Between Two Shows
By Courtney Jolliff
I’m really excited to finally be exhibiting my work at the Marvelous Black Boy Art Show in Chicago! That’ll be this coming Sunday, June 16. Find out more and get your advance tickets here. I was admitted to last year’s show as well but was not able to participate on that round. This year the challenge has been rapidly creating new work since the fire wiped out essentially my entire life’s work.
Lately I’ve been watching The Last Dance, the Michael Jordan documentary, as I’m getting ready for what might be the last show I do in Chicago for some time since I will be leaving for Detroit soon. For the first time, I’m nerve-wracked because I broke my rule and checked out the video to see all the great work coming to the Black Boy Art Show. It reminded me I have a very unique voice and to stay true to it while I’m grateful they have given all of us young black brothers a stage to convey our talent and share our art.
Unfortunately I was born competitive, and I’m going in with the mindset that no one wants this more than I do! I don’t think Picasso, Basquiat, or Hebru Brantley have ever wanted anything as bad as I want it in terms of art, so it makes me excited to see how that energy comes out as I get to be with other artists.
In terms of the show, I’m hoping for some life-changing experiences, not just sales but connections and outcomes to set the tone for the next stage of my life as I’m in the middle of starting over, completely starting over, starting over not just with art but with my life after the fire.
But every day is looking more promising, starting from the show at the Point on May 25.
I paint in a way that tries to touch every demographic, from a young child to an elderly person to every race and sexual orientation, and with the show at the Point, I actually got to see the physical reality of every demographic stop at my work and give me praise, from children to couples, gay couples and straight couples. Even a young married couple in their wedding dress and tux, black people, white people, everybody.
Even the name of the show, The Point, came across to people perfectly. Someone stopped to ask me about one of my pieces about the Hyde Park Herald, and I explained I consider The Point the jewel of Hyde Park, where the rest of the world is figuring it out.
She grabbed at her heart and shook and laughed for like ten minutes and said she got it – that the Point is the point! This was an older white lady and she blessed me, prayed over me, that God protect me. I got to see little kids saying my work is beautiful, too.
One lady saw the red cup on the painting “Good Times Outweigh the Bad” and she explained to her son what the cup means, and I felt then like my art speaks for itself.
After the show, a reporter from the Hyde Park Herald reached out to me to do a feature about my work, and I think that story will be out this week.
I’m also feeling good about my first commission post-fire, a work about my mom’s mom – Grandma Minnie – coming to get me at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. That was featured in the newsletter of the medical school dean who bought the work.
The effect on my mom has been that she’s so happy to see my art about her mom appreciated at its full worth, when the loss of her mom is still fresh for her.
Restarting all over – it’s hard to feel success. Restarting every day brings mental challenges and the need to persevere. I’m realizing I have to be strong about it and to realize I’m just so passionate about my art, so of course the loss has been so big. Every day I realize everything I created that was still in my possession burned down.
But I’m really excited for my move to Detroit. I feel in my heart that that’s where I’m going to see the propelling of my success and career. And it’s where I grew up! So I’m happy to go back home. I’ve lived a whole life in Chicago. It’s heartbreaking to think of leaving Chicago. But it’s also exciting to know there is a whole life for me in my hometown that I have yet to live.