Something For Your Soul
Quill Wordsmith
Wordsmith@excapethematrix.com
James Murphy is more than a visual artist but his work and his vision is for
all of his pieces to tell a story and serve as a ministry to all he comes in
contact with. Continue with me in this second part to learning about Something
For Your Soul Fine Arts.
QW: Wow. So tell me how it got on WJZ-13
JM: Now the interview…..that was God with that one. The interview was 2005 during the weekend of Artscape. Baltimore promotion of arts called me that Thursday. They were looking for an artist from Artscape and they had the nerve to call me to ask me if I was interested. I was like, “YEAH!!” But the funny thing about it is I wasn’t their first choice. Initially, the artist they requested had some crazy demand. I’m thinking to myself how that’s exposure. I’m not sure if she wanted to get paid for it or not but they went looking for another artist. But it still doesn’t explain how they came across me. That’s why I say it was God. I met with Tim Williams and the producer which is no longer there. But after the interview I asked her, how did she find me. And she showed me an Artscape brochure that she looked at. And the brochure had my name but there were no images of mine. So they just happened to come across me. Tim looked at my website and like what they saw and called me. She knew it wasn’t finished at the time either. I had just gotten the picture back from Tommy and had just started on the woman.
QW: Now when I think back to the broadcast. Wasn’t this piece on their?
JM: It was on the broadcast but it wasn’t finished.
QW: I could’ve sworn it was finished.
JM: If you think back to the video the woman in the picture is kinda where she is now, but all of the notes weren’t done. I was just starting to lay in the tones on the sheets.
QW: I also saw that you went to Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). What was your experience like there?
JM: Ahh man!
QW: We actually interviewed in our Arts issue Dr. Leslie Hammond.
JM: I remember Dr. Leslie – I don’t know if she remembers me but I remember her.
QW: I told her I had the contemplation of going to MICA she said I had to live breathe eat, sleep drink art if I was to go there. She was telling me how it’s a 24 hour school, you never see lights off. Students are constantly working. I was like man – it sounds like you’d go in there with a passion for photography and all you want is some Crayolas by the time you get out.
JM: I would say my experience at the Institute was a good experience. That actually wasn’t my first choice of school. My first choice was a school in California but I didn’t have the budget to go, especially considering mom and dad ain’t have the budget. But once I got there it was cool. It was cool to be able to go to college but still be able to live at home. I made some good friends but the instruction was there as well. There were some nights I was there late and some mornings I was there early. There were even some weekends I was there. I think that MICA was very instrumental in helping me develop my talent. Whether it’s visual art dance, whatever your born with that.
QW: Now do they cover all forms of art or primarily just visual arts?
JM: Primarily visual arts. School refined my artistic ability. It also gave me a little taste of the art business world as well. It was cool. My foundational year gave me a little taste of everything. Drawing, sculpture, photography, graphic design, but it was in the sophomore year that I decided I wanted to do illustration. Most of what I learned in the illustration courses I implement that into my artwork today. One of the things I learned in the illustration courses is we’d take an article, read it, and illustrate the article in one picture. That’s why when you look at my pieces, there’s always a story behind what I do. That’s why I still hold on to a lot of the things I did learn at the Maryland Institute.
QW: I know that you said there’s a story behind your pieces and I’m sure Sheet Music is a milestone in your work. What would you say is your biggest project – right now?
JM: I’m glad you asked, right now one of my biggest projects that I’m undertaking is going to be called, The Groove. Looking at my work you see I have a variety of subject matter. If I was to have an artist statement - -well I guess I do have one: I’m a husband and a father, a man of faith, as well as a man of color. And these experiences I try to share in my work. So under being a man of color I like a lot of different things. I like dance so you see dance as the subject matter, I’m married so you see a lot of couples, and I like different forms of music including jazz. And that’s what The Groove is all about. Actually, groove started as one picture. The first picture was Righteous Rhythm. It’ll be made up of 6 individual pieces. The whole picture once it’s done is going to be a jazz group and two singers. The first letter of each picture is going to spell out the word G-R-O-O-V-E. Groovesome Twosome, Righteous Rhythm, Obsessive Octaves, Obligatto, Vibalicious Vocabulary, Earful of Funk. So once it’s all done your eyes when it’s all put together will form this jazz band. My goal is to have this current addition finished by this year’s Artscape. My goal is to have all 6 pieces done by the end of the year.
