James Brown Jr.: Catalog of Works

Artist's statement: "I studied oil painting in high school. During my senior year I dropped out of school and spent the last semester in night school to receive my diploma. That same year I enrolled in the Art Students League for one year, then transferred to the School of Visual Arts all evening classes for the next 7-8 years. In about 1968 I attended the School of Visual Arts full time for the first time. My journey as a young artist was very emotionally insecure. But, I now know that my body of work was influenced and shaped by the powerful energy of the 1960s, The Civil Rights Movement, the deaths of Malcolm, Medgar, and Martin. Black artists nationally and internationally developed the Black Arts movement. This movement embraced the history, heritage, politics and culture of African people. The great James Brown sang "I'M BLACK and I'M PROUD" and Aretha Franklin sang "RESPECT". During, the '60s and '70s the majority of my body of works was on paper. I received a BA from the University of Florida, Tampa in 1975. Later, in 1987, I received a MFA from Howard University; my thesis was in Watercolor. I then began to translate the waters into 10 textile appliqué embroidered tapestries. Since that time I have become a textile/fiber artist creating with silk and wool fibers as a felter."