'Strokes of Electricity: The Artworks of Woody Guthrie' on display at the Kimura Gallery through Feb. 6, 2015
by Michelle Saport |
This Machine Kills Fascists, photo credit:
Lester Balog Courtesy of Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.
Exhibit: "Strokes of Electricity: The Artworks of Woody Guthrie" Location: Kimura Gallery (Fine Arts Building, Second Floor) Show dates: Jan. 16-Feb. 6 Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 1-3 p.m.
Woody Guthrie film screening: "Man in the Sand" Friday, Jan. 30, 1 p.m. Fine Arts Building, Room 117
"Dream" by Woody Guthrie. Ink artwork. Bound For Glory illustrations collection.
"This land is your land, this land is my land, From California to the New York Island, This land was made for you and me..." -Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born July 14, 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma. Describing the small frontier town in Okfuskee County, Woody writes:
"Okemah was one of the singingest, square dancingest, drinkingest, yellingest, preachingest, walkingest, talkingest, laughingest, cryingest, shootingest, fist fightingest, bleedingest, gamblingest, gun, club and razor carryingest of our ranch towns and farm towns, because it blossomed out into one of our first Oil Boom Town." -Bound For Glory (Woody Guthrie's 1943 autobiography)
Woody was the third child born to Charlie and Nora Belle Guthrie. His father was a cowboy, land speculator and local politician. Slightly built, with an extremely full and curly head of hair, Woody was both a precocious and unconventional boy from the start. A keen observe of the world around him, Woody experienced the first in what would be a tragic series of personal losses during his early years in Oklahoma. The death of his sister Clara would haunt him throughout his life. This was followed by his family's financial ruin and the institutionalization of his mother. The early devastation of Woody's family and home caused him to form a uniquely wry and rambling outlook on life.
In "Strokes of Electricity," an exhibition of selected visual works by the renowned American folk musician and activist, this wry and rambling outlook is on full view.
Learn more about Woody here and check out a preview of the exhibit here. For the full experience, come visit the show at the UAA Kimura Gallery now through Feb. 6.
"'Strokes of Electricity: The Artworks of Woody Guthrie' on display at the Kimura Gallery
through Feb. 6, 2015" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.