Neil Kendricks on Strange Fruit

Strange Fruit (Requiem for George Stinney Jr in Color), 2020, mixed media drawing, 25 x 17 in.

[Image description: A portrait of a teenager’s face in black and brownish orange, looking directly at the viewer. Overlaid on top of the left side of the face is another portrait, in profile, in black and gray. The images are drawn on a shooting range target— a black human silhouette with a bullseye on its head and chest. In the upper right corner of the page is printed, “Target to be fired at 50 feet.”]

CW: Violence

Diaries and journals are sacred objects, usually written only for the eyes of the one filling their pages. When I launched into my Strange Fruit drawing series, I made a conscious effort to record my creative process in real time. I was aware that the images created during my participation in Art Produce gallery’s artist-in-residence program marked a new chapter in my creative journey as an interdisciplinary artist moving forward.

The title Strange Fruit pays homage to legendary singer Billie Holiday’s classic song of the same name lamenting the lynching horrors of the American South. My Strange Fruit series suggests that the catastrophic sins of America’s past impact our nation’s present-day pain and reckoning with systemic racism. The dangers of white supremacy, racism, and privilege were made painfully clear when the world watched spellbound the failed insurrection and all-out assault of white, right-wing extremists upon our Capitol on January 6, 2021. The image of a defiant insurgent carrying a Confederate battle flag through the breached walls of the Capitol building is a painful reminder that William Faulkner was right when he wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”  

By making a private journal into a public document, these excerpts offer some context to follow the trajectory of my thoughts creating these drawings during the tumultuous summer of 2020. My ongoing Strange Fruit series and other artworks will continue as our national conversation about race and the fallout of racism and deep inequities are, hopefully, informed by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long but bends towards justice.”

Strange Fruit (Requiem for Breonna Taylor), 2020, mixed media drawing, 25 x 17 in.

[Image description: A portrait of a woman’s face in black and gray, looking directly at the viewer. The image is drawn on a shooting range target.]

July 15, 2020 

Day One for preparing to work at Art Produce gallery’s studio. Working in my sketchbook, these early images must be allowed to explore without the pressure of producing completed works of art. Rather, I will allow my mind’s eye to wander, probe, question, and daydream. Most of all, I will play with the materials. This early phase should be devoted to seeing what happens when pencil and pen meet the blank page.  Gradually, I will get my bearings. The images are alive with energy and vigor in my imagination. They are waiting to find a form on paper. 

Strange Fruit (Prayer for Jacob Blake), 2020, mixed media drawing, 25 x 17 in.

[Image description: A portrait of a man, who has a mustache, in black and gray. The image is drawn on a shooting range target.]

July 19, 2020

Now I will invest quality time in the studio to work in my sketchbook in search of potential forms for my selected content to take shape. I feel compelled to address the specter of racial violence and how unarmed African-American men, women, and children too often find themselves the targets of bigotry and systemic racism. 

Questions abound. How do I successfully compress such an epic, complex subject linked to generations of racially charged animus into a compelling series of drawings? Ones that simultaneously move the viewer’s emotions while making them think critically about the theme? How do you find the right images to speak to how our society is complicit in the rise of hate crimes and bigotry aimed at people of color? These questions have no easy answers. The only way to stay true to these tragic human stories is to see what happens when I use the materials at hand— charcoal, graphite, and pastels— to conjure visual images.

There is a great quote attributed to Picasso: “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” How true, then and now. I have to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I remind myself to be open to experiments and even failure, then learn from the mistakes and push on to see where the work takes me. 

Be fearless. Take risks. Trust my imagination and moral compass to be my guides. Dare to dream and wonder with my eyes open and alert. Throughout this adventure, I hope that the benevolent and loving spirit of my father, Willie James Kendricks, is with me every day. 

My Dad was the only family member who cared about my dreams and encouraged my creativity. He sparked my passion for film, storytelling, and the power of the written word to move mountains and transform the human heart. My earliest memories of drawing are tied to images of my Dad’s unconditional love and kind gestures; he brought stacks of paper home for me to draw on and he enrolled me in a Saturday morning art school when I was in elementary school. The precious memories of his warm smile, laughter, and the quality time that we spent talking and watching movies together are a deep comfort to me during the darkest hours of these uncertain and difficult times.

My Dad was my hero and greatest champion. When Willie James Kendricks passed away on March 7, 2018, my heart was permanently broken. 

If there is a God, I know that my Dad is one with the Creator. Dad, I miss you every day. When I eventually complete this series, the project will be dedicated to your memory.

Strange Fruit (Portrait of Weeping Woman), 2020, mixed media drawing, 25 x 17 in.

[Image description: A portrait of a woman’s face in black and gray. She looks to the right with a sorrowful expression. The image is drawn on a shooting range target.]

July 22, 2020

Today I had a meaningful breakthrough. I opened the roll of shooting-range paper and started drawing portraits on these unorthodox surfaces instead of the small stack of premium art paper nearby. The first study was an experiment; testing the waters as I made marks on the paper. On my second attempt, I felt more confident. My pastel-and-charcoal wielding hand rendered a Black man’s stoic expression floating in the dark silhouette of a human target. The eyes in the drawing break the fourth wall, confronting the viewer. This image challenged me, suggesting the path forward in my series of drawings tackling the human toll of racial violence on unarmed Black people in America. These stark, monochromatic images cauterize the wound that refuses to heal as we seek the cure for our nation’s oldest pandemic— racism. My voice will speak through these images as the larger struggle for the soul of America continues. 

Neil Kendricks is an artist, filmmaker, writer, and educator in San Diego.