For the latest exhibit at Portfolio Gallery (which opens Saturday, Sept. 27) entitled Black Male, Hated and Hunted: Still I Rise, St. Louis native William Burton Jr. presents his personal illustrations of life, faith, struggle and overcoming.
Burton’s work ranges from recreations of National Geographic photographs to musical tribute murals to creations with biblical references to personal meditations.
While a few traditional oil paintings are scattered in Burton’s body of work, the interesting way he captures his interpretation of “the struggle” is a work of art in itself. He uses pyrography – the technique of burning images into wood. This element of the show is called “Burnt Offerings.” The thousands of intricate lines and scorched crevices that come together to create each piece are as compelling as the stories he chooses to tell.
After images are burned into the wood, he uses colors to bring out accents, like eyeballs, teeth or water. The water in “Surrendering the Spirit” appears to drip off of the painting as the back of a black man with his head down is partially submerged.
“Most of the time when you see a black man with his head down like that, he is going to jail,” Burton said. “But he’s actually surrendering pride and overcoming pride and submitting himself to the power – surrendering his spirit to righteousness.”
While Burton often employs symbolism and double entendre, his work couldn’t be any further from abstract. He uses his impressive drawing ability to create – on wood – keen images of individuals and their emotions, sometimes without even portraying a face.
“Virtue of Patience” includes only weathered hands and legs crossed to suggest anticipation. Burton says the image is of an ex-slave waiting for his just due.
In “Salvation of the Saints,” which Burton says was inspired by Revelations 6:9, the image simply is of hands and blood. A group of smaller hands reaches towards a larger hand that descends from beyond the sky.
“These are those people who have suffered and died,” Burton said. “They are reaching from beyond the blood and holding on to the hand of salvation.”
But the piece that Burton is obviously most excited about – it even serves as namesake of his exhibit – is “Black Male, Hated & Hunted: Still I Rise.”
“It depicts the atrocities committed on black men in America, from slavery to lynching to brutalities to neglect, and it is showing that amidst the calamities that we still have the ability to rise above,” Burton said.
This “burnt offering” is a collage of experiences of blacks in America, from slavery to civil rights. From them, a black man with angel wings is ascending to the sky.
“I wanted black men to understand that we don’t have to be subservient to certain conditions,” Burton said.
“I wanted children to understand our legacy and what we’ve been through so that they understand ‘I don’t have to kill my brother, we’ve been through enough.’”
Black Male, Hated & Hunted: Still I Rise opens Saturday, September 27, with a reception from 1-4 p.m. at Portfolio Gallery and Educational Center, 3514 Delmar, and runs through October 31. For more information, call (314) 533-3323.
