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Bessie Nickens' Fervor for Folk Art
By Delores Edwards
It was a hot summer day. The sun was shining and Bessie Nickens was a little
girl, around eight or nine. Often retreating to her own inner world of color and fantasy,
she created her first masterpiece. On a pristine white satin cloth, Nickens painted a
variety of luscious red roses. As a child growing up in the South, life was hard and her
world of make-believe was usually confronted with reality. She needed money and she needed
to eat, so she sold the painting for one dollar. |
The ability to sell a childhood drawing was not
remarkable. But the fact that Nickens sold it more than 85 years ago is. At 94, an age
many individuals will never reach or a time when people rarely take up new pursuits,
Nickens has embarked on a budding career as an artist. Her first creation maybe a fond
memory but her paintings today sell for as much as $30,000.
Her fondest memories are paintings of herself, childhood friends and her dog Polo crossing
a stream on a log, children picking bright yellow sunflowers in a country field and
jumping double-dutch. Other paintings tell the story of laboring in the cotton fields.
A vibrant, soft-spoken woman, Nickens paints everyday, rising as early as 5:00 a.m., to
create pieces such as Laundry Day, Fish Fry and Walking the Log. Born in Sligo, a small
Louisiana town, Nickens, and her family migrated around Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas,
moving from one cotton field to another.
Drawing became Nickens’ retreat. She taught herself how to draw as a child by tracing
images from old Sears-Roebuck catalogs. As she began to learn how to draw and develop her
own style, Nickens would rub Crayola crayons against paper because she says, “if you
rubbed them long enough, it’ll shine just like oil.” As she got older,
Nickens’ priorities shifted. She focused on starting her own family, moved to
California to run a dry-cleaning business and temporarily abandoned her art. It
wasn’t until she came to New York City more than 20 years ago that Nickens
rediscovered her passion for oil and canvas. At 88, Nickens wrote a book, Walking the Log:
Memories of a Southern Childhood, about her life along with a series of her work.
Her folk-art pieces have gained a growing list of admirers who include Bill Cosby and
Oprah Winfrey. Her work has been displayed at various art shows around the country,
including the fourth annual National Black Fine Arts Show at the Puck Building last
February.
Represented by the Sragow Gallery in SoHo, Nickens shows no signs of slowing down. She
continues to paint in her studio located in her New York City apartment and will travel to
Chicago this month for an upcoming art show. She will also be honored along with artists,
Inge Hardison, Verna Hart and others, at the Pioneer Awards by I A M, an arts organization
that pays tribute to women in the field of visual arts on May 11th at the Studio Museum in
Harlem.
Hoping one day to have her work viewed in museums around the country, Nickens is happy to
be able to share her memories with others. “I don’t ever think about age. I
always told myself there’s no need to die and go back to dust,” she says.
“I can paint because I can take my mind off everything in the world and get involved
in just painting--and painting I love, that’s my life.” M
May 2000
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