UNO documentary: A social commentary on artistic views with John Isiah Walton

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I should not give a whole bio-documentary 80 years of my life, well, I’m only 32, but I would say I started out drawing at the age of five. I was born in 1985, but I like even numbers. I don’t know why I said that, but I had to say it. 

I’m a big fan of having multiple skills that I can do on the canvas or on paper. It’s like having a Swiss Army Knife in your brain. I can do a lot with the canvas if I feel compelled to do a certain topic, like the Zulu works. The Zulu works is a certain format of classical painting styles and a little abstract loose brush strokes on it. The rodeo work  is a compilation of Francis Bacon and Matisse and Van Gogh. The humidity series is me looking at neo-expressionism and Matisse–using color for what it is in my own thought process. 

Zulu [set of paintings] is based off New Orleans culture. When I see black and white face paint, I don’t think about Sambo or Minstrel Shows, even though it’s a part of that history. New Orleans is a bubble. We still say, ‘cold drinks’ for sodas.

For me, putting a black face on a person deals with Mardi Gras. It has to do with culture and festivities more than race, social identity, and racism. When I created it [the Zulu series], I wanted to interconnect and intertwine the corruption of politicians–when they say they’re going to give you something on their campaign trails to get you on board–paralleled with the Zulu float riders. If you want to get a coconut, you have to go up and ask for one. They can’t throw it, so they reach out and hand it to you. They throw the beads at you, and you feel good about it, but then you have it sit there at your house. It’s the same with politicians. You want them to do all this stuff, they get in office, and they might not do what you asked them to do. Plus, Mardi Gras is on Fat Tuesday, and election day is also on Tuesday. To me, they had to go together. I don’t know if it’s a one-night stand or a bad, continuous relationship. 

Zulu did what it needed to do for me as an artist when I created it. But when it came to years later of me showing it after Trump got in office, it exploded peoples’ minds. Half the people who don’t like it [people wearing black face] maybe aren’t from here. We’re in this political climate where everything is touchy. Everything is a little too hot. Everything looks cold, but it’s too hot at the same time. You have to do heat checks on things. The [Zulu] work was never created to be controversial. It’s just based off the culture of where I’m from and where I’ve lived my whole life. 

Keeping in mind the sensitivity of different topics, I never want to be a person that does an Emmett Till painting and has an abstracted face of somebody who is probably someone’s uncle. No matter if he’s a child and looks to the past, it’s not that long ago. I try to stay clear of that. But, politicians and public figures represent us; we put them in office. I try not to go into the route of having controversy. I just create the work that deals with where I’m at in this society and where we are at in the times. I try to be very conscious of what I put out and how I execute it. I try not to do anything for shock. Shock Art is bad. I need to make a button that says, ‘Shock Art is Bad.’

My name is John Isiah Walton. I’m from New Orleans. I’m 32 at this point; if this is 20 years in the future, this is me now. Remember this. 

John Isiah Walton will be the artist in residence at the Joan Mitchell Center for spring of 2018. You can follow John’s work on Instagram and Facebook.