Jerry Maguire Poster
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Cuba Gooding Jr (Rod): That’s what I’m gonna do for you. God bless you, Jerry. Now this is what you’re gonna do for me. You listening?
Tom Cruise (Maguire): Yeah, yeah, what can I do for YOU, Rod?
Cuba Gooding Jr (Rod): It’s a very personal, very important thing. Hell, it’s a family motto. Now are you ready? Just checking to make sure you’re ready here it is — show me the money. OHHH!!!! SHOW! ME! THE! MONEY! Doesn’t it make you feel good just to say that, Jerry? Say it with me one time brother!
Tom Cruise (Maguire): ….Show you the money.
Cuba Gooding Jr (Rod): Oh, come on, you can do better than that! I want you to say it brother with meaning! Hey, I got Bob Sugar on the other line I better hear you say it!
Tom Cruise (Maguire): Yeah, ye – no, show you the money!
Cuba Gooding Jr (Rod): AH! Not show YOU! Show ME the money!
Tom Cruise (Maguire):Show me the money!
Cuba Gooding Jr (Rod Tidwell): Yeah, that’s it brother but you got to yell that sh–!
Tom Cruise (Maguire): Show me the money!
Cuba Gooding Jr (Rod): Louder!
Tom Cruise (Maguire): Show me the money!

**********

Renee Zellweger (Dorothy Boyd): I love him! I love him for the man he wants to be. And I love him for the man he almost is.

**********

Tom Cruise (Maguire): I love you. You… complete me.
Renee Zellweger (Dorothy): Shut up. Just shut up. You had me at “hello.”

**********

Tom Cruise (Maguire): That’s more than a dress. That’s an Audrey Hepburn movie.

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Below are some remarkable drawings of celebrities by Pablo Lobato – the famous Argentinian artist.  Outstanding!  It’s amazing how he captured them with just a few lines.  My favorites are probably Madonna and Julia Roberts.  I would love to see Lobato print his work on tees, canvas totes, mugs, and so on.  I’d want two of each and Julia on everything.

Madonna

The Beatles

Brad Pitt

Julia Roberts

Elton John

Jack Nicholson

It’s all in the eyes, isn’t it?  If you go back, you can see that each celeb was captured in the windows to the soul.  What must it be like to have so much artistic talent?!  Check out http://lobaton.wordpress.com/ for many more outrageously wonderful works of artistic brilliance.

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Film and television star Peter Graves died Sunday of a heart attack outside his home in Pacific Palisades, California. He was 83.

The dashing actor (one of the few who could actually carry the term dashing) had just returned from brunch with his wife and children. One of his daughters administered CPR, but Heaven apparently needed one more dashing actor.

Peter Graves had an impressive career that spanned 60 years. He was best known for his Golden Globe-winning portrayal of James Phelps on the piece of Americana and pop culture we know as ‘Mission: Impossible.’ This outstanding spy drama ran for seven seasons on CBS and later would launch hugely successful (and equally outstanding) films starring Tom Cruise.

Peter Graves also graced other television series such as ‘Fury,’ ‘Whiplash,’ ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents,’ ‘The Dean Martin Show,’ ‘Fantasy Island’ and ‘7th Heaven.’

In the mid-’90s, Peter Graves became the wonderful (and, yes, dashing) host of A&E’s ‘Biography,’ and received an Emmy for the 1997 special ‘Judy Garland: Beyond the Rainbow.’

The talented actor also appeared in a number of well-known and successful movies, including Billy Wilder’s ‘Stalag 17,’ opposite Oscar winner William Holden, ‘Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell’ and the 1955 thriller ‘Night of the Hunter.’

Of all of his films, however, it was the 1980 comedy ‘Airplane!’ that earned Graves the most fame in theaters. He turned in a hilarious performance as Captain Clarence Oveur in the film as well as its 1982 sequel.

Thankfully, just last October, Peter Graves received a much-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to honor his career.

