October - Kennith Humphrey

Kennith currently resides in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the town of his birth. But in his thirty something years, he has lived in New York, St. Louis, Denver, Mobile, and Baton Rouge working along the way as a carpenter, shingler for Sears, electronic technician, tower climber, and landscaper. His journey as an artist began at home in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

"My whole family is very creative," Kennith says. Among the art that hung on the walls of his childhood home was a painting by an uncle, which made the idea of being an artist realistic and attainable. Outside the home, he did not find as much enthusiasm for his dream. He feels he was held back in grammar school because he was much more interested in drawing and painting than the more mundane lessons his teachers had to offer. As he aged, his passion continued for art rather than studies.

Describing himself as a self-taught artist, he found a mentor in his half brother, the late William Tolliver, a successful artist. "He showed me a lot of things about painting."

The subject matter of most of Kennith's oils on canvas and pastel/acrylics on paper are African-American figures involved in the activities of daily life working, loving, playing music, and just living. But the people depicted are not ordinary in appearance. Stylized, sometimes cubist, the way they embody the emotion of their activity elevates them to iconic or mythic proportions. "What I paint depends on my emotions that day."