Ernie Barnes
My roommate in college was a painter. His studio in the art school was shared by a guy who looked like the character
"Waingro" in the movie Heat. I used to silently laugh at this guy's paintings because they reminded me of the paintings Jimmy "J.J." "Kid Dynomite" Walker's character "J.J." painted on the show
Good Times. This evening I saw a Geico commercial where a guy asks his girlfriend about his cool blacksploitation painting and it got me thinking about J.J.'s paintings.
Enter Google.
It turns out that the paintings were real and painted by a guy named Ernie Barnes who was born down the road in Durham, N.C. He played football in the 60s for a few NFL teams and then retired to focus on his art. His style will be quite familiar to devotees of Good Times. I really dig them.
Ladies and Jellyfish, I present to you Ernie Barnes.
Posted by dmason at January 27, 2005 08:09 PM
