first ever Rhythmistic Graphic Novel in 1981. This was after I had spent time in Paris working as a freelance illustrator and had several exchanges with Moebious , of Metal Hurlant. He was the star leader of a group of Artistic Publishers in Bande Dessiness known as Humanoide Associes. Or the Association of Humanoides.
I use the French spelling of "pyramids" as a kind of homage to my international cosmopolitan phase.
I felt my work would fit in with them. However, that was not to be.
The above Rhythmistic masterpiece was done by me in 1975 for Miles Davis. It was to be an album cover however Miles and I could never agree on my payment and other terms. It blew Moebious' and Roger Dean's minds in Paris. They were expecting me to be doing images of tragic or sad Black folks or of selected Black leaders. Instead, here I was light years ahead of them. Future-Primitif!
The ambitious 'zine "Papers" was Onli's first publication. Circa 1980.
It was produced in a partnership with The OSUN Center For The Arts.
My being a Black heterosexual Male and awesome illustrator was too much even for them. Moebious told me that if I wanted to see my Rhythmistic works in print I would have to published it myself. So, I returned to Chicago and morphed my operation form a freelance illustration & fine art studio into a production house for video, fashion, talent management and of course indie publishing. "NOG" was our first product.
This album-cover was illustrated by Onli for the landmark Delmark Jazz label.
The look and narrative of "NOG" was derived from my prior works and research about African, Nubia, and genetic that often percolated in my Fine Art. A bold Red, Black & Green intergalactic, dreadlocked cosmic Rhythmism Future-Primitif character. Unique! The first of its kind. Created a published by a Black owned operation more than a decade before "Afrofuture" started trending.
This was so innovative that the Rasta and Black Power enclaves were shocked as they were defined by music with no appetite for the visual power of Art. The comic book industry said "Hell, the fuck, NO!". Yet the "NOG" sold out. Folks who were sick of standard comix ate it up. Blacks who were tired of being limited by the narrow orthodoxy of the visually challenged leaders of the Black Cultural Movement saw "NOG" as real free expression along with being a nexus of positive creativity, culture & commerce.
"NOG" is the book and character that opened the door to the growing Black Age of Comics Movement that has totally revolutionized Graphic Novels and such.
Now it was translated into a Graphic Novel. "Rhythmism Lives"! So. the 70 works of art will start with returning to my "NOG" phase in oils and acrylics as a collection of Rhythmistic Fine Art with the intent to exhibit the entire collection at a major museum.
Since most Major Art Musuems are now claiming that Black Lives Matters, let's see if they can finally accept the visual brilliance of a heterosexual, multi-degreed, Rhythmistic Black Male Visual Artist who is not working in the wake of approval form others. I want a solo exhibition of "NOG" with no filter or trending notions and politics attached. "RHYTHMISM LIVES!" Expanding visual possibilities. Let's see."
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