Written by Jerrod Partridge
Recently, while flipping through Ken Murphy’s new book Jackson I came across a picture and was shocked. Shocked because I had been at the same place within days, if not hours, of when the photo was taken.
A couple of years ago I was asked to participate in a group show called “Artists by Artists” at the Mississippi Museum of Art. It was to be a collection of artwork to highlight the unique relationship among visual artists. I immediately knew that I wanted to do a painting of Jackson artist Richard Kelso; both because he has been a very influential mentor, and because I had wanted an excuse to try to paint the beautiful light of his studio which he captures so well.
Notice that the painting on the easel is the same in both my painting and Ken’s photo. The difference is that I made Richard’s painting a rectangle, with his permission of course, rather than the square format because it worked better with my composition.
So I was shocked to see the photograph, but also very excited to see that the studio of who I consider to be one of the finest painters in Mississippi was included in this remarkable survey of Jackson sights.
David West and I are very excited to be bringing Art Space 86, our pop-up gallery, to Banner Hall on August 5th, in conjunction with Lemuria’s release of this remarkable book.
Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com. Please join us in celebrating Jackson on August 5th at 5:00 in Banner Hall!
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