Oil Painting by Rodney Wills, Sycamore, Alabama 1976 – 1980
Oil Painting – Rodney Wills 1976 – 1980
From the archives! This painting is from my second generation of art, as I did this painting somewhere between
the ages of 10 and 14 (1976 – 1980). I started early, hanging out with the elderly on Tuesday and Thursday nights after school and attending art classes at the local recreation center in Sylacauga, Alabama. My mom would drive me to town (8 miles) to participate in these evening art classes.
I started art classes with Pat Holmes at the Craig Smith Community Center at age nine, in fifth grade. I started by learning the basics of drawing one night a week. Once I started oil painting, it was two nights a week, and then I worked up to three nights a week. I was the youngest in these classes, filled with old ladies. We all painted with oil paints.
That following year, 1976, in 6th grade, I would enter my first art show, The Chakalaka Art Show, held at Nobel Park in Sylacauga, Alabama. I sold all my paintings. What did I purchase with this money? I bought our first real BMX bikes for my younger brother and myself! I purchased these bikes through “Big Ronnie,” Rusty Gilbert’s father, the local bike shop owner in Sylacauga, Alabama. I bought a red Webco with the square-tube chromoly form sporting yellow Skyway Tuffwheel-1 mag wheels. I also purchased a black Tracker frame and fork with yellow Skyway Tuff Wheels for my younger brother, Barry Wills! I couldn’t leave him out of the fun!
My father made the wood-layered picture frame you see surrounding this painting. Upon my first show at the Chakalaka Art Show, he saw some more senior artists and took notice of one particular artist’s picture frames. My dad took me to the artist’s booth to check the frames and told me he had an idea. My uncle Ray, my dad’s brother, was a farmer. My dad and I went to my uncle’s farm, where an old barn was not being used and was falling dilapidated. We took some of the wood from the barn and made frames for my next round of paintings.
While I grew up in the poor to middle-class range yet, I had parents who were very supportive of my pursuit of art. I had not heard the term “white trash” until I moved to California, particularly Southern California, for my first job out of college in 1988. Eight artists, including me, worked in this open room for the art department, and conversations were very open. One day, the term “white trash” came up in conversation. I inquired, “What exactly does white trash mean?” “You know, people who live in mobile homes…” I instantly didn’t hear any more of the conversation as I dove deep into thought – they were talking about me! I lived in a mobile home up until I was eleven years old! Yet, my parents support my desire to pursue art.
Once I find some of that old work, I will elaborate more on my “first generation” of art.
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1991 – My first two computer-designed T-shirts – Rodney Wills