Art Exhibit Features Woodcut Portraits of Artists, Musicians and Writers

The Department of Art and Design at The University of Southern Mississippi opened a new exhibit in the Gallery of Art and Design with a reception Oct. 28. "Literary Effigies and Blues Portraits: Woodcuts by Charles Jones" will run through Nov. 12 in the new art gallery space in George Hurst Building on the Hattiesburg campus.

The exhibition features large-scale woodcut portraits of artists, writers and musicians, as well as a recent body of smaller woodcuts from "My Black Angel: Blues Poems and Portraits," a book collaboration between Charles Jones and San Francisco poet Kim Addonizio.

Charles Jones is a retired professor from Stephen F. Austin State University where he taught drawing, printmaking and Mexican art history. Jones is a talented painter and musician, but his primary area of emphasis is in printmaking, works on paper, the book arts and fine press printing.  He is currently Director and Master Printer for the LaNana Creek Press in Nacogdoches, Tex.

“I think of my work as a duet with the wood and am happiest when the image seems to have grown naturally from the texture and grain,” Jones said. “The choice of wood, paper, and composition, as well as the cutting of the image, proceeds intuitively, guided by my feelings for the subject. My work is created by the joining of the visible with the felt but unseen.”

Jones spoke to an art class prior to the opening reception. He discussed the evolution of his Effigies series and the development of his creative work in the book arts at LaNana Creek Press.

For more information about the exhibit or other events in the College of Arts and Letters, visit http://artsandlettersnow.usm.edu.