COMMON BOND: AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARTISTS HONORED AT RECEPTION

From Melverue Abraham's vibrantly spiritual paintings to Bwana Jackson's illustrations of jazz musicians, from Najjar Abdul-Musawwir's bold renderings based on Islamic religious traditions to Renee Blissett's colorful ceramics evoking childhood memories, diversity was the hallmark of Friday's Emerging African-American Artists reception at the University Center.

The University Jazz Ensemble provided entertainment during the lightly attended Black History Month event.

As different as their art and training is, they share a bond as African Americans and as artists. "Art comes from your experiences and your spirit," says Jackson, a Detroit resident whose brother, Arrick Jackson, teaches criminal justice at Southeast.

Surviving as an artist is at least as difficult for African Americans as for anyone else.

"It's a lean little profession," says Abraham, an artist from Little Rock, Ark.

She is of both African American and Native American descent. Her painting "Silent Minority" depicts a black Indian woman. "You can't find the black Indians in history anywhere," she says.

She taught herself to paint. "Basically I paint from my soul, from my spirit," she says. Her work can range from looking crude to very sophisticated, she says, but she doesn't think one way of painting is better than the other. "When God created this universe he didn't limit his palette," she said.

Abdul-Musawwir didn't think he could make a living as an artist until he realized that grants and teaching could make it viable. He is a lecturer at the School of Art and Design at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

African-American artists generally have been ignored throughout the history of American art, he says.

"I think we have progressed but there is still a certain attitude that says African-American art is an add-on, exotic."

For George DeMyers Sr., who taught art in the Charleston schools for 32 years before retiring, teaching always seemed to take precedence over creating art. "During the time I was teaching I didn't get to exhibit much," he said. Now he is involved in a program called Art World of Knowledge and Enlightenment, which showcases black artists in Charleston.

A Southeast graduate, DeMyers exhibited one painting of a charming barbershop scene and another, "Truths from the Black Millennium," depicting a black minister struggling to protect his people from the vices that Death takes advantage of. "We're reaching out to save them," he said.

Najee Dorsey, Abdul-Musawwir's student the past 10 years, owns an art gallery in Jonesboro, Ark., and experiments in developing a new cubist style. He doesn't care whether people think of him as an African-American artist or an artist who is African American. "I create art," he says. "I leave the labels for everyone else to decide."

Childhood memories are represented in some of the ceramics pieces created by Blissett, a student at Southeast.

Lynn Chambers, who organized the event for Southeast, said her goal was "to expose the community to emerging black artists and to give people a chance to see their different forms of expression."