Jimi's Art on Exhibit (pic at link)
axis in ladyland
Hendrix art work on display at Pendleton Gallery
By Dave Lavender
The Herald-Dispatch
ASHLAND -- If Jimi Hendrix's mind, music and art were always moving, it
was no wonder.
As a child growing up in Seattle, he had been moved 14 times between
the ages of 3 and 16.
To cope with the constant motion, Hendrix kept colored pencils in both
hands and his fingers and imagination flying.
Whether it was cartoons for his younger brothers, special cards for his
mama (who died when Hendrix was 15) or the famous artwork he laid down
all over his guitars and clothes, colors flowed from the late
guitarist's Gypsy soul.
Tri-State art and rock music fans get a rare glimpse into Hendrix's
later psychedelic art this weekend as the Pendleton Art Center, 1537
Winchester Ave., hosts "Jimi Hendrix: The Original Art Experience." The
exhibit features 47 pieces of the wild water-colored pen drawings
brought to Ashland by Hendrix Original Art Expressions Inc.
[PHOTO: Kathyrn Raaker displays prints of some of Jimi Hendrix's work.]
Kentucky connection
"Jimi Hendrix: The Original Art Experience," a show of 47 of the
late guitarist's colorful art works, opens Friday at Ashland's
Pendleton Art Center.
Did you know the globe-trotting Seattle native had a Kentucky
connection? Pfc. Hendrix was stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky., starting
in November 1961.
It was at the base that Hendrix put together a five-piece blues and R&B
band called the King Kasuals that would perform in nearby Clarksville,
Tenn., according to Sharon Lawrence's biography, "Jimi Hendrix: The
Man, The Magic, The Truth."
Hendrix later got a medical discharge in July 1962 after breaking his
ankle on his 26th parachute jump. [Ha ha ha--axis]
"I learned more hearing blues players at clubs and on the radio in
Kentucky and Nashville than I ever did in Seattle," Hendrix told
Lawrence, a former UPI reporter in LA.
Find out more about Hendrix's art online at
www.jimihendrixodyssey.com. Check out the Pendleton Art Center online
at www.pendletonartcenter.com.
axis in ladyland
Posted on Fri, Oct. 07, 2005
A HENDRIX EXPERIENCE
By Benita Heath
The psychedelic colors in these sketches are as indelibly Jimi Hendrix
as the acid rock anthem Purple Haze. And the story of how they got out
of the trunk is just as wild.
But now that they're out, everyone can see that Hendrix the visual
artist was as phantasmagoric as Hendrix the left-handed guitarist who
outraged the older side of the generation gap before crashing from a
drug overdose in 1970 at the age of 27.
Tonight and Saturday, Ashland's Pendleton Center is playing host to
Hendrix Original Art Expressions, an exhibit of five of those drawings,
before they go on a national tour.
Now here's the trunk part: One night an overly expansive Hendrix
offered to buy drinks for all at a bar. But when the bill came, he
discovered his cash was as gone as that Stratocaster he destroyed at
the 1968 Miami Pop Festival.
But then came a fan who offered to pick up the tab. To give him
something for his trouble, Hendrix offered an old trunk, which, as far
as the fan could tell, was filled only with clothes. He held on to the
trunk for a while, but later sold it and the clothes, never knowing
what a cache was residing inside.
That discovery was the good fortune of the trunk's new owner, Bliss Van
den Heuven, an art and antiques dealer living in Palm Beach, Fla. In
the recesses of the crate, he found 45 pen-and-ink drawings the rock
star stashed away there. For decades Van den Heuven kept his treasure
trove of Hendrix sketches all to himself, but now he and co-owner
Anthony Capodilupo, who authenticated the sketches, are opening up a
portion of the collection to the public.
A few months ago, the new owners met Kathryn Raaker, a Cincinnati talk
show host with her own public relations and marketing firm. Raaker took
on the task of negotiating a national and international tour of the
sketches.
First, looking close to home for potential galleries, Raaker approached
Jim Verdun of the Pendleton Art Centers, headquartered in Cincinnati.
He not only agreed to host part of the exhibit, but offered his two
satellite centers -- Ashland and Rising Sun, Ind. -- as venues as well.
