ART FOR THE SOUL:

SOMETHING OF OUR OWN

By Marjorie J. Hurst

Rosemary “Tracy” Woods is a hard woman to catch up with because she is busy, busy, busy and active, active, active. I've always known that I needed to visit Tracy's art gallery, Art For The Soul, that she and partner Stella Butler opened at the Classical Condominiums in 1999, and I kept planning to do so, but somehow never made it until this past Christmas when I was determined to buy a piece of original art by a Black artist as a gift for my husband. So I went to the Classical Condominium Holiday Open House just for the purpose of visiting the Art Gallery and was I happy I finally did.

Even though, through the years, Rick and I had acquired a few original paintings from Jamaica and Africa, along with a couple of signed and numbered pieces of American artists, we had not concentrated our attention on purposefully acquiring original Black art and, truthfully, my study of art has never progressed much beyond what I learned as a student at Howard University in my required art history classes on the famous masters--Renoir, Picasso, Cézanne, Michelangelo and the boys--and my study of classic Greek and Roman style architecture, both of which did come in handy last year when we were in Italy.

But now I was ready to be re-educated and Tracy was just the person for the job. The only drawback is that she knows so much that it is hard to keep up with her. She ticks off the names of and facts about local Black artists and nationally known ones so fast that I start to feel like a schoolgirl who missed learning her A, B, Cs. It's as if I'm supposed to know them all and I finally have to say, "Tracy, please slow down so I can catch up with you." And she laughs and gives me her endearing smile and we start all over at the beginning.

And the beginning of this love of all types of art began for Rosemary Tracy Woods in Wilmington, North Carolina where she was surrounded by relatives who always had beautiful art and collectibles in their homes and a cousin who was a photographer. It was then further developed in Philadelphia where, to avoid doing chores, she would tell her Nana that she was at the art museum and the library. And finally, her love of art was cemented when, according to Tracy, one day as she sat on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, "one of the most beautiful African American women she had ever seen went in." She happened to be the niece of Henry Tanner who is famous for "The Banjo Lesson." Tracy went in, too, and as Tanner's niece took her around his exhibit, she says, "It was the first time that I saw African-American subject matter that just floored me." After that, the curator would see her hanging around and took her under his wing.

Tracy's mostly self-taught art education continued as she traveled with her brother, Harold Melvin of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, and she visited museums and art galleries in whatever city she found herself. She was able to study with Diedre Bibbey, who she describes as a mentor and someone she has always looked up to as one of the few African American curators. And she also credits Jonathan Bruce for teaching her so much about putting pieces together for exhibitions.

Tracy points out that racism also permeated the arts and prevented many older Black artists from getting the recognition they deserved. They did not get the opportunity to exhibit in many "uptown" art galleries and could not sell their paintings for what European artists commanded for their work. Oftentimes, Black artists were more successful when they painted subject matter that could not readily be linked to their race.

Now that is slowly changing due to people like Maya Angelou, Bill Cosby and Grant Hill, who are buying African American art and displaying it and are allowing their personal collections to be exhibited across the country as Grant Hill did recently at the Basketball Hall of Fame. Being able to see the works of Romare Bearden, John Thomas Biggers and others and feel proud of them is helping to raise the consciousness, not only of White people, who more and more are buying the works of African Americans, but also of Black people who, like myself, want to hang some of that art in our homes.

Tracy's passion for art extends to all art forms. She describes herself as an environmental artist and one of her many goals is to get a statute erected in Mason Square as a tribute to Primus Mason to commemorate all that he did for Springfield. She also is not shy about asking why our new schools, community centers and courthouses, for the most part, do not display works of minority artists.

And this article is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Rosemary Tracy Woods and Art For The Soul Art Gallery. We hope to persuade her to share some of her considerable knowledge with Point of View readers in the near future. I am happy to say that because of Tracy, we are now proud owners of a signed and numbered Dolores Howard artist's copy of "Endearment," painted on the first anniversary of her son's marriage.

Join me in regularly visiting Art for the Soul Art Gallery so that we can acquire "something of our own." Located at the Classical Condominiums, Ground Floor, 235 State Street, Springfield, MA, the gallery is open on Thursdays and Fridays from 6:00-8:00 p.m, Saturdays from 11:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m. and Sundays by appointment only and Tracy can be reached at 413-788-3903 or 413-734-5592.