Artist Shirley Woodson: Life captured in bold strokes

Artist Shirley Woodson described how she works: “I listen to blues, I listen to jazz.”

“Does what you’re listening to inspire the painting?” asked correspondent Rita Braver.

“Oh, definitely, definitely. A deeper color, a more brilliant color. That translation, that interpretation is part of what goes on.”

There’s a lot going on in Woodson’s paintings: Bold strokes and vivid colors are hallmarks of her style.

Braver said, “When I saw your work, I thought, this is done by some wild woman. She much be just out there. And then, I met this lovely schoolteacher. What’s going on?”

“Well, I multi-task,” she laughed.

And now, this 85-year-old-multi-tasker’s work is being celebrated in her first one-woman show at her hometown museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts. 

The exhibit, composed of paintings that Woodson made over three decades, is called “Shield of the Nile Reflections,” which she says highlights the river’s importance to civilization.

Describing her 1984 work “Shield of the Nile No. 2,” Woodson said, “I wanted to place these figures in an environment of healing, of restoration, of pleasure — all the things that water represents.”

The paintings display some of Woodson’s recurring themes: water, fish, shells, horses, and human beings, sometimes painted without facial features. “I put the viewer to work,” she said, “to keep them imagining, just to say, ‘Well, why didn’t she put in a face in there?'”

Her work “September Wave” includes a small self-portrait of Woodson alongside her late husband, Edsel Reid, an art collector and curator. The two met after he saw one of her works.

Braver asked, “So, did he want to meet you?”

“Oh, yes, oh, yes. And he bought a painting!”

“The way to a woman’s heart?”

“Absolutely, this woman’s heart!” Woodson laughed.

The couple had two sons. Woodson, who studied art at Wayne State University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, spent 26 years teaching art to both high school and college students.

Braver asked, “Your work was selling. Your work was being acquired by some museums. Why did you keep teaching while you were still seriously painting?”

“Teaching and working as an artist for me was like two-fold; one kind of fed into the other,” she replied. “I just enjoyed seeing people grow. And I was learning through the process as well. I painted at night, I painted almost in every room of the house.”

In fact, she said, her paintings try to replicate the way we all juggle many things in our minds:  “You’re thinking about what happened this morning, you know, you’ve got to pick the kids up, or you remember this, so all of these things are going on.”

Woodson has won numerous local and national awards, yet she believes that recognition has come slowly to her, as well as to other women artists of color.

“Do you think it’s been discrimination, in a way?” asked Braver.  

“Of course.”

“On the one hand, it’s so great that you have a solo exhibition at what is maybe the most prestigious art gallery in Detroit. On the other hand, what took them so long?”

“Well, they’re not the only ones,” Woodson laughed. “It’s about survival.  It’s about keeping those goals that you have in play, and proceeding, moving forward.”

     
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Story produced by Sara Kugel. Editor: George Pozderec.