According to the Times, Graves is survived by his older brother, actor James Arness (Gunsmoke), his wife, Joan Graves, whom he married in 1950, and his three daughters. He died just four days shy of his 84th birthday.

How Much Do You Know About Peter Graves?

• Peter Graves was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 18, 1926
• He was left-handed
• Peter excelled in sports and music
• He played the saxophone
• Served two years in the Air Force
• Studied drama at the University of Minnesota
• When he first received the script for Airplane, he hated it!  He called it “the worst piece of junk” he’d ever seen.  However, he changed his mind when he met the writers.

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Roseanne’s Laurie Metcalf (Jackie) created one of the all-time funniest characters ever. Heck, the whole cast did! Roseanne, John Goodman, Sara Gilbert, Alicia Goranson, Michael Fishman, Johnny Galecki – sheer brilliance.

I could watch the Conners all day and night, only quitting long enough to re-fill my Diet Dr. Pepper.

If you missed them the first time around and have never had the pleasure of enjoying their hilarious company, do your funny bone a huge favor and catch them in reruns or, better yet, buy the seasons on dvd. Or, you could do what I do – catch them on TV AND collect the seasons.

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Too  cute.  Mattel knows that there are plenty of us adults who gleefully collect Barbie dolls.  They’ve always given us a wonderful selection of Dolls of the World, I Love Lucy dolls (LOVE them!), and other beauties we simply must have, whatever the cost.

They’re at it again.

According to the NY Times:

Mattel plans to come out with versions of Barbie and Ken as the colorful characters from the popular series Mad Men.

The dolls are part of a premium-price collectors’ series for adults that Mattel calls the Barbie Fashion Model Collection. Although there have been Barbies and Kens based on other TV series, among them “I Love Lucy” and “The X-Files,” the dolls will be the first licensed line for that collection, Mattel says, with a suggested retail price of $74.95 each. Mattel is licensing rights to the characters from Lionsgate, the studio that produces “Mad Men” for the AMC cable channel. There will be 7,000 to 10,000 copies of each doll, to be sold in specialty stores and on two Web sites, amctv.com and barbiecollector.com. The characters to become dolls are Don Draper, the show’s leading man; his wife, Betty; his colleague at the Sterling Cooper agency, Roger Sterling; and Joan Holloway, the agency’s office manager who was Roger’s mistress.

Click HERE to read more.

Now if they’d only make Roseanne, Dan, Darlene, Becky, Jackie dolls….  Mattel, if you’re listening, I’d buy two of each!

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Post tags: Mad Men, Mad Men Barbie dolls

Billie Holiday at Town Hall, New York City, 1948 Framed Art Print
Loren, Dennis
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Billie Holiday was born on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Nicknamed Lady Day, Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and song writer that could stop traffic with her voice. She got intimate with songs and music the way most people get intimate with one another. She co-wrote several songs that have gone down in jazz history, notably “God Bless the Child”, “Don’t Explain”, and “Lady Sings the Blues”. She also became famous for singing jazz standards written by others, including “Easy Living” and “Strange Fruit”.

She’s often remembered as the lovely lady with a gardenia in her hair belting out songs like nobody’s business.

Sadly, as was the case with quite a few of the stars from the past, drugs were Billie Holiday’s undoing. She was arrested several times due to an addiction she never overcame. She was even arrested on her death bed – literally. Gilbert Millstein of The New York Times, who had partly written the sleeve notes for the album The Essential Billie Holiday, described her death:

“Billie Holiday died in the Metropolitan Hospital, New York, on Friday, July 17, 1959, in the bed in which she had been arrested for illegal possession of narcotics a little more than a month before, as she lay mortally ill; in the room from which a police guard had been removed – by court order – only a few hours before her death, which, like her life, was disorderly and pitiful. She had been strikingly beautiful, but she was wasted physically to a small, grotesque caricature of herself. The worms of every kind of excess – drugs were only one – had eaten her. … The likelihood exists that among the last thoughts of this cynical, sentimental, profane, generous and greatly talented woman of 44 was the belief that she was to be arraigned the following morning. She would have been, eventually, although possibly not that quickly. In any case, she removed herself finally from the jurisdiction of any court here below.”

