+questions. answers
marcia jones.
artist. teacher
Marcia Jones seems to always be at the center of things. From her work designing the cover art of Jessica Care Moore’s publishing company to her past position as a motivating muse for the breakthrough of a cultural avatar to her current work ensuring that the yout are ready as a professor at Clark Atlanta University
Marcia is an art lifer and I use that term carefully and respectfully. She is simply an important asset in the business of creative thought, both in what she produces and what she inspires others to produce. Then on top of all that, she makes beautiful things that are layered like a Marvin Gaye vocal track.
Nat Creole: Tell us a little about your background. What events led you to become an artist?
Marcia Jones: I was born in Chicago IL in 1972...my grandmother, who was my primary care giver, was a seamstress...so on the daily we would go to her dress shop on 79th and Halsted...sitting with her all day… watching her cut patterns, pick fabrics, sketch design, and interact with her clients...I'm pretty sure it was this process that influenced me the most...as well as my mother who would travel to the Northside on the weekends with me, coloring book and crayons in tote, to visit her "artist" friends...as a child I could sit for hours just coloring. I grew up in a house with 5 children, my mother being second to the youngest….so there was always alot of commotion...I would hide under beds, in closets...and, my favorite…under the kitchen sink with a flashlight and color for hours.
It's when I got to Clark that I realized that in the spectrum of young black America...I was a "creative" person. My major in journalism didn't go too well...got kicked out of the department...my major in Business landed me out of school for a semester…so when it was time to return, Fashion Merchandising and Design was the only place I felt I could fit in. It was there that I finally felt like I was "college" material. After graduation I worked as a Freelance stylist in NYC, had a grunt job as a personal assistant for an editor of a major women's fashion mag....and met a lot of amazing people. The lifestyle was great but I felt as if a part of myself wasn't being fulfilled…it was an extremely shallow world.
The painting came out of that void. Once I got pregnant with my daughter Saturn, I knew that my life in Fashion was short lived...and sure enough it was...3 months in I was as good as invisible. Painting became my primary gig.
NC: So there wasn't an eureka moment. That space where it occurred to you that you not only have an urge to create, but a voice as well?
MJ: Yeah...my first paintings were very much about exploring that discovery about myself. Being pregnant allowed me, for the first time really, to examine myself as a vessel, tune into the very pure and true essence of creating. So I utilized the pregnancy and the birthing experience as a catalyst to question the very concept of creation.
NC: Speaking of drawing from your experience. You’ve have had an impressive range of experiences that seem to have grown directly or indirectly from your relationship with your art- a student, a teacher, art in movement, art in reflection- do you have a sense of having lived a life so intertwined with creativity and personal (and group) expression?
MJ: I often try to look at my life objectively...and yes, my life is creative. Every aspect of my life is lived as a "work in progress." Constantly in movement, exploration, production, and change. Even my person...I try to look the same for more than a week so I can be recognized…but the first thing a person will say is "I didn't even recognize you…you look so different from the last time I saw you.” I find that comforting and disturbing at the same time...but the muse demands it.
NC: You know my first thought is to talk about the personal nature of your work. But really it is layered with themes that mix past, present and future in a very profound way. Do you agree with this assessment? Is it your purpose to collapse time?
MJ: You know I was a phone physic for a while and very damn good at it. So yes I think I have a very keen ability to look at past, present, and future from a visual standpoint and I know it plays a role in how I create. There are times when I'm working on a piece and things will just flow out of me, that are of my past experiences...that's usually what starts me off. Then the next layer is very current, articulating where I am currently in the process, its about what I've learned or discovered about the past experience...but then there's that moment when I'll be dreaming of the finished product...the images usually come in my sleep...I'll jump up and paint till the sun comes up…and bam!...the future.
I look back at some of my pieces and say "Wow I didn't even know"...but by this point I will have lived through what it was that I produced from that dream.
NC: You have solidified your reputation in the performing arts as well as the visual arts. How, if at all, is your approach to performance art different from your approach to visual art?
MJ: Performance Art is immediate. You have no time to conjour. You have to show up connected, and ready to create. You don't have time to "think" it's all very in the moment. I'll try to cheat and say "ahhh I'm gonna do this.." but once you in front of that blank canvas in front of an audience...it never works out that way. I feel like I'd be cheating my audience to show up with a sketched canvas… that's all too easy. They want to see and I want to give them that urgency. It's very much like making love. You don't contrive making love to someone...who enjoys that?
The process in the studio is very different. You have time, no expectations. You can plan. Rework it over time. Pine over it as long as you want...no one is watching...or participating. You have almost too much time for self examination and critique… No urgency… which is why I have a harder time creating in the studio. Performance Art is demanding… and I like to be ordered around from time to time… the rewards are more bountiful.
NC: How does the fact that college offered you such an important time of discovery and growth affect how you interact with your students?
MJ: On the first day of class I pull out my Clark Atlanta University ID…which they call my throw back!! (laughter) And I tell em' you can't play a player! I've been there and done it…right here in this very department...I'm actually really hard on my students. I have very strict standards, only because I know what it's like, and what will be required of them, as well as, what has been provided to those who they'll be competing against…CAU requires you to be as creative as you can possibly be, and meeting that requirement will help you survive in the world, that's all you have to compete with! We don't have the state of the art anything so your shine has to come from within, it's mandatory and if you can't muster that up and out…go somewhere that will pacify you and provide you with all the perks…but realize you'll all look the same in the very end. Polished and produced...and the only thing that will allow you to stand out in that arena is the creativity in the work...the work always speaks for itself...
NC: Who or what are some of the people, events or ideas that have influenced your work? Does the greater impact come from other artists or from other places in your life?
MJ: I can't lie. My experiences are my influence. The people involved with those experiences...my muses (laughter) so to speak. I build on those experiences by interjecting critical thought…but for the most part...it's the experience...I love Nan Goldin! She has an amazing way of making the "ugly" so beautiful. That's my one of my goals when articulating my story...a lot of it has to do with pain and disappointment...but one of my goals is to present it so beautifully, that you don't even know you are witness to something so painful....I started a series of work during my fellowship in South Africa titled A Beautiful Suffering I'm gonna build more on it this summer...Its about my relationship with Saul Williams...as a response to the book SHE, which is about the demise of our relationship. A Beautiful Suffering will basically tell my side of the story...
NC: Where are you now? What ideas, themes or projects are you dealing with at this moment?
MJ: I am currently examining Love...I am working on a series of "love notes" structured like the kind you use to write in school.... but the content is very adult...I am thinking about how we "love" as young adults and as adults. How we censor ourselves after a certain age to deem ourselves more refined and sophisticated. When really all you want to say is “I really like you…you wanna be my...the love notes also touch on how we absorb pain, and allow that pain to dictate how we interact with others. How we hold someone else accountable for someone else’s "wrong doing." I'm also introducing the "no victims" concept into the work…that at some point we have to become accountable for our actions and realize that there is always a moment of choice. I should also say that I am not just examining pain...I am exploring all aspects of love…pleasure, idealism, fantasy, lust, condition, aloneness, desire, altruism.... Hopefully it'll be cathartic enough for me to actually fall in love...and then the real magic starts...it's almost a test...so a testimony can happen.