I declined the shot of whiskey offered to me. “I can’t get drunk Edmond,” I said. “I still have to do some art.” My streak of doing some art daily had extended several years. “Arthur,” Edmond said firmly. ‘If you can’t get drunk today when can you?” He was right. Our dear friend Bubba had passed away that morning. We were sitting there in his kitchen. So we drank toasts to Bubba and numbed our ache till I fell asleep on the couch. I woke up alone in a panic. It was dark and I feared it was past midnight and my streak was over. Bubba wouldn’t have liked being the reason the streak ended.  I looked at the clock and knew I had time. I grabbed a sketchpad and looked around for something to draw. I spotted the jacket hanging over the chair and sketched it ink. My streak was still alive. I went over it with watercolor the following day. Edmond’s time on this earth was not long either. His heart gave out on him while he jamming his electric guitar live on stage. Some of his ashes were put into the fireworks that splashed across the Nashville sky on that 4th of July. He would have liked that. http://pixels.com/featured/the-jacket-arthur-barnes.html

“I will tell you one thing that will wake you up. If you want to be an artist…nothing on earth can stop you.” Juanita Greene Parks.

I studied art on my own from youth. I trained myself as best as I could. But I was missing some basics. It all came together for me in 1983 when I met my teacher Juanita Greene Parks.  She was a huge inspiration for me. I only studied under for a year. That was all I needed. She was trained at the Chicago art Institute. She had 2 degrees and said she was going for a third one. But she said 90% of what she taught she learned from the artists she studied under and gave her no college credit. These artists included Reginald Marsh and Robert Brackman who in turn had studied under Robert Henri. This makes me a third generation Henri student. You can listen to some audio of her teachings here. Special thanks to Steve Pipes for posting some of the recordings I made of her back then. http://www.pipesplanet.com/jgp/jgp.html

If you are a teacher or interested on training yourself in art this book by  Jim Chapman is all you need. Entitled “Sketchy : Unleash Your Art Self” this book smartly covers the elements and principles of art and design. Along with being an accomplished artist Jim has the gift of explaining things in a casual and humorous manner. Its a fun read. Besides using his own work as examples he uses the work of other artists including myself. I am proud to have several examples of my work in the book. What he says about me is appreciated.       “Arthur is one of the most adventurous artists I’ve ever known. He’s liable to be found painting in any part of the world. And he paints and draws everyday, often under terrible conditions-such as outside at night by the light of a cigarette lighter or in the knee-deep snow. Arthur is one of those folks that could arrive in any random country and he’d emerge later with new friends, a fat portfolio and and invitation to come back to visit. His love of drawing and painting and his zest for life is an inspiration.” I will try and live up to those words.  The book can be purchased here:

http://www.jimchapmanarts.com/#!blank/c6vc

I went out to hear my friends play last night. There are 5 members in the band. I was hoping to do a drawing of the whole band but they were spread out too far. So I did two drawings. Rob the piano player was on the far left and Glenn the harp player was on the far right. I combined them together into one drawing. I didn’t do a great job of getting a resemblance which is common for me when drawing moving people from a distance in ink. Still good training and fun.

I sketched this from life the other night and went over it with watercolor…just using two colors. I accepted an invitation to hang a display of my musician drawings at an event being put on by Blind Baby’s Holiday. A one day display at a concert they are putting on next Friday. Jimmiejohn McCabe will be starting his American tour off in Lockport at the Good Neighbor Redemption Center at 8:30. I could use some redemption.

1980 Passport.  I was 22 when I made my first trip to England. My next trip
there will be in April. I will visit family and friends and do much art. I’m getting  the appropriate art supplies lined up. I am thinking of portable supplies…mostly drawing and watercolors.

