Black history will be told through art.
“A Painting Is Worth a Thousand Words,” featuring artwork by Gregory Rance Thompson and Penelope Wilson, will be the centerpiece of a Martin Luther King Day celebration Monday at Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center, 411 Third Ave. in the Cambria City section of Johnstown.
A reception will be held from 2 to 5 p.m., and both artists will be in attendance, said activities director Beth Elston.
The exhibit will be on display through February, in celebration of Black History Month.
“We expect to use the exhibit as a backdrop for an activity later in February, maybe a lecture,” Elston said.
Thompson, a Johnstown native, enjoys drawing on poster board with watercolors, markers or graphite.
Figures and characters are prominent in the self-taught artist’s work, and he has completed murals on buildings and walls in various homes throughout the Johnstown area as well as doing greeting cards.
His work has been featured in “Gussie the Giving Goose” and “The Perfect Day,” two books written and published by his sister, Karen Thompson Stewart.
Raised in a family with 12 children, Thompson used to see how close he could come to replicating the images of his brothers and sisters.
“At the age of 5 or 6, I started drawing pictures of cereal box characters,” Thompson said in his artist’s statement.
“My favorite was the Quaker Oats man. Eventually, I realized I didn’t have to look at the box to remember the features of the characters.”
Even though his parents couldn’t afford to send him to school, Thompson never stopped drawing.
Not even losing the sight in one eye has deterred him.
“I will continue to work on my God-given talent as long as God blesses me with sight,” Thompson said. “One day I will become successful in the field of art.”
The paintings by Wilson of Hollidaysburg highlights collages.
“I feel most expressive when I am working in the art form of collage,” Wilson said in her artist’s statement. “The work was inspired by an article in Pennsylvania magazine on the possible use of secret codes in quilts. This was practiced during the time of slaves moving north via the Underground Railroad. The theme of the quilt is interwoven throughout the paintings.”
One of Wilson’s favorite artists is Norman Rockwell, and she has been inspired by Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With,” a depiction of school desegregation in the 1960s.
Wilson uses the image of the little girl in Rockwell’s painting in most of her works and also pays homage to African-American quilt maker Harriet Powers and other prominent black leaders.
“My work emphasizes the strength, endurance and pride of the African-American,” Wilson said. “I am an artist who likes to create using paint, dyes, pastels, pencil, Indian ink and powdered pigments.”
Wilson won her first art contest at age 5, and her paintings have won first-place awards and been exhibited locally and nationally.
She is a Penn State graduate and has taken art history classes at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Mount Aloysius College, Cresson.
Black history
What: Martin Luther King Day celebration.
Where: Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center, 411 Third Ave. in the Cambria City section of Johnstown.
When: 2 to 5 p.m. Monday.
Information: 536-5399.
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