An incredibly tragic and sad ending for a woman who left a beautiful mark on our musical history. She deserved better – what a shame that she didn’t realize it.

To learn more about Billie Holiday, buy her autobiography on Amazon: Lady Sings the Blues.

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Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the courtroom.

One of the best cast television shows of all time, Boston Legal, is joining TV Land and the network will kick things off wit a marathon of the series’ most popular episodes today.  Great news!

The Primetime Emmy Award-winning hit series created by David E. Kelley premieres on Monday, February 15th with a President’s Day marathon from 12pm – 12am EST/PST, showing the best cases, most outrageous moments and most creative storylines that audiences love. During the marathon, TV Land PRIME will offer special character “briefs” on viewers favorite Crane, Poole & Schmidt firm members such as Denny Crane, Alan Shore and Shirley Schmidt, and viewers will learn personal and professional information on the characters as well as everything they need to know about this popular series.

“The poignant storylines offset by humor and wit skillfully acted and delivered by the infamous and talented William Shatner and Candice Bergen have resonated with audiences making ‘Boston Legal’ a favorite,” states Jaclyn Cohen, senior vice president of programming and acquisitions for TV Land. “TV Land viewers are sure to love this addition to our schedule!”

Created by David E. Kelley (“Ally McBeal,” “The Practice”) “Boston Legal” is a one-hour dramedy which ran on ABC for five seasons. The series follows the professional and personal lives of the attorneys at high-priced Boston law firm, Crane, Poole & Schmidt. The on-goings at the firm are made thoroughly entertaining by the talented cast, starring James Spader and television veterans William Shatner and Candice Bergen. Spader garnered two Primetime Emmys for his depiction of Alan Shore, a winning attorney with at times, less-than-ethical tactics. William Shatner received an Emmy and Golden Globe for his role as the quirky Denny Crane, the leading name of the firm, Crane, Poole & Schmidt, a star litigator in his heyday and now adjusting to his evolving role at the firm as he gets older. Candice Bergen, famous for her five-time Emmy-winning portrayal of Murphy Brown stars in “Boston Legal” as Shirley Schmidt, third name in the firm title. Schmidt is a no-nonsense attorney who rejoins the team toward the end of the first season, returning from a stint in New York. Schmidt and Crane were previously involved, which adds yet another layer of entertainment to the plot.

Boston Legal Marathon Episode Descriptions:

Monday, February 15, 2010

12:00PM #001: Head Cases

A partner arrives at the office wearing no pants; Shore meets with an African-American woman who claims her daughter was passed over for a role in “Annie” because of the color of her skin; a client wants to hire a private investigator to tail his cheating wife, but Denny advises against it; sparks fly between Bad and Sally when they represent a mom fighting her ex over a custody issue.

1:00PM #002: Still Crazy After All These Years

Shore represents a former lover who tried to kill him and who is now fighting for release from a mental institution; Crane behaves strangely during a case, prompting the partners to look for an excuse to get rid of him.

2:00PM #011: Schmidt Happens

Lori files a motion against the U.S. government on behalf of a Sudanese man, trying to draw attention to the genocide in that country; Shore represents a man who killed his mother; partner Shirley Schmidt, Crane’s former flame, returns to the firm.

3:00PM #016: Let Sales Ring

Crane represents an old friend who wants to die and be cryonically frozen; Shore represents a teenager who claims that a news channel is being illegally censored at his high school.

4:00PM #018: The Black Widow

Shore and Brad represent a beautiful woman accused of poisoning her wealthy, elderly husband; Tara finds herself opposing an old flame when she defends a doctor accused of groping a mute cellist.

