Paintings by Sam Robinson
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Blind Willie Johnson The
music of a destitute blind man who sang and played his guitar on street
corners for a living is now traveling to the stars. The 1927 recording of
“Dark was the Night” by Blind Willie Johnson and music by Bach, Beethoven,
Mozart and Stravinsky is aboard the Voyager spacecrafts. Johnson was a deeply
religious man who was a virtuoso slide guitar player and had a unique singing
voice. He was blinded at age 7 when his stepmother while fighting with his
father threw lye water in his face. He recorded 30 songs from 1927 to 1931.
He was so poor when he died that he was sleeping wrapped in newspaper in his
burnt out house. It is almost incomprehensible
that a man who is all but forgotten would have one of his songs chosen to
represent the music of mankind. Perhaps in a billion years a space traveling
race will discover one of the Voyagers and listen to the sounds and music of
a planet that may no longer exist. And, once again the beautiful music of
Blind Willie Johnson will be heard. In my painting I have
tried to pay tribute to the music and memory of one man while also
contemplating the place of our world and mankind in the cosmos. Both Voyagers
have sent back many beautiful photographs of neighboring planets as they have
journeyed through our solar system. However, the most thought provoking
picture is that of planet earth. The blue dot in the
lower right corner of the painting represents our world as seen from 4
billion miles away. Upon Carl Sagan's urging on Feb. 14, 1990, Voyager 1
turned its camera around for one last look at our home planet. Sagan wrote in
his 1994 book A Pale Blue Dot: “Look again at that
dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone
you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived
out their lives.” “Our planet is a lonely
speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.” “There is perhaps no
better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image
of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more
kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the
only home we've ever known.” Listening to the music
and reading about the life of Blind Willie Johnson continues to be deeply
moving to me. I wanted to include the Voyager spacecraft and the small dot
that is our home in the universe. I hope my art will someday tell people that
I too was in this world and left something worthwhile behind. Art transcends the
artist’s disability, economic status, gender, race and even planet of birth.
While it surely must feel good to create great art, it likely feels even
better to graciously share that art with others. However we treat people
during our time in this world forever shapes how we are remembered. Reproduction rights remain with the artist. |