Jerdie Mae by Qrcky

Jerdie Mae, 2021, Acrylic on Canvas, 30×40 inches, Model: My Grandmother

Art is not a luxury, it is a necessity.  It documents history – it helps educate people and store knowledge for generations to come. Generations of people that don’t see themselves in art lose their history. My art allows me to develop an identity and be able to say, This is my story, this is what I know.

Born in southern Virginia during the seventies to a family where art was not practiced or encouraged, Qrcky was drawn instinctively to Chuck Jones’ cartoons, Norman Rockwell’s c, and Bob Ross’ PBS show. Qrcky would try to imitate their art while watching cartoons. Twenty years later and entirely desolated by a bad marriage and subsequent relationships, Qrcky began to paint, reverting to the kinds of self-expression he felt closest to as a child. Finding freedom in his art, Qrcky discovered his voice by exiling himself away from friends and family. He discovered that he could focus and paint at his strongest while feeling content and whole under emotional distress and displacement.