Instructions: Listen to the audio below then take the comprehension quiz that follows.
The Art of the Islands
What inspires Gullah artist Jonathan Green?
(1) If you have ever seen the art of Jonathan Green, it is not likely that you will soon forget it. His paintings are bold and colorful, lively and cheerful. Green depicts a way of life that is rapidly disappearing. It is a way of life that he remembers with fondness from his childhood in the South Carolina Sea Islands.
(2) Jonathan Green was born in 1955 in Gardens Corner, South Carolina, a region of the state known as the Low Country. The second of seven children, Green was raised by his maternal grandmother, Eloise Stewart Johnson. As he grew up, he was immersed in Gullah culture––a culture that placed great value on tradition, family, and community. Although Green had to travel to other parts of the world before he could fully appreciate his rich heritage, the basic elements of his culture eventually found their way into his unique form of artistic expression.
Although Green had to travel to other parts of the world before he could fully appreciate his rich heritage, the basic elements of his culture eventually found their way into his unique form of artistic expression.
(3) After Green graduated from high school, he joined the military. It seemed like a good opportunity for him to see the world and to receive an education. When he completed his military service, Green attended the Art Institute of Chicago. While he was in school, he worked part-time as a security guard at an art museum. This allowed him to study the work of the masters. He imitated their work at first, learning what made them so well respected. Then, Green found his own style and direction and began painting South Carolina’s Gullah Islands, the world he knew best.
(4) Jonathan Green’s artwork is filled with everyday images of Gullah life as he remembered it growing up. His paintings show people hanging laundry out to dry, picking oysters, telling stories, and attending weddings and funerals. Water is found in many of his paintings because it plays an important role in the lives of people who live along the coast and on the islands.
(5) Human beings are also found in nearly all of Green’s work, indicating the importance of family and community to the culture. The faces of the people in his paintings are usually without features. This can be interpreted as Green’s way of showing how the everyday lives and experiences of people are universal.
(6) The Gullah way of life is changing as children grow up and move away to larger towns and cities. The Gullah dialect is disappearing with the older generations. Even the landscape of the islands is changing, as condominiums, malls, and fast-food restaurants begin to take over. Jonathan Green knows that his artwork cannot change what is happening to the area where he grew up. But his paintings can raise awareness of what is in danger of being lost and preserve the memories of a rich and colorful way of life.
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