The Festival in Black, held at MacArthur Park downtown Los Angeles in 79’. The Pie Lady was a cultural icon at the Festival evoking Market women who occupies public spaces as an exotic laborer carrying her seasonal produce on her head, selling her wares. The image she present, the primordial entrepreneur, reminded the Artist of the commonality of African cultural customs presented everywhere at the Crossroads of the Caribbean.
RAGS is expressing textures, mood, in its own language through MONO-Printing.
The mission was to recollect the language I “buck up” on while creating a series on elements causing Changes to Present Atmospheric conditions. An imbalance of Air, Water, Fire, and earth taken to extremes. Rags laden with colors give Textures, cross hatched and fused as elements would amalgamate. These original piece done in the Desert of California was lost on my trip to Kingston. Cause?, extreme Climate conditions as in “regional Hurricane.” Forty flights to the Caribbean canceled one afternoon in Miami International Airport, including mine to Kingston. Total disarray and confusion as my contribution to the conversation I am having with Fine Arts Printmaker of Jamaica. A cooperative I am encouraging to amplify Printmaking in Kingston was delayed and never found, up to now. So, the show had to go on. Calling on the creative energies, my studio in Kingston became a Laboratory as I recreated the spirit of my pieces I intended to show. The Exhibition opened at University of the West Indies, Headquarters in Mona. This past week, will close July 15
When Bernard Stanley Hoyes paints, we listen. Yes listen, because his work calls to our inner spirit, piercing spaces deep within, beckoning us to worlds and regions holy, sacred and sanctified. A creator of art, symbols and ancestral echoes, this Jamaican native possesses the power to make colors, forms, and dance, and leap, shout and vibrate on a variety of surfaces. Ancient becomes contemporary, ceremonies rings eternal and traditions manifests as new revelations.
And so it is with Hoyes. His paintings call to us, speak to us, whisper to us. The life force pulses through them. A true product of his environment, Hoyes art for the past thirty years pays significant homage to Jamaican revival culture and the backyard religions he knew as a child. As he mines the traditions of an old and complex culture, he lays it before us like a feast.
His celebration of traditional African religions has found universal appeal, stunning audiences worldwide with their depth and compelling lure. It is no wonder that Oprah Winfrey, Natalie Cole, Richard Pryor, Capital Records and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture are all amongst his collectors.
My images stand as praise to our existence, past, present and future. My challenge is to master unique compositions of spiritual significance. I desire to visually engross the viewer through powerful expressive works.
I have been painting from an intuitive point of view. During this process, the spirits take possession and ritual themes have become dominant. The common denominator has been expressions in the Painting medium. My concern with spiritual testimony, using Contemporary expressions has been the driving force that eventually established a visual voice. Of late, the works has gotten transformative.
Proof being, bringing a selection of the Revival Series Paintings to life on Stage, as an Interdisciplinary creative force, using Visual Arts, Video, Dance, African Traditional Drums and Voices as a production titled, “Se7en Paintings, a Story in Performance”. Seven of my most iconic paintings came to life on the Ford Amphitheater Stage in Los Angeles in 2012.
This was the first step into the Interdisciplinary field. New insights in my application of the Painting discipline have since emerged.
The Modernist discourse in my Paintings has evolved. Raw Materials, technology, and raw textures have appeared. Templates harkening back to the Rag Series from the 70’s, when Raw materials and graphics were prevalent in my exploration.
I am still coming from an intuitive point of view, using traditional mediums, to a unified science of all that went before, Into new methods, including neglected concepts and synthesis of varied consciousness.
Hoyes past works is vividly displayed on his website, at www.berndhoyes.com.
Enjoy 40% Off on The “Tambourine, Talking Drums & Smoke Signals” Poster During Our Summer Offering.
Lithograph on heavy 100% Rag Paper, size 23×37″
Original Created on handmade paper in Acrylics, in the 90’s at the height of the popular Revival Series by Bernard Hoyes. Several compositions were created on these oversize paper, made to order from Mexico City.
