Today we’d like to introduce you to Rowland Salley.
Rowland, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I can’t really recall a time when I did not have a pencil or some kind of drawing tool in my hand so maybe I was born to make pictures or something you know? before I was even five…people used to have to step over me on the kitchen floor at family gatherings…I’d be down there drawing. anyway…. that was a long time ago and though I migrated into a career as bass player with Chris isaak&silvertone for the last 34 years…drawing and painting/color and form have always been a major part of my frame of reference. I’m still prone to setting up to paint just about anywhere.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I like to paint people who are doing what they do to get along. people at work are the most interesting to me because it’s too easy to forget that everything surrounding us which we lay our eyes upon is all the product of a lot of hard work. to me…that esoteric reality is very “paintable” …while the actual colors and forms that can be found in and around working folks is esthetically inspiring. often…. when the band has been on tour for a long time…I will unwind from the rigors of the road by making a painting on days off between gigs. it’s a little like spiritual crop rotation you know. watercolor has turned out to be my main approach to painting because it is so portable and dries as soon as it’s done. I always paint outside with my subject directly in front of me. a couple of notable things: one…you could be standing at your easel on the roadside working away…dressed in just a gunny sack with Starbucks cups for shoes…. but if you’re wearing a tie…only the bravest of brave onlookers will step up to you and start a time-consuming conversation. (those can be quite scalding if you’re in the middle of something like a quickly drying graded wash for your sky). the other: many artists I talk to say that they wish they could paint more but they just can’t cut the time loose from “work”. it would be wonderful to hear something like just the opposite more often.
Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
It isn’t the local…national…or international events that worry me as much as the reporting of those events. I have sometimes noticed maximum outright discrepancies between the event and the reporting of it. we begin to feel that something is amiss…. but then we soon move on…. distracted even from that. eventually certain sensibilities fall to the fragmented chain of messages that we are subjected to by many forms of mass media. what can we call/how do we use…a report that falls short of the truth?.
If anyone in time has ever been struck profoundly by a song or piece of music…. a painting…a book…or any sort of creative invention…even a story that someone has told them….an artist has thereby played his role. critical to this is that both the making of the piece of art by the artist…and the understanding of it by the beholder…. require a certain serious level of concentration…attention and understanding. amidst the distractions of fake news and three second sound bites…. those things are worth protecting at all cost.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I can be found on Facebook and from there people can go to my website for further information at:
www.rowlandsalley.com
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rowlandsalley.com
- Email: telechrome@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rowland-Salley-636126673154597/
Image Credit:
Rowland Salley
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