5:00PM #019: Schadenfreude

Crane, Shore and Brad defend Kelly Nolan, who is accused of killing her rich husband; Denise insists on handling her own divorce; Catherine worries that Bernard Ferrion will kill again; Tara assists Malcolm in representing a singer.

6:00PM #040: Race Ipsa

Crane shoots his psychiatrist; Shore recruits Chelina to help defend a client in a racial profiling case; Denise shows Brad how to kiss.

7:00PM #062: Son of the Defender

Denny Crane is forced at gunpoint to re-try his very first murder case, but this time the lives of half the firm hang on the verdict; Alan defends a working girl and ends up sharing a cell with her.

8:00PM #084: The Mighty Rogues

Shirley asks Alan to argue a case that would allow her to end her father’s fight with Alzheimer’s; Jerry’s sued for sexual assault; Sack represents Nantucket Island in the island’s quest to build an atomic bomb.

9:00PM #088: Patriot Acts

Denny and Alan are finally accepted into the Coast Guard but their friendship is tested when Alan represents a town that wants to secede from the United States; Denny represents the opposing side.

10:00PM #100: Made In China

In desperate need of funding, but against everyone’s wishes, the firm votes to be acquired by a Chinese corporation; Shirley and Sack plan their wedding; Denny makes a proposal of his own to Alan.

11:00PM #101: Last Call

Alan argues before the Supreme Court for Denny’s right to take an experimental drug to halt the effects of his advancing Alzheimer’s; Shirley, Sack, Alan and Denny prepare for their weddings.

Additionally, beginning February 15th, fans of the series can log on to www.tvland.com and enter a sweepstakes for the chance to win one of 30 “Boston Legal” Season 5 DVD box sets.

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Remember the Night, Barbara Stanwyck 1940 Photographic Print
Buy at AllPosters.com

Few actresses better represented 1940’s Hollywood as well as Barbara Stanwyck. Everything about her seems to have summed up the glamor, sex appeal, and strength of the 40s. For those of us who weren’t yet born, we can get a great idea of what this time must have “felt” like. You get the impression that people were excited about the future – especially in Hollywood. There seemed to have been a feeling of excitement and anticipation of changing times. So much so, you can almost see it on certain star’s faces!

I’ve always been fascinated with Barbara Stanwyck. There’s something different about her that makes her stand apart from other actresses of her time – a kind of strength and non-conformity, a lot like Katharine Hepburn. In fact, I often thought of her as Katherine Hepburn on the small screen. Naturally, she was on the big screen as well, but she’s best known for her memorable stint on The Big Valley.

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16, 1907 in Brooklyn, New York. While working at a local telephone company, Barbara held fast to her dream of making it to Hollywood. She (literally) pounded the pavement, looking for work as a dancer and, at 17, was hired as a chorus girl. This led her to Hollywood and to her dreams coming true.

The Woman in Red, Barbara Stanwyck, 1935 Photographic Print
Buy at AllPosters.com

While Barbara is best remembered as Victoria, the matriarch of the Barkleys, on the TV western “The Big Valley” (1965), she is also fondly remembered as a grand dame from the hit drama “The Colbys” (1985). However, she is also known to millions of fans for her movie career, which spanned from 1927 to 1964.

Barbara Stanwyck’s co-stars considered her to be an ideal co-star, thanks to her serious but easygoing attitude on the set. She worked hard at being an actress, but she never allowed her star quality to go to her head. She was nominated for four Academy Awards, though somehow she never won. However, in 1982 she was awarded an honorary Academy Award for “superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting.”

Barbara Stanwyck died on January 20, 1990 in Santa Monica, California from congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive lung disease, and emphysema. She left behind 93 movies and a beautiful, memorable spot in television history. Barbara may be gone, but Victoria will live on forever…. and, of course, Barbara will live on through her and her other roles.

Ah, the beauty of re-runs, dvds, and networks like TV Land that allow this to be possible.

