Spirituals Tell the Story w/ painter Aaron Henderson

Aaron Henderson has been making art for over 50 years and he has a lot of great info to share with the Studio Noize listeners. Mr. Henderson has a new book about his long-running series based on negro spirituals. The book is called Fight On: A Visual Interpretation of African American Spirituals. It features not only his amazing paintings but also the written lyrics of the spirituals and essays by a few academics and historians. We talk about his research into the spirituals and how his life experience influences his paintings. Mr. Henderson tells us about making the new book, how he picked his models, and some great moments that happened while creating this series. Get ready to soak up some good knowledge on this episode. It’s the Noize!

Episode 117 topics include:

origin of African American spirituals

region language in slavery

interpreting negro spirituals

researching spirituals

stories of descendants of slavery

kum ba yah

young poets creating spirituals

painting narratives

making an art book

the work of Black artists

Aaron F. Henderson, a native of Birmingham, Ala., has been an artist all his life. The self-proclaimed narrative artist has always loved to draw and paint. For him, it is the story behind each piece of artwork he has done that motivates him to capture the realism, the emotion, the character, and the settings. He works mainly in oils and gouache on canvas, linen, and 100% cotton paper using bold, vibrant colors in his artwork that is showcased in exhibits, museums and corporations, and homes around the world. Henderson has distinguished himself with his Spiritual Series, which is a series of more than 50 pieces over the past 5 years based on his student work-study job as the audio recorder for the world-renowned choir of Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Ala. He is always working on a series, which encompass a range of images, including pieces dedicated to the legend of Ganga Zumbi, Afrolantica, which provides a view into his interpretation of paradise. Another series, Music, includes his depiction of the Jazz influence on our culture.

See More: www.zucotgallery.com + AJC feature on Aaron Henderson

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