QW: Wow! That sounds like serious crunch time to me. I only say that because I remember how long it took the first piece, Righteous Rhythm to get done.
JM: Each piece is like a classroom experience for me. So when I learned Righteous Rhythm I was still defining the style this whole piece would be done in. The cross-hatching the line layering. If you notice, the hands are exaggerated. When playing music the hands are just as important as the instrument and the person playing the music. So the hands take on a personality of their own as well. Another reason Righteous Rhythm took so long is because as I was working on the picture I was defining what the picture was going to be. Now that I’ve done it, I have a destination for the picture. Meaning the principles of the pictures and what it would be made up of have already been definied. But definitely by the end of the year I plan on having The Groove finished.
QW: I appreciate the fact that you mentioned that you’re a father, a husband and man of color. Just to touch on family a lil bit. I know you said that you’ve been doing the drawing thing since 4th grade. Your son, Micah is how old?
JM: Micah just turned 8.
QW: Is he pretty much following in your footsteps?
JM: Uhhh- - he likes art. Now will he pursue it as a career, it may be too early to tell. This past year he got a taste of selling his art. I told him he’s trying to ease up on my racket and he may have to slow up a lil bit (laughter). We went to Largo, MD for a jazz fest and in between the customers I sketch in my sketch pad. So he asked me, “Daddy can I have a piece of paper?” so I gave him a lil piece of paper and he asked for a pencil so I gave him a pencil and he does his lil sketch. When he finished it, turned out to be a lil beach scene. So he asked if he could hang it up so I told him sure and put up on a hook for him. Customer came by and I started talking about my artwork and he came up and said, “I DO ARTWORK TOO!” And I told him, “Micah tell her about it!” So he takes her over to the picture and before he finished talking she took out her wallet and he looked at me and gasped. She said how much and he responded, “ONLY ONE DOLLAR!” and get this she gave him two. I’m like wait a minute now, I ask for a certain price and people trying to work a deal – he ask for a certain price and people give him MORE. And so he explained the picture it was girls on the beach and a street behind the beach, the water, the sun, pretty detailed. Then he asked if he could do another and shortly another lady bought that and gave him four dollars. So each time I do a show he asks me if he’s going.
QW: I’m sure he does (laughing)
JM: But I’m glad he’s getting an opportunity to see me not just make the art work but frame it as well as see the fruit of my labor. He sees people come in the booth and people see that this is the full circle and the process. Not just to see that yes a living can be made with artwork but also get a taste of the entrepreneurship as well. Even if it isn’t art that he does at least it’s the art that he’s been exposed too. He may become a business owner or something.
QW: Keeping it in the full circle, I know that you are a junior. Did your dad have any artistic anything that contributed to you? You said God is your primary drive and I think you’re blessed for knowing that you’re carrying out your purpose, but did your dad have anything to do with your drive as well?
JM: Now as far as the art…..NAH. No one else in the family is as artistically inclined but me. My father passed away after 9-11 and throughout my life my family has been trying to figure out where it came from. No one can do artwork, just me. I’ll say yes and no to the drive part. Yes being driven to an ultimate goal. He came up in the late twenties. He didn’t make it past the 4th grade. My mom didn’t make it past 6th grade. It was either the fields or school. And fields took precedence over school. My dad worked at M&T Chemicals in Chesapeake, MD. He worked on the assembly line. He worked with acid – like bottling it. He never took me to his job. But I remember seeing a photograph of him holding up a canister he had just bottled. I say drive because he was the breadwinner of the house and my mom was the homemaker. But my dad – I don’t think he ever had a sick day in his life. He was always up by the time I got up and I was up at 5:45a. He would come home in the evenings eat dinner and in bed by seven everyday. He took care of a house full of all of us, no complaints, and made sure his family was taken care of.
QW: I see that you’re pretty much the same way with your art as well as the way you take care of your wife and your son.
At the conclusion of the interview, he walks me over to a blank canvas in which he’s working on a piece to be displayed in a Color Purple exhibition in the near future. For more information on the exhibit, you can reach James via Myspace as well as his website. For the WJZ-13 interview, check the link below.
Web: http://www.somethingforyoursoul.com
Myspace: http://myspace.com/somethingforyoursoul
Sheet Music Interview: http://wjz.com/video/?id=19761@wjz.dayport.com