George Thomas is one of the featured artists in the “Journey of Discovery” art exhibit showing now through February 25 in the Hardy Hall gallery inside the Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts, Manistee. Photo courtesy of the artist.
By Carmelitta Tiffany
MANISTEE ‒ In observance of Black History Month, an art exhibition called “Journey of Discovery: Honoring the contributions of African Americans in Rural Michigan”, is showing now at Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts, 101 Maple Street.
A public reception to meet the artists will be held 5-7 p.m., Feb. 4, in the Ramsdell’s Hardy Hall gallery.
Two concurrent exhibits, as well as upcoming events and programs, are also being held this month at the Ramsdell in collaboration with the Manistee Area Racial Justice and Diversity Initiative (MARJDI).
The three exhibitions can be seen in the Hardy Hall gallery through February 25.
One poster exhibit, “Welcome to Idlewild: The Black Eden of Michigan”, is on loan from the Michigan State University Museum. “Journey on the Underground Railroad,” is a traveling exhibit from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.
Featured in the “Journey of Discovery” art exhibition are works by eight African American artists from rural Michigan.
One of these is George Thomas, of Idlewild. His works have been shown or included in Newaygo County Council for the Arts, Grand Rapids Art Museum, National Folk Festival, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies Conference, Great Lakes Folk Festival, Outsider Outside Art Fair and Midland Outsider Art Show. Two pieces are in the permanent collection at Muskegon Art Museum. One is in the permanent collection in Michigan State University’s Folk Art Museum.
“George is what it means to be a true artist; he works from his heart, and it shows,” said Pamela Tripp Simmons, former owner of an art gallery in Baldwin and an admirer of his work. “George has established himself as part of Lake County’s creative community for years and has shared his talent and passion for art with students through school programs.”
According to his artist’s statement, George Thomas knew he wanted to create art at age 7, when books and drawing were his best friends as a boy in Atlanta, Georgia. He described his mother as his best supporter; she would scrape together the money to buy his drawing supplies. When he was 12, his family moved to Detroit. Four years later, his home became Idlewild.
That community’s history as a hotbed of crooners, entertainers and bands, and literary creativity, made it a perfect venue for a budding young artist.
Thomas uses “found” objects to create dioramas of people and places he cherishes from his childhood ⸺ from his grandmother doing the wash outside and his grandfather preaching in church, to his mother and grandmother as they quilt. His joyful family memories can be experienced through his work, including his paintings, primarily created using acrylic paints.
His entry of “Jazz Jazz Mo Blues” is emblematic of Thomas’ work; this diorama shows the joy of jazz in dance.
His admiration of innovative artists like Pablo Picasso led him to his style.
“He could draw and paint like the other artists but chose to do something different,” Thomas said of the master painter. who is also known as the co-founder of cubism and collage.
Thomas didn’t know exactly what his style was until he started exhibiting his work and, in his late 40s, attended Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids.
“They called it ‘folk art,’” he said of his work. “I am what they call ‘self-taught.’“
His piece joins those of the other featured artists: Georgia Allen, of Manistee; Grand Rapids Art Prize finalist Tyree Broadway, of Kalamazoo; internationally known American realist painter Paul Collins, of Grand Rapids; celebrated “construction painter” Rufus Snoddy, of Traverse City; self-taught abstract artist Nicolena Stubbs, of Idlewild roots; Imani Swain, of Manistee County; and visual media and culinary artist Danielle Thesiger, of southeast Michigan.
“Journey of Discovery: Honoring the contributions of African Americans in Rural Michigan” is made possible by National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Michigan Arts & Culture Council, Michigan Humanities Council, and Manistee County Community Foundation.
Gallery hours are Wednesday-Sunday, 12-3 p.m., and Wednesdays, 5-7 p.m.
Other free programs and events offered at the Ramsdell this month:
- Feb. 11, 7-8:30 p.m. “The Green Book: Guide to Freedom”, a documentary film by The Smithsonian. Please RSVP. ramsdelltheatre.org
- Feb. 16, 7-9 p.m. Social justice singer-songwriter Crys Matthews in concert. Please RSVP. ramsdelltheatre.org
- Feb. 18, 2-3 p.m. A presentation by Anna-Lisa Cox, Ph.D. “With Liberty and Justice for All: The Black Pioneers Who Upheld the Values of the American Revolution in Frontier Michigan and Manistee”. Please RSVP. ramsdelltheatre.org
Carmelitta Tiffany resides in Mason County, where she spent the last 30-some years enjoying the blessings of rural life. She is a semi-retired journalist who serves those needing “wordy” advice through her business, West MI Editorial Services.
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