The original size 48×80″ was purshased and now in the collection of Bernard Bonner of Upscale Magazine. The Poster was published by Todd Fine Arts in Atlanta. They are out of Print and the stock is limited
This is my sanctuary for the past twenty years. Produced tons of Art, in all media, that went out into the world. Made a mark and made a living. Now it a residence. There is a difference. Before I would seek solace and find my depth. I would get in touch with the Vortex that originate and radiate from this Table. Its always there, place settings for however many people present. I was the sole guest for many stellar events. My tentacles ever reaching, to possess the spirits that avail themselves. Now I am in permanent observation. A turbulent flow in the absence of external forces. Exposed, I am. How will I respond to this pressure?
For one thing, its distracting as hell. There is always something. Every day is capitol. My first day on the Mesa was in the middle of Summer. The temperature was 120 degrees but felt welcoming. The creosotes blossoms were popping, filling the air with this resinous fumes. Its miasma took my breath away. As I gaged almost passing out, my thought was, I am too weak to live in this shit. But, the challenge to live in it was alluring. The seasons are distinct as the east and the west. Its climate is Caribbean and its Araby. The winds are the nemesis and must be respected. I have been close to ruination often.
Then there is the the arid land that hold all the minerals from the ground water. Great for bathing, but too unsafe for drinking regularly. But I find myself downing a glass ever so often to enrich my system. Certain plants cannot thrive in this environ. Oleanders, Palms, Eucalyptus and Evergreens flourish.
The wild life is ever present. Over the years I allowed them to have sanctuary. A leaking sprinkler on the north side that I let drip, eventually formed a pond. With the high position of the mesa it attract Birds of passage. Roadrunners, owls, quails, Coo Doves, varieties of finches and sparrows. Lately the Crows are ever present. Late Spring the Falcons and Hawks appear to thin the population.
Cayotes, Bobcats, Wild dogs, Packrats and other Rats make their eventful appearances. Snakes, scorpions, Vinegarones, spiders, wasps and Bees are constantly invading the space. Once my dog Tyson, let in a snake. I think he was spellbound by it. My son Berhane has a second sense with Scorpions and Vinegarones. He would sense them in the house and find them. The latter are like Scorpions without the tail with stinger. They do bite hot, and for a day or so, my spit had the taste of vinegar.
Then the season of the Bees. Discovering that they had set up living in the siding of the house. Waking up to what I though was an overcast turned out to be a swarm, blocking the morning Sun. Then the frightening thing, they zoomed in and pitched on the side of the house. I ran outside to see the spectacle.
They had cover the whole side of the house. The middle where a knot hole is located in the cedar siding, they converged into it like a whirlpool. In minutes they disappeared inside. Thousands of bees were now occupying a cavity of the house.
The siding had to be removed. The queens found and two Honey combs removed. The Honey combs were the size of a extra large pizza, about a inch and a half thick, filled with delicious creosote tasting honey.
One of the most devastating ruin was from the water. The source, a Well only 90 feet down. Its totally live. All the minerals and diverse properties, being pumped out the ground at 98 degrees.
The other was a wind storm. The winds up here, on average is 10 to 20 miles a hour. Being on a Mesa in direct path to the San Gorgonio Pass. That where the San Jacinto and San Gorgiono Mountains meet. That Pass accelerate the winds into a vortex aimed at the Mesa I call Syncona.
The saga of the Water ruin, I will tackle on another musing. Also the Wind storms, they have made two special visits over the years. They will need their own rumination.
The year that it Hailed and Snowed was remarkable. I experienced a total contentment of being truly Blessed. The mystical implications in regards to my work at the time, wasn’t explored and I should have. But, I was working on a show at the time. The event served as a sign that I was flourishing, on the right track. See, there was doubt. There was a lingering fear at that time.
That was the show that was visited by three Yuroba Priestesses. Orishas from countries in the Caribbean. They were attending a convention in Maimi Beach, Florida, of Yuroba Priestess from the Diaspora. The visit was especially because of the works I am doing with the Revival Series. A Symbolic communication was implied with this visitation. They were sent by the ancestor Eshu. To inform me of an entity that was in my surroundings that was not meant for me. So they told me, after doing a huddle to confirm whether or not they should clue me in. This too, will have to take another musing to tell the whole story. Actually, its a Saga that spanned over ten years.
bernardhoyes 