Variety Spices Exhibit : Gallery showcases local African American artists in ‘Perspectives.’ Varied works range from vintage Americana to jazz musicians in bold hues.

Fredric Booker isn’t out to make any profound political statement about the African American experience with his paintings.

“Let the politicians deal with social statements,” Booker said. “I’m not into that. An artist’s (role) is painting what he has experienced, what he sees.”

What Booker has experienced as an African American, and what he subsequently paints, is often thought-provoking.

Booker’s “T’was” shows an African American woman with three children, two of color and one white. The African American children are in the lower portion of the painting while the white child is at the woman’s breast.

“This is a story I used to hear over and over again from my grandmother (about) her mother,” Booker said. “That’s what she was, a wet nurse.

“That’s why I say ‘T’was,’ ‘cause that’s the way it was.”

Most of Booker’s work reflects vintage Americana of the 1940s and ‘50s. Booker sees this as an era that artists--with the exception of Norman Rockwell--have neglected. “Everything I paint, it’s what we were,” he said.

Ten of Booker’s watercolors, including “T’was,” are part of the latest exhibit at the Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery. “Perspectives of African-American Artists of the Antelope Valley” features more than 100 pieces by 13 artists. The show runs through Jan. 15.

Curator Norma Gurba cited the changing demographics of the Antelope Valley, the corresponding increase in local African American artists and her desire to showcase different ethnic and social groups as reasons behind the exhibit.

“I’m always looking for different themes,” she said. “The community has changed quite a bit. We have a whole new field of artists.”

“Perspectives” is the Lancaster museum’s first show devoted to artists of African descent, Gurba said, noting that the exhibit’s offerings are quite varied.

“We’ve got a nice mixture,” she said. “Some (paintings are) depicting work scenes; (others show) nostalgic home life, civil rights, sports figures, African heritage pieces. It’s eclectic in some ways.”

Palmdale artist Thurman Hackett, who has 20 pieces in the show, is pleased the museum chose to feature African American artists, saying that such an exhibit is overdue.

In his own work, Hackett most enjoys bringing jazz to life on canvas.

With bright, bold colors and telling expressions on the faces of his subjects, Hackett said he makes music resonate in his art.

“Jazz--Center Stage” depicts a typical scene from the 1940s with jazz musicians performing on stage; “Musical Art of Jazz” shows a man in a tuxedo playing a trumpet.

“I try to project something that’s different,” Hackett said. “I try to be different from anything else. I like originality.”

Hackett paints in a cartoon configuration, combining cartoon-like images with realism. “I find freedom of expression through the painting,” he said.

Artist Darwin (Murph) Murphy, a Tehachapi resident exhibiting 13 pieces in the show, is a firefighter who relies on his work experiences for many of his pieces. He uses his paintings as an opportunity to depict African Americans in a positive way.

“Most of my firefighter paintings have African Americans in them,” he said. “It’s a positive role model type of thing so the kids can see another view. You don’t always have to be a ballplayer or singer.”

Murphy’s 5-by-6-foot “Not Only Brothers” is based on an incident that occurred in the Indiana Fire Department when two African American brothers responded to the same emergency call. One man fell from a three-story building and his brother caught him.

The painting shows the brothers on the ground and a female firefighter assisting them. “It’s showing the brotherhood of all fire departments,” Murphy said.

In “Papa’s Rookie,” Murphy painted his young grandson wearing a fireman’s hat and holding a hose. “My grandson likes everything I do. He wants to be a fireman also,” Murphy said. “When I was a kid I always wanted to be a firefighter, like a lot of young people.”

Murphy said his acrylic-on-glass painting, “Animal in the Wild,” is a portrait of society. From a distance, the painting appears to show two eyes peering through brush.

“As you get close, all this brush turns to thousands of faces,” he said. “That animal is you and I.”

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WHERE AND WHEN

What: “Perspectives of African-American Artists of the Antelope Valley.”

Location: Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery, 44801 N. Sierra Highway, Lancaster.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday; 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Closed this Friday to Sunday and Dec. 31 to Jan. 1. Ends Jan. 15.

Price: Free.

Call: (805) 723-6250.