Right in the thick of the crowded Old City Market, on a visit to Charleston South Carolina, USA. Just at the moment I knew I could not look at even one more hand crafted bowl, basket, cookie, or bracelet I stepped out of the throng and into the world of John W. Jones.
There are many art booths at the market, but none like this. The sounds of tourists choosing their treasure fell away and I was stepping back into the time period the Southern United States has not quite been able to let go of. The happy smiling faces aside, I found the colors vibrant, the people in the paintings lively, and the overpowering theme of industry and labor dominated the artist’s landscapes and people.
I stood in a beautiful gallery of large oils, acrylics, and watercolors by John W. Jones. They were modestly priced by art standards. Mr Jones has for the last twenty-five years painted for Time Life Books, IBM, Westinghouse, Rubbermaid, NASA, Gadded Space and Flight Center, and the US Postal Service. He creates a version of the Southern United States, whether in his art or his book and traveling exhibition, Confederate Currency: The Color of Money, Images of Slavery in the Confederate and Southern States Currency.
As the United States and I wrestle with how to speak or not speak about the culture and country of racial divides, inequality, and often blatant racism or speak of the good things that have happened in the U.S. to bring about equality, I thought I would share some of these images with you.












A wonderfully interesting post and thanks for sharing the images. Best wishes 🙂
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Oh Thank you. Good to hear from you. All my best.
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they are bright and inspiring images, for the most part happy. almost a relief to know in the midst of the undisputed evils of the institution of slavery there were happy moments and relatively quiet days of work and being together. he chooses some of those moment to immortalize.
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Very compelling images. I was a bit taken aback, however, by all of the smiles on the subjects. I doubt that they had much to smile about. I wonder if the artist is trying to convey something subtle here about the nature of the double standard slaves had to adhere to in order to survive?
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That was my conclusion. That he was walking that edge. Of showing the contradiction.
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Wonderful.. I haven’t been to Charleston since I was much younger (I grew up in Florence) but it is great to hear about the goings on. Love the paintings.
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Oh I adore Charleston. Whether it is the architecture, the gardens, the food, or how nice everyone is….and the Isle of Palms close by…Charleston is just the best.
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One thing that stands out along your line of thinking is the absence of the owners, overseers, from the artwork. These pictures were so beautiful to me, yet depicting such a horrid chapter in United States history. Hesitated in doing this post. So glad I did now as I see by the responses that are coming in that they are striking a cord in others too.
Thank you for stopping by.
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I don’t know whether or not the order of these pictures was thought out or not, but the biggest impact that I take away from this blog is delivered in the final picture. Don’t get me wrong I am a die hard capitalist, but after viewing this sequence of pictures I begin to understand the frustration of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. Portrayed here in this sequence of pictures is a working class (albeit slave labor) that has created untold wealth for the landholder. The first pictures show the workers happy at their labor which can be seen by the smiles on their faces but then in the last picture we see them staring of in the distance at the great wealth the landholder has accumulated at their expense. Do not misconstrue my comment to show that I am for slavery, for there is no excuse for what happened in the past but when you study the disparity that exists today it makes me feel like there is still some slavery going on. Wow, I could make this into a whole blog about my thoughts on the American economic model, and I might just have to do that sometime.
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Like Jack, I wondering why the enslaved are smiling and Mr. Jones attempt to tell a story, similar to the rest of the illustrations.
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Hello: Yes indeed the placement of the photos was very carefully thought out! I just bet that Mr Jone’s depiction of the slaves looking back at a distance to the wealth they had created was indeed his spot on message. I did put it last to show the results of all the work of the previous pictures.
Your contribution to this post was a valuable one. Thank you.
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I have been nominated for the Versatile Bloggers Award and part of the rules for acceptance is that I nominate 15 bloggers and I have chosen you as one. I do hope that you don’t mind!
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So compelling with it’s powerful images.
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The last picture tells it all. Great post!
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Just stopping by because I was missing your blog posts. Hope everything is okay. Take care. x
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All is excellent Kim. I am in the midst of a rather large total focused attention project. Plan on being back to the blogs around the end of May. Can’t wait to get back as I miss being in touch with everyone and have lots to share. Thank you so very much for stopping by and your concern.
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Miss you!
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Glad to hear all is okay!
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