Barbara Stanwyck, March 7, 1946 Photographic Print
Buy at AllPosters.com

Favorite Barabara Stanwyck Quotes:
During Double Indemnity (1944), Fred MacMurray would go to rushes [viewings of daily completed shots]. I remember asking Fred, “How was I?” [Fred's response was] “I don’t know about you, but I was wonderful!” Such a true remark. Actors only look at themselves.

I’m a tough old broad from Brooklyn. I intend to go on acting until I’m ninety and they won’t need to paste my face with make-up.

[Referring to director Frank Capra] Eyes are the greatest tool in film. Mr. Capra taught me that. Sure, it’s nice to say very good dialogue, if you can get it. But great movie acting – watch the eyes!

Put me in the last fifteen minutes of a picture and I don’t care what happened before. I don’t even care if I was IN the rest of the damned thing – I’ll take it in those fifteen minutes.

My only problem is finding a way to play my fortieth fallen female in a different way from my thirty-ninth.

Commenting in 1939 on the fact that her fiancé, Robert Taylor, at 28, was four years younger than she, which raised eyebrows then, Stanwyck said: “The boy’s got a lot to learn and I’ve got a lot to teach.”

I couldn’t remember my name for weeks. I’d be at the theater and hear them calling, ‘Miss Stanwyck, Miss Stanwyck,’ and I’d think, ‘Where is that dame? Why doesn’t she answer? By crickie, it’s me!’

Egotism – usually just a case of mistaken nonentity.

Career is too pompous a word. It was a job and I have always felt privileged to be paid for doing what I love doing.

[on filming Titanic (1953)] The night we were making the scene of the dying ship in the outdoor tank at Twentieth, it was bitter cold. I was 47 feet up in the air in a lifeboat swinging on the davits. The water below was agitated into a heavy rolling mass and it was thick with other lifeboats full of woman and children. I looked down and thought: If one of these ropes snaps now, it’s good-by for you. Then I looked up at the faces lined along the rail -those left behind to die with the ship. I thought of the men and women who had been through this thing in our time. We were re-creating an actual tragedy and I burst into tears. I shook with great racking sobs and couldn’t stop.

Barbara Stanwyck, 1940 Photographic Print
Hurrell, George
Buy at AllPosters.com

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Here’s some really interesting news: According to the LA Times, CBS Films is working on a big screen adaptation of the classic Western television show “Gunsmoke.”  I SO hope this pans out, not only are westerns always great entertainment, Gunsmoke is an all-time favorite.  Can you imagine the fun they’d have casting festus?!  Steve Carrel, perhaps?

Brad Pitt and Ryan Reynolds have emerged as the top contenders for the role of Matt Dillon. Ryan Reynolds and his real life love, Scarlett Johansson would be perfect co-stars if she were to be cast as Miss Kitty to his Matt Dillon.  However, sources indicate that, at the moment, Brad Pitt, is the front runner.

On the 1955 show, Dillon is the Western hero charged with maintaining law and order in a period Kansas town filled with colorful vagrants, misfits and desperadoes. He carries on in these adventures with the help of town physician Doc Adams and tavern owner Miss Kitty Russell.

Gregory Poirier, who wrote “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” has written a draft of the “Gunsmoke”  script, and the studio is said to like it very much.   I’ll let you know more details when I get my eager little hands on them.

*** Watch full episodes of Gunsmoke online at TVLand.com.

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AfriCOBRA: Jeff Donaldson “Two for Cheikh”

This is outstanding!  I’m thrilled that TV Land is honoring these amazing artists and their work.   If not for TV Land, I would never have even heard of AfriCOBRA – but now I’m nothing short of mesmerized.

Go to TVLAND.com for more information!

