Art student makes bold statements

 Art student makes bold statements

By Alex McAdams for The Daily Mississippian
February 29, 2008

Media Credit: Kyle Kruse.

The combination of out-of-date advertisements and African-American stereotypes are usually too taboo to be emblazoned in American culture today, but Ole Miss student Vitus Shell isn’t afraid to make a bold statement.

Shell, who is in the process of earning a master of fine arts degree from the University of Mississippi art department, has devoted his studio graduate work to African-American ethnocentric culture by using and recreating images of sharecroppers of the Reconstruction Era, portraits of contemporary inner-city thug life and works along other themes.

The progression from past to present African-American lifestyles was intentional, Shell said.

“In my first body of work, I would search through archives and find pictures of sharecroppers (to use),” the 28-year-old artist said. “I felt they might have been under-appreciated at that time. (My intent) was to work backwards, then work forward by researching my past.”

Through these antiquated advertisements, the past meets present in Shell’s latest body of work, which consists of modernity that college students can relate to first hand: hip-hop music.The thematic element of past versus present is self-evident in Shell’s works, as his use of graphic images, icons and old advertisements as background images in his works are especially indicative of the stereotypical ramshackle house, where newspapers were pasted to walls in lieu of wallpaper.

But to Shell, there isn’t much difference between the sharecroppers of the 1930s and the hip-hop artists of the modern day.

“Times have changed, language has changed, but people aren’t doing anything different,” he said.

Shell said he believes there is a certain connection between African tribes and gang life, especially when it comes to musical inspiration – even though he feels that gangs use their collective energy “in the wrong direction,” he said.

“I use music to inspire me and give me a lot of energy,” said the dread-locked Shell, who was donning paint-splattered shorts and rolled-down Timberland boots at the time of the screening,

Along with the urban culture of hip-hop comes the graffiti sub-genre that Shell incorporates into his work by using cutouts and stencils to “make something beautiful and make my work reflect me,” he said.

Shell’s main focal point is playing around with stereotypes, and with pieces called “No More Afro Wigs” and “Damaged,” it’s not difficult to figure out to which generalizations he refers.

One piece in particular, with a black woman sporting an afro coif, speaks volumes – and not just because the words “dull,” “dry” and “damaged” slither around the piece’s heroine.

The inspiration for this painting, like many other works in Shell’s repertoire, was found in an advertisement in a magazine geared toward black women not unlike the Jet or Essence publications found on most news shelves. Such negative connotations for kinky hair are not unusual, Shell said.

“All hair is good hair,” the artist said of what he thinks is an obvious self-esteem issue that U.S. black culture possesses as a whole.

Thus far in Shell’s career, his focus is mainly on his African-American friends, family and fellow students, but he stressed the importance of not including or excluding people.

“My work isn’t just for black folks,” he said. “I try to include everybody into my work. It’s about educating someone who normally wouldn’t meet me and having a diverse idea of who black folks are.”

With that in mind, Shell has continued to implement his inspiration of African-American hardships and stereotypes by using Hurricane Katrina’s maelstrom of destruction through Louisiana and Mississippi gulf coasts – the city of New Orleans in particular – to express the pathos of depression, loss and heartache the residents have felt but no words could begin to articulate, he said.

Shell’s use of multimedia, printmaking and painting has not gone unnoticed by others. A university art instructor nominated him for the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s 2007 Grant, a program formed in 1997 with the intent to help graduate students become professional artists.

Although he has received the grant and been acclaimed by several art instructors at Ole Miss, Shell still remains meek, conceivably due to his humble and impoverished beginnings in Monroe, La.

“(Art) kept me out of trouble,” he said. “I try to show kids that you don’t have to be a weirdo to be an artist. I just try to be a regular dude.”