Today we’d like to introduce you to John-Michael Byrd.
Hi John-Michael, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in South Louisiana at a crossroads of crafts, folk traditions, religion, red clay, and the philosophies of the otherworldly. My family of creative people always encouraged me to explore my inner maker’s world from a very early age. There hasn’t ever been a time when I didn’t create. I learned to paint in middle school and have been doing it consistently.
I studied painting at LSU and then went on to expand my curiosity in interdisciplinary arts at UMass-Amherst for grad school. I worked in every aspect of the art world: education, galleries, nonprofits, and museums, for a long time, and it all feeds into what I do in my studio. I’ve studied traditional crafts, folk art, religions, and esoterica and am a perpetual information sponge.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Most roads are never smooth, and I think of my traveling paralleling the deep traveling within we all must do in life. Like the fool’s journey in the tarot, you meet whom you need to meet in all stages (troublesome and triumphant) that give you not what you want but what you need.
I’ve had failures and not been accepted to schools, exhibitions, or fellowships, which is always hard to digest. However, the path of life is really about relationships, and in the bumps and cracks, I met some of my lifelong friends who feed my work and intellectual life.
To quote another whacky Southern voice, Flannery O’Connor (from Wiseblood), “Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. Where is there a place for you to be? No place… Nothing outside you can give you any place… In yourself right now is all the place you’ve got.”
To sum it all up, nobody can walk your path but you. The lesson is inside the pilgrim.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I work primarily as a painter, but I collage, make sculptures, and write poems. In my paintings, I explore dream-like imagery that echoes all the intersections of my physical world, dreams, and objects I somehow identify with at any given time. The childlike combination of symbols, materials and implied narratives creates a dialogue with the viewer. I hope to re-contextualize dichotomies that can hinder our true creative selves.
I’m known for a wet-into-wet working style that also cannibalizes animation cels and book illustrations to make odd surreal-ish images that document all aspects of my quotidian and dream life. As far as what I’m most proud of, I’m pleased that I keep going, that I’m still making work after decades in the game, that I still am excited by the work I’m doing, and that I keep on challenging myself on the daily.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up, I was a very tenacious reader and questioner. I never stopped asking adults questions, sometimes putting them on the spot. I also collected rocks, made collages from found images a lot, and drew constantly. I was always making my fun and toys from old newspapers (my dad and grandmother worked a the local newspaper) and made things out of old cardboard boxes and junk. I was pretty quiet, which is funny to my friends now since I’m a pretty gregarious personality as a grown-up person.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.johnmichaelbyrd.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealjmbyrd/
