Back when we did Mississippi John Hurt

My interpretation of MJH.

This is a drawing I did of Mississippi John Hurt, back when we were inundated with his music. I hold steady to the self-evident truth that he is awesome. In videos of him, his presence seems so small, yet transcendent, as if his stripped down style of performance says much more than it initially seems to. 

In creating this piece, I was inspired by Professor Dubovsky's way of pausing YouTube videos during class and noting that each image displayed during the pause was unique. So I paused the video of MJH singing "Lonesome Valley" to obtain an image that was suspended in motion--his mouth stuck, open, waiting for the next lyric. I drew this image on a large brown piece of paper, using black, white, and grey chalk pastels. Professor Dubovsky called this a "Cubist Mississippi John Hurt" when it was on the wall during class, and I can see what he means; the pastel strokes--particularly the white--form blocks of definition on his face that aren't blended for coherence. I've realized that this works in opposition to the nature of this medium (as it is so readily blend-able) but I think that this quality is what makes the work noteworthy. People in class said it looked painted. Paint would make more sense as the medium used for a Cubist work. (Not to say that my drawing is definitively "Cubist.") 

I generally like this drawing--if that matters--even though the distinguishable blocks in the face make it look distorted. I've been researching for this paper I have to write for my anthro seminar, and it's basically going to be about how "art" expresses information in a way that is different from the way language expresses information. I'm citing an article that claims that art communicates a message about the unconscious, or that people create art to "say" things that they can't say with language. Maybe this is why I distorted MJH's face. Maybe hearing him sing triggered something in my unconscious that I had to express through a drawing, which ended up looking untrue to life. I don't know. This probably makes no sense. 

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