24″ X 30″ Acrylic Painting on Canvas of the late great James Marshall Hendrix
Through the process of growing up as a music lover and eventually morphing into a practitioner of music and the fine arts, there have been luminaries who have served as a source of inspiration. Although the chief inspiration for my artistic exploits was and remains Michelangelo Buonarroti, I have also drawn a ton of inspiration from musicians, fighters, and thinkers past and present. These luminaries have inspired me and many others with their ingenuity, artistry, courage, passion, and fearless individuality. Jimi Hendrix is one such source of inspiration.
Full disclosure here… I’m about as big a fan of Jimi Hendrix as you’ll find anywhere so my objectivity on his life and works as a man and musician might be slightly warped. Jimi Hendrix is probably the biggest single reason why I play guitar. His style of guitar playing is readily recognizable in my guitar playing because I spent a ton of time copying and learning from the great man. I unfortunately never got the chance to see him in concert because he died a long time before I was born. He was really the first guitar player to develop the technique of playing within chords, and was also responsible for popularizing double stops… two techniques that are now commonplace in every serious guitar player’s arsenal. He’s been an inspiration to myself and many others, making this particular piece an absolute joy to create. This is the first piece of work in season 1 of the “Iconic AF” series. It sold to a collector here in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 2018 Millbrae Art and Wine festival. You can see snapshots of works in progress from this series on the instagram page
Without Wax
Chuba Oyolu Ph.D.