Since Ashland is the newest of the Pendleton galleries, opening this
past spring, it was chosen as the first stop in the U.S. tour, which
will go on to Cleveland, Atlanta, Philadelphia and New York before
ending in Seattle a year from now. Then the sketches will be shipped
overseas for a tour of England and Ireland.
As Hendrix fans can see in these drawings, their idol's talent as an
artist was as unique as his music.
"They are very intricate and there's a lot of detail involved with the
paintings," says Gina Dickens, director of the Ashland center. "He
randomly doodled when obviously he would have these visions."
And apparently Hendrix was as much a contortionist when he doodled as
when he would play his restrung right-handed guitar with his teeth.
With six watercolor pens intertwined simultaneously in his left hand,
Hendrix created abstracts radiating in magentas, teals, lime greens and
bright yellows that beg for translation.
"The colors are all vibrant and have a hallucinatory sense," Dickens
says. "And that is probably where the curiosity of interpretation comes
from. ... What was he thinking, what was influencing him at that time?"
IF YOU GO
'Hendrix Original Art Expressions'
When: 5-9 p.m. today, noon-4 p.m. Sat.
Where: Pendleton Center, 1549 Winchester Ave., Ashland.
Call: (606) 369-0000.
Next: The exhibit will next go to the Pendleton Center in Rising Sun,
Ind., from Nov. 4-23 and the Pendleton Center in Cincinnati from Nov.
25-Dec. 31.
ray
when he would play his restrung right-handed guitar with his teeth.
With six watercolor pens intertwined simultaneously in his left hand,
Hendrix created abstracts radiating in magentas, teals, lime greens and
bright yellows that beg for translation. "
The above quote begs for translation. Who saw Jimi with those six
watercolor pens...........
Hendrix chose a good hobby with his doodles. Yet, if he gave the trunk
away to pay the fan who payed his tab it shows he did not think his
work was fine art.
Gabor Szabo, the Hungarian jazz gypsy acoustic
guitarist was also a painter. Jimi and Gabor both played on the same
show bill and both of them innovated the use of a melodic space-like
feedback
Gabor Szabo was a much better painter than Jimi Hendrix. Jimi was just
having fun doing his art work
and, of course, just killing time.
Mad Dog
>Hendrix chose a good hobby with his doodles. Yet, if he gave the trunk
>away to pay the fan who payed his tab it shows he did not think his
>work was fine art.
Who knows? Jimi was pretty generous with other items of value, like the many
Strats he gave away.
ray
Mad Dog your question is valid. Nevertheless, remember that Jimi could
always go to a music shop and pick up another Strat. And, people would
give him ax's for gifts now and than. Hendrix never knew that the
guitars he owned would be worth that much on ebay (he did not even know
about the concept of ebay). It is very possible that he forgot about
his drawing stash. Are there any other pieces of Art by Hendrix that
were mentioned in his estate? By the way, I like the style of
Hendrix's acid art. So many of us drew like that back in the sixties.
Remember Robert Crumb? Thanks for reading!
Mad Dog
>Mad Dog wrote:
>> ray says...
Sure I remember R Crumb. Classic stuff. And don't take me too seriously about
any of this because, in the first place, I don't think Jimi took himself or his
art very seriously, at least from the point of view of ego. I see him as very
well grounded. As an example, remember Jimi's reaction in the Cavett interview
to Dick calling him the best guitarist? Jimi said "no, no" then something like
"maybe the best guitarist sitting in this chair". I keep looking at that DVD
from time to time because it is so incredibly revealing on many levels. The
spirit and soul were right up front in both interviews, and although they were
chronologically pretty close in time, they could have been separated by eons.
That was the Jimi I will always know and love.
As an aside, I bet Jimi had a great understanding of ebay, even though it was
decades away. He spent too much time in the pawn shop to not be able to see the
world as a big yard sale. I personally have a love/hate relationship with ebay,
having picked up a bunch of really important (that was a joke, son) collectibles
there, as well as having been ripped off many times (sadly, that wasn't).
Rick
axis in ladyland
He's still drawing & publishing, of course.