Artist - Bonie Bolen
Since 1995 Bonie has been painting backdrops, creating t-shirt designs and volunteering for the BJFM shows and festivals. She is a self-taught artist living in Ohio who has been creating artwork for most of her life. Some of her music-based artwork has since been featured with the Columbus Blues Alliance, The Parkersburg Art Center as well as private individuals. Working in pencil, pastel, oil, tempera, watercolor and latex she creates fine art, murals and decorative or faux painting. When asked about her work for the BJFM she replied, "The idea to start doing the backdrops originally was to add more art to the shows. The musicians are amazing enough but we wanted to give the audience more of an experience, something that they could not get just anywhere. Having had the privelege of being born into the BJFM it has been an honor for me to be a part of the shows."
Please see more of my murals below and thanks for taking the time to view my work for the Blues, Jazz and Folk Music Society.
Bonie's Murals for BJFM:
The Cadillac Shack
Where the Southern Crosses
the Dog
Blue Cotton
Pearsons Juke Joint
BJFM Original Logo
Juke Joint
Beale Street
The Ohio
Maxwell Street
Cypress Trees
Going to Chicago
Traditional Instruments
Crossroads
presented by the Blues, Jazz & Folk Music Society
The Cadillac Shack
Located on the Hopson Plantation, three miles from the
legendary Crossroads, Highways 49 and 61 in Clarksdale MS.
Created for the 2008 BJFM River City Blues Festival from a photo by
Dusty Scott.
Where the Southern Crosses the Dog
The Southern was a railroad. It was later bought by the Illinois Central. (The fabled City of New Orleans ran on Southern rails, and for many in the Delta those rails were the road out of poverty, heading north to Chicago--spreading the blues along the way.) Another railroad, the Yazoo Delta, was more popularly known as the Yellow Dog. The Southern tracks crossed the Yazoo Delta railroad in Moorhead, MS.
W.C. Handy was at the train depot in this northern part of the Delta, and he overheard another guy singing a song about "going where the Southern cross the Dog." Handy (who lived in Clarksdale) had never heard harmonies like this. This is the first documented use of blues harmonies. (What's more, the guy was playing guitar using the back of a knife as a slide--first slide guitar ever to make it into the history books.)
The blues had been forming in a rich stew of influences up and down the Delta. This was their first contact with someone who wrote it down.
Created for the 2008 Columbus Blues Alliance Tradfest.
Blue Cotton
Painted for the Columbus Blues Alliance 2007 show. They wanted
a mural depicting the early American roots of the blues. With a setting
in the American south the scene depicts a family playing music together
at the end of the day. The canvas is 7' x 12' and painted in latex. See
larger view.
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There are a lot of regulars at the annual blues festival. Victoria and Robert Pearson of Florida have been coming up every year for the past several years for the show. They asked me to create a juke joint scene depicting Billie Holiday, Alberta Hunter and Big Mama Thorton. The canvas is 7' x 6' and hangs in their home. Top
Performer - Paul Geremia. Original BJFM Logo
BJFM Original Logo
When the BJFM Society formed in 1987 one of its founding members, Keith Gatto, had commissioned the artist Roland Dempsey to design a logo for the Society. The result was a beautiful pen and ink of musicians and a local harbor scene.
For the backdrop I simply projected his image. Primed in white latex and
drawn with black marker, the backdrop measures 9' x 8'. Top
Beale Street
For the 2004 River City Blues Fest the BJFM board members asked me to design a backdrop that would celebrate Beale Street. The blues, and later rock n roll and soul, have a deep history here. Although the roots of blues go further back into American fields and African countrysides, a truly unique form of American music was created here on Beale St. in Memphis, TN. Initially it was the music of W.C Handy that sparked this revolution in American blues music, with artists like Muddy Waters, Furry Lewis, Alberta Hunter, Albert King, Memphis Minnie and B.B. King soon to follow in the clubs on Beale.
