via The Good Witchez
Saturday, October 18, 2025
Friday, October 17, 2025
Kerry James Marshall
Art Appreciation
Kerry James Marshall was born on October 17, 1955, in Birmingham, Alabama, and moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1963, settling in the Watts neighborhood. Growing up during a period marked by social unrest and the rise of the civil rights and Black Power movements, Marshall developed a strong awareness of representation and history.
His childhood, shaped by both upheaval and artistic discovery, informed his later work. He studied at Los Angeles City College before earning his B.F.A. from Otis Art Institute in 1978. This foundation in both practice and theory laid the groundwork for a career rooted in mastery of medium and narrative complexity.
Marshall’s art centers on Black life, presented in large-scale, richly rendered paintings that employ deep, literal black pigments. His early work, such as A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980), set the tone for a career steeped in narrative, history, and irony.
Peter Schjeldahl’s review of Marshall’s 2016 retrospective Mastry at the Met Breuer emphasized that rather than making a political appeal, the exhibition affirmed the cultural and artistic gains of African Americans. His paintings celebrate everyday experiences—beauty salons, public housing, intimate domesticity—without reducing them to cliché or victimhood. Works like School of Beauty, School of Culture (2012) embody this approach, presenting confident Black women and children in a salon.
Marshall draws influence from both African-American and Western traditions, often positioning himself in dialogue with artists like Romare Bearden and Charles White alongside old masters such as Ingres and Seurat. This deliberate inclusion, described by Schjeldahl as a “show within the show,” highlights Marshall as a conservative aesthete compared to more concept-driven peers like Kara Walker or David Hammons.
Notable works such as Great America (1994) and The Lost Boys series (1993–1995) demonstrate his ability to merge social commentary with technical brilliance. His retrospective underscored a career committed to reframing the Black experience as central to American cultural life. Schjeldahl argued that Marshall’s technical skill and emotional range suggest a new standard in contemporary art—an affirmation that Black presence is not marginal but integral to the story of America.
Bang (1994)
Past Times (1997)
When Frustration Threatens Desire (1990)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980)
School of Beauty, School of Culture (2012)
Great America (1994)
Sources:
Wikipedia
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/07/kerry-james-marshalls-america
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kerry-james-marshall-great-america
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kerry-james-marshall-school-of-beauty-school-of-culture
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kerry-james-marshall-a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-shadow-of-his-former-self
https://figuringhistory.site.seattleartmuseum.org/kerry-james-marshall/
https://art21.org/artist/kerry-james-marshall/
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/marshall-kerry-james/
https://www.otis.edu/alumni/featured-alumni/kerry-james-marshall.html
https://www.nga.gov/artists/35534-kerry-james-marshall
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kerry-James-Marshall
https://www.studiomuseum.org/artists/kerry-james-marshall
https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/kerry-james-marshall-39
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Album Cover: Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Album Cover
Album: Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Released: October 16, 1968
Cover Photographer: David Montgomery
Models: 19 unknown ladies
Sources:
Wikipedia
https://www.discogs.com/master/24535-The-Jimi-Hendrix-Experience-Electric-Ladyland
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Max Frost - Adderall
Music Appreciation
Matthew Alexander "Max" Frost (born 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Austin, Texas. He began playing drums around age four, and guitar by age eight, growing in a musical environment that blended vintage soul/R&B, blues, and hip-hop influences.
Over the years, he has released EPs such as Low High and Intoxication, signed with Atlantic Records, and become known for writing and producing much of his material himself.
One catchy song in his catalog is Adderall, which came out in October 14, 2016 as a single. Adderall uses the metaphor of the drug to explore themes of anxiety, pressure to perform, sleeplessness, and the highs and lows that come with trying to stay "on" in creative and academic life. Frost has said that the song draws on his own experience using Adderall during high school/college, where it helped alleviate procrastination but also led to unrest, imbalance, and what he described as a "worn out" state.
Musically, the song blends pop-structure with indie/hip-hop-tinged production, a driving beat, vocal hooks, and Frost's characteristic merging of vintage tonal textures with modern rhythm. The song builds a tension between urgency (in lyrics and delivery) and moments that feel like crash and withdrawal.
The Adderall music video was directed by Tough Town. It was filmed largely in an ice cream truck driving around the streets of Los Angeles. The visual concept leans into contrast: Frost wanted something that avoided being "too dark" but still captured both sides of what the song is about -- the energy, the heightened state, the crash. The ice cream truck serves as a surreal, perhaps ironic vehicle -- it's cheerful and whimsical, juxtaposed with the song's darker internal reality.
Sources:
Wikipedia
maxfrost.net
https://www.digitaljournal.com/entertainment/interview-max-frost-discusses-new-music-video-for-adderall/article/481303
https://wolfinasuit.com/2016/12/20/music-video-recommendation-adderall-max-frost
https://insertsonghere.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/adderall-max-frost
Sunday, October 12, 2025
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