TV LAND CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY MONTH WITH SALUTE TO VISUAL ARTS GROUP, AfriCOBRA

On-Air Tribute To Artists And Their Work Premieres in February on TV Land

New York, NY, February 4, 2010 – TV Land announced today that it will pay tribute to the art and artists of AfriCOBRA with a series of interstitials airing throughout Black History Month. AfriCOBRA (the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) was formed in the 1960s by a group of Chicago-based artists seeking to effect positive change by creating images that affirmed and uplifted the black community. The group continues to create innovative African American artwork today. The network will present new, original interviews with some of the AfriCOBRA artists as well as an illustrious display of their artwork. The series of 30-second and 60-second spots will begin airing in February on TV Land in celebration of Black History Month. Extended versions of the spots will be available at tvland.com.

The TV Land AfriCOBRA spots were directed by Juan Delcan and Kenny Morrison from Nola Pictures. Delcan recently designed the stage visuals for U2’s 360 Tour as well as directed commercials for clients including NBC, Puma, Carolina Herrera, JetBlue and DeBeers among others. Morrison previously directed high profile campaigns for AT&T, BMW, 3M, and BlueCross among many others.

“The body of AfriCOBRA’s artwork is visually stunning and speaks to the strength, beauty and heroism of African Americans from both yesterday and today,” stated Larry W. Jones, president, TV Land. “These lively images and the amazing artists creatively illustrate the depth of Black American culture and its art. As we celebrate Black History Month, all of us here at TV Land are thrilled to be able to shine a spotlight on these vibrant and influential masterpieces.”

TV Land will donate the transcripts – both written and digital versions – to Smithsonian’s Archive of American Art, in Washington, D.C. The Archives of American Art collects, preserves, and makes available primary sources, such as letters, unpublished writings, financial records, and interview transcripts, documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. It is the largest collection of its kind in the world.

“Since the Archives of American Art was founded in 1954, it has cultivated an active program of recording oral history interviews,” stated Jason Stieber, Collections Specialist, Smithsonian’s Archive of American Art. “The transcripts of these interviews capture the true character of artists’ voices in a way that other written materials often don’t. The AfriCOBRA interviews have made an extraordinary contribution to our research holdings. Documenting the American experience through its artistic output is what we’re all about. Groups like AfriCOBRA represent the creative potency America has enjoyed by virtue of its linguistic, cultural, religious and racial diversity.”

About AfriCOBRA

In the 1960s, a group of talented African American artists called OBAC (Organization for Black American Culture) created the “Wall of Respect” mural in Chicago, IL. The mural depicted African American heroes and leaders of that era. The Wall became a meeting place for many and served as the community’s visual affirmation of African American cultural, intellectual and political heritage. When the group disbanded, a new group emerged and became COBRA (Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists) which later became AfriCOBRA, a name they continue to use today. AfriCOBRA began when America was in an unprecedented racial upheaval and sought to express the dynamic and dramatic views of American Americans. The group was co-founded by Jeff Donaldson, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu and Gerald Williams.

The artistic vision of the group is to create vibrant works that can start a dialog that is “pro-Black without being ‘anti’ anything else.” The body of work that stretches across a variety of mediums – including paintings and sculptures –follows several aesthetic principles. These include the use of bold, vibrant “coolade” colors, the use of lettering to clarify or extend the visual statement, lost and found line, mimesis at midpoint, and the objective of educating and speaking to African Americans’ past, present and future. On the artists’ use of these principles founder Jeff Donaldson wrote, “We are a family of image-makers and each member of the family is free to relate and to express our laws in his/her individual way. Dig the diversity in unity. We can be ourselves and be together too.”

AfriCOBRA Artists’

Jeff Donaldson

“We hope you can dig it, it’s about you and, like Marvin Gaye says, ‘You’re what’s happening in the world today, baby.’”

AfriCOBRA founder Jeff Donaldson was born in Pine Bluff Arkansas in 1932. He received a B.A. in studio art from the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff in 1954, after establishing the school’s first arts major. He studied under John Howard, who had been a student of Harlem Renaissance painter Hale Woodruff, and who nurtured Donaldson’s interest in Afro-centric art. Donaldson went on to complete his M.F.A. at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago in 1963, and a PhD in African and African American Art History at Northwestern University in 1974.