She was so tiny I almost didn’t see her there crouched down between two large garbage cans. She peeped out of the hood of the enormous black winter coat that enveloped her. We looked each other in the eye as I left the parking lot and I walked passed her silently. It was a chilly evening in Nashville and I was on my way over to Hatch Show Print which was part of the monthly art crawl. The crawl was a fun event where folks could tour the art galleries and studios of Nashville for a night. After a nice talk at Hatch with my friend Jim and I decided to go back to my truck to get a sketch pad.
As I approached the parking lot I could see her black form still huddled between the two dark cans. She was almost invisible in plain sight. I got my sketch pad from the truck and headed back in her direction. Again, we had eye contact. This time I said “Hi,” and she said “Hi” back. I stopped. “Are you Ok? I asked. She meekly said she was. When I asked her why she was there she told me she had no place to go and was just trying to stay warm.  I offered her a ten dollar bill and a tiny hand came out of the massive black coat and accepted the money. She thanked me and I left her there.
I went back to Hatch and then proceeded on to various galleries and art shows. I kept thinking about her. I thought back to my first week in Nashville many years ago and the park I slept in when I didn’t know anyone. I thought about the cold. After the crawl I headed back to my truck.  As I approached the garbage cans I wondered if she would still be there. I knew if she was a druggie or alcoholic she would be gone looking to spend that ten spot. But she was still there. I stopped and talked with her again. She told me she had recently gotten to Nashville via greyhound bus but didn’t know anyone here and was waiting on a check. She had a slight European accent and I couldn’t really tell her age. She had a thin face and had straight, black hair with small, dark eyes. I suspected she wasn’t as old as she looked. After getting a good read on her I asked her if she would like to sleep in a house for the night. She gladly accepted the offer. I told that I could help her for only one night. I explained that I didn’t have my own home in Tennessee and I was staying with a friend who would be gone for the night. She stood up and was a good foot shorter than me. She walked slowly with an obvious limp towards my truck carrying all her belongings in sacks with her. When we got to the truck she hesitated. “Do you have a blanket you could put down on the seat? I really stink.” She sure did. There was a strong urine smell. “Don’t worry about it,” I said and she sheepishly climbed in the passenger seat. She said her name was Tiffany but it didn’t suit her and I wondered if it was a fake name.
When we got to the house I gave her something to eat. She showered and I gave her some clean clothes to sleep in. I offered her the couch and she was out like a light and didn’t wake up till noon. While she slept I washed her clothes, including her coat. They still smelled so I washed them a second time. One of her bags were full of adult depends.
In the morning I made a call to the Rescue Mission downtown and they told me to bring her over. When she woke up I made her breakfast and she was appreciative and cheerful. But when I told her about the Rescue Mission she became agitated. “I have been there!…and I didn’t like it! I would rather be on the street.” I really didn’t like the thought of dropping her off at the garbage cans. “Where would you like to go then?“ I asked. She smiled like a little girl and said, ”a Walmart parking lot.” When I told her Walmart was kind of far from everything else and that it would be hard to get around with her bum leg she got annoyed again. “There is nothing wrong with my leg!” she snapped. I agreed to drop her off at Walmart and she was happy again. On the way there she was cheerful and talkative. The sun was shining and it was a mild day. She had clean clothes, a clean body and a full belly. I did all I could do for her. But I still felt like a heal when I dropped her off in the Walmart parking lot off Charlotte Ave.

I like to explore different mediums on a variety of material. The other day at the art supply store I picked up a tin of wax crayons. I had tried them before and liked them. They draw just like crayons. But when you add water with a brush it turns to a creamy paint that you can push around.  It becomes a cross between paint and crayon. When it dries you can add more crayon and can keep repeating the process. I tried using them tonight on dark gray pastel paper. I sat in my truck and colored it in with the crayons and then went back to the studio and used water and brush to fill it in. I liked the gray paper but with it not being watercolor paper it buckled pretty good.

As an artist it is important to explore different art forms, styles and mediums to develop your own unique art. Back in the 70s I explored surrealism for a spell.