"Lisa" in wood models the George Hunt painting.
When it comes to his colorful, oversized canvases, renowned Memphis artist George Hunt likes a frame to match, which can present its own challenges.
Photos by John D. Childress
Philip Eubanks' "Mississippi Ghost" conjures the rural South with almost talisman-like nostalgia.
"Lisa" in wood models the George Hunt painting.
"A man came from East Tennessee, he had one of these fancy Cadillac cars," recalls Hunt. "And he couldn't get the frame in the car. He tied it on top of the car then took it back, and for me that was a personification of what I'm all about. I felt like, well, you ride up in a big Cadillac, but it don't mean nothing."
That formidable frame was made by Philip Eubanks, who has worked with Hunt for several years and who will mark his own entrée as an artist with a solo show through the end of August at D'Edge Art and Unique Treasures.
Folks can take advantage of tonight's monthly trolley tour of the South Main arts district to get a good look at not only some dozen self-taught works in paint and wood by Eubanks but also his frames for Hunt, who is also represented by the gallery.
Eubanks, 56, fits the profile of many self-taught artists, including his coming to art later in life; skill at a craft or trade; thinking of art as a God-given talent; the use of found and nontraditional materials; and, most of all, having no formal or academic training.
The lifelong Memphian, whose grandfather was a blacksmith in Amory, Miss., was taught carpentry and woodworking by his father. He began painting a decade ago when, while caring for his ailing dad, he came across the paints and brushes that had once belonged to a Blue Mountain, Miss., aunt. Fast-forward a few years when his brother visited D'Edge and told owner Debra Taylor about his artistic sibling. Encouraged by Taylor and Hunt, Eubanks began making art in earnest, including the wooden pieces he has done since frequenting the gallery.
His preferred media, wood and paint, couldn't be more opposite in their rendered effect. While his wooden creations are heavy, rustic reliefs and three-dimensional constructions, his canvases float by almost unannounced, wisps of gesture that eschew the layering of paint on a surface for the surface itself. As a result, the better paintings are less about nature than about the spirit that works through nature.
"His paintings feel to me like early in the evening when things are changing," says Taylor. "The light is disappearing, but then all of a sudden you use a different vision."
Says Eubanks, an admitted fan of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masters such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh: "I've discovered if you can relax, trust in the Lord, those bristles of the brush will put something on there that I wasn't even planning."
Arguably, Eubanks' use of wood is the main event here, a bold, confident summation of his instinctual strengths. Among the more impressive pieces are one modeled after a George Hunt painting called "Lisa" that magnifies the inherently musical qualities of the latter's style: African-American themes and asymmetry of line and form merged with Picasso-imbued Cubism in a way that doubly dances across the frame as a sculpted portrait.
The other highlight, "Mississippi Ghost," is a multimedia depiction of a rural shanty that has been constructed from discarded slivers of fence and tin. The perfect collector's item for some blues-loving tourist, the piece conjures the rural South with almost talisman-like nostalgia and intrigue -- a "notion sack," or mojo bag, if you will, that has trapped the specter of memory in the wood itself.
Wood works and paintings by Philip Eubanks
Exhibit runs through the end of August. at D'Edge Art and Unique Treasures, 550 S. Main. Call 521-0054 or go to d-edgeart.com.
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