Saturnalian

Sun Ra
14 x 11 inches, oil on canvas, 2020

Sun Ra was born in Birmingham, AL as Herman Poole Blount in 1914 but he never liked to be reminded of that fact; "That is his-story, my story is my-stery." He claimed to be from Saturn but returned to Birmingham when his health was failing and died there in 1993. Searching the web for an image to paint I came across an interesting story by Mike Walsh called Stranger from Outer Space. I settled for the illustration Walsh used, and the article directed me to the movie Space is the Place that I diligently watched, the whole extended version of it. He's out there, for sure. The film features the Arkestra with singer June Tyson. The title track, which appears during the end credits, made sure that Sun Ra reappears in the top 100 2020. The entry for 2019, illustrated here, is from a video on YouTube of a concert in Berlin in 1983. The track is called Happy Birthday/Stars that Shine Darkly and the Arkestra features Archie Shepp on tenor. I can't resist to yet again quote Sun Ra, again from Walsh's article: In tomorrow's world, men will not need artificial instruments such as jets and space ships. In the world of tomorrow, the new man will 'think' the place he wants to go, then his mind will take him there. -- Sun Ra, 1956