Conversations: Ronald Jackson
Fine Artist
What is your background, and how would you describe your work?
I was the youngest of eleven kids born into a farming family in Arkansas on the heels of the civil rights movement. My parents led initiatives, boycotts, and filed lawsuits seeking educational and basic equalities for Blacks in our surrounding communities. During a period in the late 60s just prior to my birth, my parents endured an onslaught of organized retaliation and a rash of incidents destroying their property and threatening their lives. Their perseverance and community support led to the forced integration of the area school system, via an 8th circuit US Court of Appeals decision in 1969. It was years into my adulthood that I began to discover how my community and family history had shaped values that were instilled in me. My art became the vehicle that began revealing personal convictions regarding my worldview. I joined the US Army after withdrawing from an architectural program in college. Ten years into my military career, I decided to pursue a post-military career as an artist. With the priority of supporting my family, I choose to continue my military career and develop myself as a self-taught artist while continuing as a Soldier. Though my work most recently has consisted of portraits, I consider myself as a contemporary figurative artist. I seek to invite viewers to imagine and consider the history and stories of Black and Brown people through my work... suggesting a greater sense of humanity among all peoples. I consider my work to have a strong association with the genre of magical realism, using elements of mood and dreamlike qualities.
How has your unique tapestry of life experiences (i.e activist parents, military, rural southern upbringing) impacted your art?
I consider myself at the third stage or chapter of my life. The first chapter began with me entering the world on the stage of a rural Arkansas landscape, that had been forced to adjust its social and racial norms. The second stage was with me choosing a vocation which became a military career and raising a family. The current stage has resulted from years of pulling back the layers of life and reflecting on values that I had inherited, discovering who I was as a person and what really mattered to me. I find that ‘people’ are centric to life experiences. I have always taken an interest in learning about the experiences of others. Whether observing the cultures of other countries during my military travels or simply reading about someone’s life journey. I relegate the existence of most to simply navigating the course of life and striving for good amidst opposing obstacles. Therefore, my art comes from a place of personal reflection and hopefully it can facilitate a dialogue of social reconciliations.
What is the reasoning behind the masks in your paintings?
Incorporating masks in my portraits allows me to suggest alternate perspectives or contexts in which a viewer can see an individual. They almost cause the viewer to see the person through a different lens. Masks have one of two purposes. They conceal the identity of the person wearing the mask as a bank robber would use a mask to conceal his/her identity. They can also be used to project an identity, as a little kid wearing a Spiderman mask would project himself to be seen as some heroic figure. My masked portraits began with figures placed behind floral masks. Flowers where being used as a welcoming and nonthreatening lens to view the subjects. I am now beginning to incorporate masks with imagery that simply interrupts the gaze and challenges the viewer to look past external distractions. It is my hope to encourage a deeper sense of humanity in people.
Do you listen to music when you are creating? If so, what do you listen to?
Yes, I Iisten to music in my studio. It helps to create a productive work atmosphere. I work in various levels of focus, depending on what I am doing. I love to discover independent artists that exist on the fringes of the music industry - music of all types coming from artists of various parts of the world. I probably listen more to documentaries and audiobooks than I do music when I work. But when I am working at a greater level of focus, I either work in silence or play classical music (preferably Bach).
Who are some artists you wish you could meet? Or you are inspired by?
There are many artists that I could list: Lucien Freud, John Everett Millais, Jeffrey Smart, Julio Larraz, and Kerry James Marshall... but Diego Rivera’s work really resonates with me the most and on so many levels. He had remarkable skills, a distinct style, and unapologetic conviction. He masterfully blended Mexican folklore with strong visual narration, depicting the workings of a political machine and its effects on the working class. Kerry James Marshall is quite similar in many ways.
Explain why representation matters in art?
I feel art can be about emotion, feelings, intellectual or visual stimulation. For me, I am most intrigued when art encompasses all of those elements but my primary objective in art is to communicate ideas. When communicating ideas, language matters and representation is language that needs the least interpretation. The Detroit motor industry desired to harness Diego Rivera’s ability to depict the values and ideals of the U.S. society through his murals. But the power of his imagery forced the American public to see a visual representation of its hypocrisies and moral failures alongside its national accomplishments. Non-representational art couldn’t have produced such a response.