As a member of the Organization for Black American Culture (OBAC) in 1967

Donaldson organized the visual art workshop that created Chicago’s seminal “Wall of Respect” mural, which depicted black heroes and became an iconic symbol of the black pride movement. He was instrumental in the founding of AfriCOBRA, whose mission he saw as the development of a common aesthetic creed and the impetus for a movement in which artists effected social change by making images of affirmation for the black community and fostering black pride.

Donaldson described AfriCOBRA’s aesthetic principles as: “The expressive awesomeness that one experiences in African Art and life in the USA like the Holiness church…and the demon that is the blues, Alcindor’s dunk and Sayer’s cut…Summitry that is free, repetition with change, based on African music and African movement… We want the work to look like the creator made it through us… We want the things to shine, to have the rich luster of a just-washed ‘Fro, of spit-shined shoes…Color that shines… Color that defines, identifies and directs… Coolade colors for coolade images for the super real people.”

Donaldson promoted “TransAfrican” art, explaining that, “African art – the art of Dogon masks, Kasai axes, gold weights – is not art of isolated objects. Everything’s together, religion and tradition, oration, dancing, and song. James Brown doesn’t just stand up there and sing. You can’t see AfriCOBRA unless you’re in the struggle, unless you hear the music, unless you really know.”

As a painter, Donaldson participated in over 200 group and solo exhibitions internationally. He was also an educator and over the course of his career he served as a professor, art department chair and dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University.

Jeff Donaldson died in February 2004.

Wadsworth Jarrell

“If you can get to bebop, you can get to me. That is where the truth is.”

Founding AfriCOBRA member Wadsworth Jarrell was born in 1929 in Albany, Georgia and moved to Chicago in the mid-1950s. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was awarded a B.F.A. in 1958. As a member of the Organization for Black American Culture (OBAC), he helped execute the famous “Wall of Respect” outdoor mural on the South Side of Chicago in 1967. That same year he married fellow artist Elaine “Jae” Jarrell. In 1968, the Jarrells co-founded the artist collective AfriCOBRA along with Jeff Donaldson, Barbara Jones-Hogu and Gerald Williams.

In 1971, Jarrell began teaching in the art department at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and received his M.F.A. from the university in 1974.

In 1978, Jarrell and his family moved to Athens, Georgia where he taught painting at the University of Georgia. He retired from teaching in 1988. He continues to work as an artist and is represented by several prominent commercial art galleries in the United States.

Jae Jarrell

“You speak through your work. We can all do something. You speak through your medium.”

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Elaine “Jae” Jarrell attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio before moving to Chicago. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She married artist, Wadsworth Jarrell in 1967 and, with her husband, helped form what became the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA) in 1968. Jarrell was a gifted clothing designer and contributed hand-made and adorned garments to AfriCOBRA exhibitions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She later took graduate courses at Howard University and the Parsons School of Design in New York. Her original designs of Afro-centric garments were widely exhibited in American museum exhibitions and were featured in magazines including Ebony and the International Review of African American Art. Jae Jarrell owned a vintage men’s clothing shop in New York for many years before moving to Cleveland, Ohio in 2009.

Barbara Jones-Hogu

“Black people, a total people, a total force, Unite, Unite…”

Barbara Jones-Hogu was born in Chicago. She received a B.A. from Howard University in 1959, a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1964, and a M.S., with a concentration in printmaking, from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago in 1970.

Jones-Hogu is an influential artist associated with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. As a member of OBAC (Organization for Black American Culture), she was one of the muralists who created the important “Wall of Respect” in 1967 on the south side of Chicago – a public work that inspired the creation of socially, politically and culturally themed murals across the urban American landscape. In 1968, Jones-Hogu became a founding member of the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA). As a member of AfriCOBRA she participated in formulating the group’s mission statement, which stressed Black independence and artistic self-determination.

