The Artist in Society: Talking with Hershell West
This is a 50-minute interview with a muralist, painter, art teacher and art promoter named Hershell West who Video Librarian refers to as a "community hero." We open with West talking about his childh…
The Artist in Society: Talking with Hershell West
This is a 50-minute interview with a muralist, painter, art teacher and art promoter named Hershell West who Video Librarian refers to as a "community hero." We open with West talking about his childhood as a black child growing up in the segregated South who is interested in art, something his family knows nothing about. He explains his initial interest as deriving from needing to describe the physical work to his blind grandmother, and moves on to talk about his childhood fascination with light falling through the trees and other visual stimuli. He then explains that two things in his childhood encouraged him to pursue art: a crush on a young girl in grammar school (she liked drawings) and a teacher who wrote on his report card to encourage him to pursue art. The documentary then talks about his work as an art teacher, especially with at-risk youth. We see some of the banners he directed the youth to create, and watch re-creations of interactions with two of his favorite students. In one, we see how he dealt with a disruptive student to gain his cooperation. In the other, we see his attachment to a student with serious family problems, and his frustration at not being able to provide him help beyond introducing him to art and being a supportive adult in his life. From there, we move on to West's years pursuing first a BA in Fine Arts, and then an MA from the University of South Florida in Tampa. We discover how as an intern, he investigated and put into practice ways of bringing the university and community together through art, and how he devoted time to learning how he would be able to make a living as a practicing artist once he completed his studies. He explains that he was chosen to paint the first public art mural commissioned by the city of Tampa, and began to launch himself as a muralist. We also learn that his family did not understand his desire to make a career of art, and how his mother was dismayed to learn that after earning a BA, he was going on to graduate school. From there, as we watch West enter his art studio, he tells us how he came from Florida to California and the San Francisco Bay Area, in part to learn from leading muralist John Wehrle. West tells us how he met Wehrle, and how he came to work with him as chief assistant on many of the public art murals that Wehrle created on freeway underpasses. We watch them paint several of these as West - and Wehrle - talk. This brings us to murals that West did as private commissions. Two of those who commissioned him in on-camera interview describe the process and their delight with having their dreams made concrete. After they speak, West tells us about murals he did with youth and other community members on busy streets in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Richmond. This leads us into his role in helping create and direct the annual exhibit The Art of Living Black (TAOLB) which is presented by the Richmond Art Center. And finally, we return to the studio where West talks about his paintings, and concludes with his return to painting nature and birds, explaining that he is still tracing the shadows that trees make on the ground, just like he did as a boy.
The Artist in Society: Talking with Hershell West
Documentary
Film Details
This is a 50-minute interview with a muralist, painter, art teacher and art promoter named Hershell West who Video Librarian refers to as a "community hero." We open with West talking about his childhood as a black child growing up in the segregated South who is interested in art, something his family knows nothing about. He explains his initial interest as deriving from needing to describe the physical work to his blind grandmother, and moves on to talk about his childhood fascination with light falling through the trees and other visual stimuli. He then explains that two things in his childhood encouraged him to pursue art: a crush on a young girl in grammar school (she liked drawings) and a teacher who wrote on his report card to encourage him to pursue art.
The documentary then talks about his work as an art teacher, especially with at-risk youth. We see some of the banners he directed the youth to create, and watch re-creations of interactions with two of his favorite students. In one, we see how he dealt with a disruptive student to gain his cooperation.
In the other, we see his attachment to a student with serious family problems, and his frustration at not being able to provide him help beyond introducing him to art and being a supportive adult in his life. From there, we move on to West's years pursuing first a BA in Fine Arts, and then an MA from the University of South Florida in Tampa. We discover how as an intern, he investigated and put into practice ways of bringing the university and community together through art, and how he devoted time to learning how he would be able to make a living as a practicing artist once he completed his studies.
He explains that he was chosen to paint the first public art mural commissioned by the city of Tampa, and began to launch himself as a muralist. We also learn that his family did not understand his desire to make a career of art, and how his mother was dismayed to learn that after earning a BA, he was going on to graduate school. From there, as we watch West enter his art studio, he tells us how he came from Florida to California and the San Francisco Bay Area, in part to learn from leading muralist John Wehrle.
West tells us how he met Wehrle, and how he came to work with him as chief assistant on many of the public art murals that Wehrle created on freeway underpasses. We watch them paint several of these as West - and Wehrle - talk. This brings us to murals that West did as private commissions.
Two of those who commissioned him in on-camera interview describe the process and their delight with having their dreams made concrete. After they speak, West tells us about murals he did with youth and other community members on busy streets in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Richmond. This leads us into his role in helping create and direct the annual exhibit The Art of Living Black (TAOLB) which is presented by the Richmond Art Center.
And finally, we return to the studio where West talks about his paintings, and concludes with his return to painting nature and birds, explaining that he is still tracing the shadows that trees make on the ground, just like he did as a boy..