This piece depicts Preston Jackson bringing Richard Pryor “to life” in his studio in Peoria. This piece was painted from a series of photos that I took in his studio in February  of 2013. Watching Preston work, with "freeing" music filling the space, is mesmerizing. He calls it freeing because it lets your mind be free and expressive. Be it classical, jazz or the blues, or his own recordings of himself, he works with the music, molding the clay with his bare hands, then using the knife, he scrapes texture onto the surface or removes sections not needed to bring out the figure residing inside.  This painting took on a life of it’s own as I was creating it. Besides the movement of the hands, can you see all 3 profiles of Preston?

This painting is one of the winners in the ArtPop Peoria contest. It is currently located on a billboard in Downtown Peoria.