"Ellaville Juke" 2021
24"x30" Mix Media $3000.00
True art always imparts a deep message as profound and universal as revealed in the most venerable religious text or the most challenging philosophical treatise. That can be said of the music and dance of the enslaved Africans who were victims of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Out of feeling misused, mistreated, feeling like there is nobody to turn to. Blues don't necessarily have to be sung by a person that came from Mississippi as I did because there are people having problems all over the world."
B.B. King, in an interview for PBS
Most Blues historians will agree that the blues legacy of the Lower Chattahoochee Valley has been largely ignored. Consisting of eighteen counties that hug the Chattahoochee River along the Georgia/Alabama border, the area is the birthplace blues pioneer Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and many other celebrated early "classic blues" singers. The mixed media painting "Ellaville Juke" is dedicated to my guitar-playing great-grandfather and grandfather who lived in Ellaville Georgia.
About the author: John Obafemi Jones is an American artist residing in the U.S. Virgin Islands. An expressionistic figurative painter, his paintings are rooted in his need for self-discovery and expression. He frequently uses jazz themes and blues icons because he feels these art forms that have historically confronted some of society’s most serious questions. Follow John Obafemi and learn about his art journey visit www.johnobafemijones.