Father-and-son art display at Maryville College’s Blackberry Farm Gallery explores Black history and spirituality
When words fail or falter, art is always there for a father-son duo whose works hang in the Blackberry Farm Gallery of Maryville College’s Clayton Center for the Arts through the month of February.
Although Alan Jones and his son, Xavier, create their works separately, creativity has always been a family affair. And when the elder Jones, who paints under the nom de plume “Theophilus,” approached his son about an idea for “Phylogeny of the Phoenix,” as the February exhibit is named, the younger Jones didn’t hesitate to seize the opportunity to recapture the magic of his own childhood.
“I’ve always worked with him on different things,” Xavier said. “He used to do a lot of murals around Knoxville and Chattanooga, and I would help out with those sorts of things, and then about six or seven years ago, me, him and my grandfather, who’s a photographer, did a family exhibit together. He’s always been my inspiration, and it’s a joy to be able to work with him.”
Alan Jones was inspired to take up drawing and painting by an uncle who taught art at a Knoxville junior high school, and his own formative years were often spent with pencils in hand. At the University of Tennessee, he loved the drawing, sculpture and art history courses of his architecture curriculum but lost interest in commercial design.
Instead, he pursued art as a passion, earning a business degree and eventually becoming the pastor of Asbury United Methodist Church in Clinton, Tennessee. He struck up friendships with other African-American artists like Sammie Nicely and Joseph Delaney, and as a portrait artist during the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, he picked the brains of visiting painters from Brazil, Russia and across the United States.
“I learned so much from them, and after that experience, I wanted to do something significant with my art,” he said. “I started doing these church murals, because I wanted to do a project that would benefit African Americans through Black history. I did some research, and I came up with an exhibition I called ‘Blacks in the Bible’ that was displayed around East Tennessee.
“I always had it in me to do that kind of work, but it kind of coalesced during that time, and I began to use more Biblical imagery and symbols mixed with social statement kind of pieces.”
“Phylogeny of the Phoenix,” he said, uses the symbol of the mythological creature to explore themes of rebirth, resurrection and regeneration. Those spiritual and mythological elements, filtered through a prism of Black history and Afrocentric Christian elements, is designed to give viewers hope during uncertain times, he said, and when Maryville College art professor Carl Gombert called Jones about an on-campus exhibit, he saw it as a way to deliver that hope with the help of his son, he said.
“Because of the time that we’re in, with violence and racism and social unrest, we felt like this would be a way to send a positive message to our community by an African-American father and son doing something positive together that has a spiritual undercurrent to it,” Jones said. “I hope that people will come away with an inspiration that there is something beyond this world, and something glorious to come for those who embrace the faith.”
Faith, added Xavier Jones, is something that transcends division, and being able to express his own through art serves as both solace and therapy. Channeling his emotions into his work brings him a sense of clarity, he pointed out — about the way his faith shapes his perceptions and gives him the strength to persevere when they’re challenged.
“The phoenix is anything that rises out of the ashes or goes through obstacles and trials and tribulations,” he said. “I think that speaks to my experiences, being an African American, but also how much I depend on my faith in God to overcome things. I can put elements of emotion down in a collage that expresses my feelings and tells a story.
“Sometimes being a minority in the world, you feel like you don’t have a voice, but art allows me to have a voice that is larger than the vocabulary I may have to explain an issue. It can be larger than the faith I may have to overcome something. I think we all use art, in some way, to express those things that we have a hard time saying.”
“Phylogeny of the Phoenix” is on display at the Blackberry Farm Gallery through Feb. 28. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. A reception for the artists will take place from 6-8 p.m. Feb. 25 in the gallery.
