Color of Money Art Slave Harvesting Cotton John W Jones

When John Due west. Jones was about 13 years one-time he learned a real-life history lesson about slavery.

His great-great grandmother was sitting in a rocking chair in front of her wooden shack in Fairfield Canton, S.C., when he noticed something on her back. Her loose clothes hung just enough to reveal markings on her back, old wounds that left scars on her crumbling torso.

Jones was curious and asked his grandmother near the marks. "She said, 'Well, she was born back in slavery time,' " Jones recalled. "She didn't have to say anything else."

Decades later, Jones encountered the faces of slavery again. This time, it was on Confederate money.

He discovered images of blackness slaves were prominently engraved on the banking concern notes of Confederate currency, sometimes sharing infinite on the beak with the portraits of U.S. presidents. The images depicted slaves, unremarkably grinning, picking and loading cotton, carrying tobacco leaves and toting corn and sugar canes.

Those images on the currency shocked and intrigued him. And, to exist sure, they left their mark on him.

"I was astonished by the widespread employ of slaves on these currencies and even more shocked by the absenteeism of this data in whatsoever history books," Jones noted in a speech in Ohio.

Therefore, as an artist, Jones wanted to explore the images further, to sympathize their origin, find out why they existed on currency and award the lives depicted. Thus, the South Carolina creative person re-created the images in a serial of colorful oil paintings, which are jump for an artsy fundraiser in Ocala Friday.

The collection, which pairs the Confederate bills with the paintings, became a successful traveling exhibition chosen "Confederate Currency: The Color of Coin." Jones appeared on CNN and in national magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

On Friday, the noted artist brings this art to Ocala for the African American Artfest Committee'south annual fundraiser, "A Gustation of Harvest." The semi-formal event, a wine tasting and art show gala, is from 7 to 10 p.chiliad. at Brick Urban center Middle for the Arts and costs $10. Proceeds will benefit the group's scholarship fund.

Jones will talk about the paintings, talk over the history of Confederate money and answer questions from the public. There also volition be live music and hors d'ouvres. The paintings will hang at the gallery until Sept. 29.

The works to exist displayed in Ocala are actually prints of the original paintings, which are currently on display at The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, S.C., through Oct. 29. Three of the 40 paintings to be displayed in Ocala are from images found on Florida currency. All the paintings, except for ane, will be available for sale, with those profits besides slated for the scholarship fund.

The original exhibition debuted in 2001 at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Civilisation at the College of Charleston, S.C. Since then, galleries, history museums and colleges all over the country - such as Atlanta's Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site and The Black World History Museum in St. Louis - have hosted the exhibition.

Now in its 6th twelvemonth, the exhibition is all the same sparking interest. Booking requests go on to pour in and Jones even so travels the country speaking at schools and churches and symposiums. He said "never in a meg years" did he think it all would last this long.

"I thought I'd exist known for something some day, but Confederate money?" he said with a chuckle during a recent phone interview. "I'k absolutely amazed at all the interest this has gotten . . . It'due south been a God-ship to me, and I'm thankful for information technology all."

"Information technology" all began in 1996 while Jones was working equally a graphic artist at a blueprint shop in Summerville, South.C. A customer came into the shop and asked for an enlargement of an 1853 Confederate bill. After enlarging the bank notation, he saw an image of a group of slaves picking cotton in the bottom left-mitt corner of the $ten Charleston, S.C., neb.

"I'd seen Confederate money before, but I never paid any attention to what was on it," said Jones, a native of Columbia, Southward.C.

Equally a painter, Jones ever has sought to bring the black experience in America to life on canvas, and he was fascinated at what he had seen on the coin. It wasn't likewise long after his discovery that he painted his start piece, "Slave Family Picking Cotton wool," the image that was on the $10 bill he'd get-go seen.

The first known depiction of black people on U.S. currency was about 1820. Information technology was a $5 bank note from the Farmers & Mechanic Bank of Augusta, Ga. Jones' painting of the epitome is titled "First Epitome" and depicts two white men sawing and hammering, while several black men and women take cotton from a huge basket filled with the South's cash ingather.

Jones said he was "stunned" by the lack of information in history books most the currency and wanted to resurrect the images and so everyone could see what he saw. He admits there were times information technology was difficult painting the scenes of his ancestors in bondage, but he pushed by the emotions and let his brush flow.

"My goal was to inform people," Jones said. "I was motivated by that."

Afterward, Jones found several of the bills on eBay and acquired many more at Civil War shops, flea markets and antique stores. Then after the exhibit first opened and was featured in The New York Times, people began sending him more than Amalgamated currency.

"I've found 123 and so far, and I've painted just as many," said the 56-year-one-time creative person.

Information technology's been a couple of years since Jones has painted the slave images, but he said in no way is the series buried and gone. "I might not be finished yet," he said without hesitation. "If someone has something I haven't seen and it looks interesting, I'll paint information technology."

Carleather Ponder, president of the African American Artfest Committee, commencement saw Jones' work while in Charleston, Southward.C., with her hubby and son. They attended a black art expo where Jones had a booth; they ended upwardly buying four prints of the Confederate series.

Ponder and the committee worked for a couple of years to bring the showroom to Ocala for their annual autumn fundraiser, simply financing, timing and a venue stalled their efforts.

Finally, Chuma Nwokike of Chuma Gallery in South Carolina, which handles the bookings for the exhibition, suggested exhibiting prints instead of the originals. Then, Community Banking concern & Trust of Florida signed on as the sponsor and Marion Cultural Alliance agreed to let the committee to use its gallery space to brandish the paintings.

Ponder hopes the images will enlighten and brainwash the community. "It'south such a unique exhibition," she said. "Information technology's a history lesson that I think a lot of people volition enjoy, 1 that will have a lasting impression."

Most people, both blackness and white, are astonished at the images on the currency, Jones said. During the height of the exhibition, Jones said 97 percentage of the people he encountered had never seen Amalgamated money and certainly were not enlightened that African-American images were on information technology.

In Jones' artist argument on world wide web.colorsofmoney.com, he wrote, "Many African-Americans are ashamed of our slavery history, and many whites experience guilty well-nigh American slave history. My promise is that the exhibition . . . will inspire discussions on the legacy of slavery and somehow aid to remove the shame African Americans feel and remove the guilt whites feel when slavery is discussed."

When asked if he idea this exhibit had done that, Jones replied, "The paintings have achieved what I wanted them to practise . . . I think it has certainly begun the healing process that is so necessary in this country."

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Lashonda Stinson can be reached at 867-4129 or lashonda.stinson@starbanner.com.

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Source: https://www.ocala.com/story/news/2006/09/06/color-of-money/31169113007/

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