(“Talking Heads”)
By Betsy DiJulio
Jackie Merritt puts color where it doesn’t exist. But where it most surely lives.
Recently, as I perused some 20 of her portraits (and one still life)–rendered in chalk pastel, charcoal, and watercolor—I smiled to myself as I remembered Ellen Henry, a widely respected, funny and, at times, formidable art educator in Hampton Roads, saying to me as we examined a large and impressive chalk pastel in a juried show, “Well, somebody was paying attention in pastel class.” However, in this case, Merritt could have been teaching that class.
And teach she has—at Norfolk State College (now University), Virginia Commonwealth University, Thomas Nelson Community College, and University of Wisconsin (in addition to other careers)—but some of what she has, I’m not sure you can teach. In shallow, stage-like spaces, she renders closely cropped figures and portraits with layered “broken” color that owes Cezanne a debt of gratitude but is its own bold-yet-nuanced thing.
The tawny burnished warmth of her palette with its often pleasingly exaggerated highlights somehow lends a deeper degree of humanity to these human surrogates: men, women, and one child, a handful depicting her experience of the Holiness church—as opposed to religion—in which she was raised. From the theme of water and baptism to the centrality of the choir, to the characters, one of whom painted her house white with red crosses and literally “plucked out her eye,” Merritt records it all with compassion and without judgment.
But with occasional humor. A master of harmonica, bones, ukulele, electric bass, banjo, and pastel sticks, Merritt uses photos as the muses for her paintings and, at times, the paintings as muses for her songs. The pastel painting, Talking Heads, which depicts a trio of men and women of the church, is linked by a QR Code to an original song by Merritt. Entitled Mean Church People, it is performed by her longtime ensemble, the M.S.G. Acoustic Blues Trio, on the album Done Spoke My Mind. The lyrics, sung by Merritt and Resa Gibbs, go something like this: “Sister, you can’t go inside, you got a tattoo on your thigh—I thought it was a birthmark—your dress is too short, and your lips are ruby red…” And “Brother, you ‘ain’t welcome here…you seem to be a little too queer—he walks in heels better than you do—why you ‘wanna be so mean, why you ‘wanna be so mean?”
A piece entitled Raisins depicts a young girl in her Sunday best seated on a folding chair in a kitchen eating raisins and holding a handgun. Though the backstory about Merritt’s “sister/cousin,” Rhonda, who loved raisins and who frequently accompanied her mama to visit a gun-owning friend, is innocent—and pretty darkly funny—the piece is intended to reference the all-too-prevalent tragedy of gun violence in the U.S. The song that accompanies this piece sprung nearly fully formed into Merritt’s mind before she was finished with the painting, humming the melody as she worked.
According to curator Dorothy Coakley, for this Norfolk Arts call to artists, the exhibition committee sought not only to reflect the unique character of our community, but to include an interactive component. By virtue of quick cell phone scans of QR Codes on labels, a total of four paintings are accompanied by original songs within the Piedmont acoustic blues tradition, a generally intricate, more upbeat genre of blues with ragtime roots. For a hint of what’s in store in advance of visiting the exhibition, you can have a listen here to M.S.G.’s first round Grammy Nomination for The Flood in the Best Traditional Blues Album category: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZKemx4n5w4.
Knox Garvin, a Norfolk and Eastern Shore-based artist, musician, and retired high school art teacher, who is uniquely qualified to provide insight into his multi-talented mentor and longtime friend, gets the last word:
“Much like the piedmont blues she plays, Jackie’s paintings and life are full of deep-hearted honesty and drive. What always impressed me about her was how all her work has always uplifted my spirit, rejuvenated me, and nourished me as an artist. She may be the perfect analogy of the blues – a tough unflinching look at the world set to a chugging harmonica, a bent note, and a little crack of painted sunshine.”
WANT TO SEE?
Do You See Me Now: A Solo Exhibition by Jackie Merritt
Through September 13
Norfolk Arts’ Offsite Gallery @ MacArthur Center
For more information about Merritt and MSG, please visit: www.Jackieamerritt.com and www.acousticbluesmsg.com