Her signature use of lettering in her artwork became a hallmark of the AfriCOBRA aesthetic. Her famed screen prints created during her participation in the group were exhibited widely at venues including the Studio Museum in Harlem, Howard University, Cornell University, and the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Boston. Several books and catalogues over the years have included her work, and she is featured in Creating Their Own Image: The History of African American Women Artists, the most important text on the subject, published in 2005. Unite, perhaps her most well known screen printed image, is included in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Napoleon Jones Henderson

“My work in its essence is spiritual; meaning-full. We must be about the business of expressing what is beautiful; ourselves.”

Napoleon Jones-Henderson was born in Chicago in 1943. He was awarded a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1971 and pursued graduate studies at Northern Illinois University in 1974. In 2005, he received a MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art. He has been an active and long-standing member of AfriCOBRA since 1969. During the formative years of AfriCOBRA, Jones-Henderson created large pictorial weavings that were included in the group’s important series of exhibitions mounted at the Studio Museum in Harlem in the early 1970s. He has taught in the art departments of several American institutions including Malcolm X College in Chicago, the Massachusetts College of Art, Emerson College in Boston and Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina.

Michael D. Harris

“Our art is not about destruction, it’s about construction. It’s about who we are and who we can be.”

Michael Harris is an Associate Professor of Art History at Emory University and also serves as the Consulting Curator for the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Art and Culture in Charlotte, NC. Previously, Harris was an Associate Professor of African and African-American Art History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for eleven years. In spring 2004, he served as the Visiting Professor of Art at Dillard University in New Orleans and has taught at Duke University, Georgia State University, Morehouse College and Wellesley College.

He also served as the Consulting Curator for African American Art at the High Museum in Atlanta from 2005 – 2009.

Harris has published extensively and his recent book, Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation, won two national awards. He was the curator of the exhibition “Transatlantic Dialogue: Contemporary Art In and Out of Africa,” which traveled to the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and to the Tampa Museum of Art, and co-curated “Astonishment and Power” at the National Museum of African Art in 1993. In 1996, Harris completed a doctorate in art history at Yale University, where he had also previously received his Master of Philosophy degree (1991), M.A. in Art History (1990), and M.A., with distinction, in African and African-American studies and Art History (1989). Additionally, he holds his M.F.A. in painting from Howard University and a B.S. in education from Bowling Green State University.

As an artist, Harris has exhibited nationally and internationally, is represented in public and private collections including those of David Driskell and the Hampton University Museum. He has been a member of AfriCOBRA since 1979.

Carolyn Lawrence

“Take the past and the present and make the new image.”

Painter Carolyn Lawrence grew up in Houston, Texas and received a degree in Education from the University of Texas in Austin in 1961. She started teaching in Gary, Indiana immediately after graduation, then went on to complete her MA in Art Education at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Lawrence was a member of the Organization for Black American Culture (OBAC) and took part

in the creation of the “Wall of Respect” mural in Chicago, which sparked an urban mural movement and set off the chain of events that led to the founding of the AfriCOBRA collective. Lawrence joined AfriCOBRA in the spring of 1969, while teaching art at Kenwood Academy High School in Chicago. She contributed to the group’s first museum exhibition “10 in Search of a Nation” at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1970. She continued teaching at Kenwood Academy, where she also served as art department chair, until she retired in 2001. In retirement, Lawrence is getting back to her art and working on refining her craft.

Howard Mallory

“Our offering to the planet is valid enough for us to feel good about ourselves.”

Howard Mallory is a sculptor and ceramic artist who joined AfriCOBRA in 1971 and exhibited with the group during their Studio Museum in Harlem exhibition in 1971 and in their Howard University exhibition of 1973. Mallory studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Texas Western College. Early in his career he worked as an instructor in ceramics at the Parkway Community House in Chicago and exhibited his work at regional art exhibitions. He continues to work from his home and studio on the South Side of Chicago, where he has installed an outdoor work entitled “The Freedom Train.”

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