In the new edition of Plumage-TX Magazine, Art Consultant, Katherine (Kat) Shevchenko dissects the estate of F.L. "Doc" Spellmon.
You can read it here at:
The “Doc” Is In
The Art of F.L. “Doc” Spellmon: A Closer Look
I recently had the pleasure to become acquainted with the artwork
of F.L. “Doc” Spellmon, an African American artist who produced works in various
media in San Antonio, Texas, and was most prolific during the 1980’s. Known as having an affable and joyous nature,
Spellmon created pieces that were informed by recent Black history yet emulated
experimental processes that included collage, found objects, and layers of
painterly applications. On the surface,
Spellmon’s paintings and drawings
appear naïve and are even categorized as “outsider” due to their character of
disproportionate figures, use of found materials, collaged elements, and a
palette that at times bordered on the fringes of Day-Glo in its earnestness,
all sealed with a finishing touch of sprinkled multicolored glitter. The application of the layers of paint and ephemera
sometimes buckle and create undulating surfaces. A textural narrative topography, his artworks
were born of sincere contemplation of prime issues that permeated his
consciousness: civil rights, the nearly forgotten and overlooked Black culture
of the rural South, and religious themes.
Through his creative process a transmogrification occurs with the touch of
his hand, and suddenly mundane materials are transmitting dramatic parables of
times past, present and future.
“Girls Picking Berries” is an acrylic
painted on an oven baked serving platter that is
mainly octagon-shaped, portraying a slice of life subject. It shows a microcosm
of a time and a place, through a subset of a more idyllic and sentimental lens,
due to the presence of two black girls with skin painted in exaggerated depth
of cartoonish tone, almost bordering on Blackface caricature that all his
figures seem to possess in his works.
They are in search of berries growing along the riverbank, with sacks
hopefully becoming heavy with bounty. In the distance is a quaint looking
village: a cluster of white houses with red earth colored roofs with a focal
point of a church and a white cross, exaggerated in scale. The ruby red sun is the only other subject
that competes for attention, located in the upper central portion of the
composition. In the middle ground, there
is a body of water with a boat carrying two fishermen who are in repose,
contributing to the poignancy of a moment of leisure. Perhaps it is Sunday, the day of rest, as
intimated by the cross that is a guidepost for the community. The chance to catch a moment of respite and
to catch up on life’s pleasures, however humble, is in no way diminished by its
significant meaningfulness bestowed on well being, like a fresh berry in all
its succulent sweetness.
In contrast to tranquil moments, Spellmon also explores
inner nightmares and demons that emerge from the murky psyche, and can hearken
a deathlike night of the soul. “That Day,”
a mixed media piece, emotes an undeniable power, as disembodied faces with menaced
expressions float in a field that covers the picture plane. The color scheme has taken a departure from bucolic
pleasantry to one dominated by black with sickly greens and yellow tones with
jarring accents of aggressive orange.
The dominant faces are primitive, made by black, almost crude scrawling
strokes. Mask-like and resembling skulls, they are positioned in quadrants
around the composition. Interspersed throughout are a multitude of smaller
faces, done in a simpler fashion, yet the expressions are not lost, as they
sink in a morass of anonymity. Various
hues of paint are layered upon the collaged
paper, plastered upon black board. The
artist has not left or revealed any other reference to an event or in
particular a clue as to the context this piece could be alluding to. What is revealed in plain sight is a
gesticulation of observation of human moral fallibility. An overall consensus
of oppression overwhelms, and transcends beyond just a specific range of linear
historical time as the layers of faces cluster and get subsumed in the overall
chaos but are yet held in place by the monumentally static position of the
anchored specter heads. The urgency is all too apparent in the frenzied
application of the colors slashing across the panel, creating a thunderous
monument to the voiceless downtrodden.
Spellmon was the son of a minister and spent hours poring
over the illustrations in his biblical texts, kindling his lifelong love for
art, which he “never outgrew.” “Madonna and Child” is an example of Spellmon
incorporating religious archetypes into his signature style, infusing the Madonna’s
skin tones with an exaggerated “blackness.” As she holds the infant, his tiny
elongated arms reach out for an embrace. Glitter is used as an element, perhaps
as a unifying sealer of the entire surface, as it has been applied liberally
all over the painting. A radiating halo of various colors and lines emanates
from the Madonna’s head and is representative of spiritual light and energy. The features of the Madonna and child are
rendered in a naïve and outsider fashion, with white brush stroke outlines for
the eyes and mouth, yet the expressions of calmness are apparent. Even though Spellmon has an art degree and is
formally trained, he makes deliberate choices with rendering inordinate figurative
proportions and using an outsider application with his methods, which are the
core of his expressionistic appeal.
There seems to be an underlying imbuement of frenzied application as
evidenced in the many layers of vibrational linear brush strokes that
compromise the halo rays; the multiple layers of glitter produce chromatic
excitation that unify the painting as an energetic prayer.
Philosophically and aesthetically his intent stems from the
inward need to express and tap into the powerful connective ability of art that
builds bridges from past memories of a specific culture, time, and place that could
have been forgotten to be seen and viewed by the light of the present day.
©Katherine
Shevchenko, Art Consultant, Boerne
Sources:
Banks, Robert H., and Andrea
Marshall. F.L. "Doc" Spellmon. Dallas: Banks Fine Art, 2014.
Print.
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