Sam Mackey: "Grandpa Speaks"
6 AGENDA February 1996
Sam Mackey: "Grandpa Speaks"
By Arwulf Arwulf
The faces are beaming or scowling, ear-to-ear, lots of teeth. Bodies rubbery and swaying, shimmying or hovering smack in front of you, staring directly into you. Most of these creatures seem to be female. There are almost always breasts and often a vulva breathing or talking or maybe even singing at the bottom of the torso.
Some of us are reminded of Sheela-Na-Gig, ancient protection and birthing goddess, often found over church doorways in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Sheela-Na-Giggrins, squats and seems ready to deliver herself of child or menses. No pale saints gazing heavenward in those doorways. Nor do these ladles drawn in crayon cop any wanna-be sanctified poses. They've got their own sanctity happening. Some have legs apart, blood between. Signs of life.
We are In the presence of the drawings of Grandpa Sam Mackey. born near St. Louis, Missouri in 1897, and resident of Detroit since 1918. Grandpa left his body In June of 1992, but can be met In person if you visit his drawings which are on display at Galerie Jacques through the end of February. Sam Is very much alive there, ready to meet you through the faces of the people he drew.
Friday and Saturday January 12th & 13th there was a very well-attended opening In memory of Grandpa, with Detroit poets Sharon Smith-Knight and Ron Allen heating it up on the first night. Jacques tells me his place was Jammed with good people. My hamster-on-a-wheel schedule kept me away until Saturday night, when the Galerie was cozily packed with more of those good people. They had come not to be seen, not to play any dopey games with each other, but to be for awhile In a space dedicated to sincerity and honest expression.
Tyree Guyton, grandson of the artist, stood humble and sweet as he told us about Grandpa, his life and artworks. He asked for some of Thelonious Monk's music for background, and I shall never forget the way his voice moved alongside the Jazz. Many times he stopped and gave the floor to Monk as if to finish the idea. These are some of the things he shared with us:
"Grandpa was a professional house painter. He gave me my first paint brush when I was nine. It was magic. Fireworks went off In my head. My hand felt like it was on fire. I never forgot that. Later, he told me to go to art school and paint. I went to art school for six years. But goin' to school doesn't make it happen. It's got to happen inside." His real instruction ended up taking place In Grandpa's house at 3658 Heidelberg St. in Detroit.
After his wife died, Grandpa was feeling lonely. One day, In 1986, Tyree gave him a sheet of paper and asked him to draw something. The results were so amazing that he brought In more paper with lots of crayons and pens. Grandpa became a full-time visual artist, seated at the kitchen table, drawing for hours on end. He had many visitors, "lots and lots of women" (we see them depicted In the drawings), and it seems he was sexually active right up until his very last days. Grandpa "loved to party."
"Grandpa inspired me, gave me life, gave me hope. His work, those pieces, Is what he wanted to say. Grandpa Is why I'm here. He gave me this magic. And when he was 88 years of age I gave him back what he gave me when I was nine. Lots of times we would drive around the city, collecting junk. lt was fascinating; I wanted to play with it."
And play with it they did. Today the Detroit neighborhood Is internationally famous as The Heidelberg Project, where entire houses have been covered with found objects and lots of paint. Polka dots have appeared on the houses, sidewalks, even tree trunks. Hundreds of shoes line the pavement. Purses hang from trees. Grandpa was the force behind all of it.
Sam Mackey loved Thelonious Monk, and played piano In a style not unlike Monk's. "Straight No Chaser" was among his favorites, and the title is seriously appropriate for the art he has left for us to get with. Reality up front with no euphemisms. Worldliness, maturity, innocence, rambunctious ease.
Coleman Young had the Heidelberg Project bulldozed In 1991, giving the artists almost no warning. It's interesting to consider how the government allowed a city to deteriorate into a wasteland, and then took pains to brutally counteract such creative attempts to revitalize one of the most trodden parts of the city. Grandpa, who'd moved into the neighborhood In 1947, was not to be stopped. "Plan B: Let's polka dot the house! You can't let the city get away with this!"
During his final illness, Sam started drawing on the hospital walls. On being asked about it he said "I didn't do it." When he was told that other patients had seen him doing it, Grandpa replied: "I did not sign my name." The doctor smiled and said "Just leave it up."
One day a ten-foot glowing angel came to Tyree and said "everything's gonna be all right." Three days later Grandpa made the transition. Once Grandpa had said "If I die before you, polyurethane me and put me on a house." This didn't happen. Tyree did think about polka-dotting the old man's body, and ended up polka-dotting the casket. We were shown a photograph of the family in mourning clothes (Tyree kneeling in an impressive suit) clustered around a coffin with large colorful dots painted all over it.
As for the Heidelberg Project, lfs back and as happening as ever. Tyree says he saw it, they tore it down, he saw it again. "If they tore It down again I'd do It again and again. 111 do the whole city next time. The government's gonna have to listen to the artists." With the help of tireless spokeswoman and activist Jennene Whitfield, the future of the Project is quite promising. Meanwhile, Grandpa Sam Mackey's drawlngs are on display at Galerie Jacques In Ann Arbor, at a gallery in Paris as part of an eight-month International Art Brut exhlbit, and, with some of Jacques Karamanouklan's own works in a group exhibit in Swltzerland. I could end by saylng "Join The International Art Brut Conspiracy," but lnstead I leave you with Jacques' own statement about Grandpa Sam Mackey's artworks: "It is the purest gesture of a mature man who doesn't have anything to lose and who expresses himself in the most total freedom." You can see Sam Mackey's art through the month ofFeb. at Galerie Jacques, 665-9889.