For the backdrop I was inspired by the Memphis photographers J&D Richardson's version of Beale Street. Their photograph was so colorful and exciting I thought that it would work well behind the show. Please see more of their work at www.jdrichardson.com. They are stock photographers for the Southeastern area of the US. The canvas is 9' x 13' and painted in latex. Special thanks to James Richardson, Peggy, Anne and Ted.
The Ohio
For the 2003 Blues Festival I painted The Ohio, a 14' x 8' latex canvas depicting a view across the Ohio, Muskingum, Allegheny or other river systems in our area of the country. The mural is meant to show the dichotomous relationship between area families and industry. The health and beauty of our unique people and landscape is often in jeopardy with our necessary need for income to local families.
Maxwell Street
For the 2002 River City Blues festival we again highlighted some of Chicago's rich musical history. A 14' x 8' mural depicting the famous Maxwell Street. The street has a 90 year history as a gathering place for vendors, shoppers, musicians and artists. On Sundays the street was blocked off to traffic and available to the public as an open-air market. One of the streets most memorable aspects is its role as incubator to many up and coming Chicago blues musicians. Robert Nighthawk, Carey Bell and Robert Lockwood Jr. are a few influential blues musicians to have spent time on Maxwell street. From its beginnings the street has been known as a place of diversity. The unique social aspect of the street must have been exciting to the musicians, aside from being exposed to random crowds they were able to meet and sit in with one another.
his backdrop was painted with Golden acrylic paints. Again I was inspired by information and images on the Library of Congress website. I was also heavily influenced by the work of photojournalist Wayne F. Miller. His book Chicago's South Side 1946 - 1948 is a beautiful collection of photographs.
Cypress Trees
Other music styles the BJFM Society highlights are Cajun, Zydeco, Reggae and World Beat music. Swamp Stomp and Reggae In May are two growing annual events. For the 2002 Reggae show I painted a riverbank scene of baldcypresss trees and spanish moss. These trees are typically found in deep Southern US swamp areas. The backdrop is painted in latex on 14' x 8' of canvas.
Performer - Gizzae. Cypress Tree Mural.
Performers - Cephas & Wiggins. "Going to Chicago" mural.
Going to Chicago
At the 2001 River City Blues festival many of the featured acts were from the Mississippi area and had migrated north to Chicago, Nashville and St. Louis. Going To Chicago or Paris Mississippi is a painting about the migration to northern cities like Chicago due to the unemployment in southern plantations brought about through industrialization. Much of Chicago's rich blues history has origins similar to this.
The painting is done in latex on 14' x 8' of canvas. The image was directly
inspired by the photography of Martin J. Dain from the book Faulkner's
World: The Photography of Martin J. Dain. Inspiration also came from
the Library of Congress website (www.loc.gov). This is a rich site for
information and exceptional photography about our country's past.
Traditional Instruments
For the 2001 Celtic concert I painted a backdrop of traditional instruments. I wanted to show the physical beauty of the instruments; wood, string and skin. In the painting they are arranged on a wooden wall. I was trying to achieve the effect of the inside of a barn just before or during intermission of a barn dance. The backdrop has personal interest for me because some of the instruments are painted directly from my family's collection. I grew up hearing them regularly. The mural measures 14' x 8' and painted with latex. This backdrop is badly cracked. A note to anyone painting a folding canvas. If you do use latex paint, use exterior latex. It is much more flexible than interior. The early backdrops I painted in interior latex began cracking after the first move.
The Crossroads was painted in reference to the myth of Robert Johnson's legacy. It is painted with latex on a piece of burlap measuring 16' x 8'. It was first used at the 1999 River City Blues Festival.
Performers - local musician Lyle Finley and his band.
Crossroads mural.
Special thanks to...
Robbie Schafer at Schafer's Leather for sewing and riveting all the
canvases.
Photography credits Clem Hout, John Gifford, Dusty Scott, Peg and Jack
Bolen.
All the board members that help in hanging and storing the backdrops.
If you would like to e-mail me I'm at boniebolen@gmail.com.
- Bonie Bolen