Louisiana artist works with “sheer energy”
Belize is no stranger to eccentric artists, so a professor currently visiting from Louisiana’s Dillard University should feel right at home.
From as far back as he can remember, Dr. Willie F. Hooker has been doing what he loves best: bringing to life ethnic images on canvass. Hooker, who is an Associate Professor of Art at Dillard University in New Orleans, says ethnic art is the splendid quality that has given his people the power to prevail with strength, dignity and grace.
Dr. Willie Hooker, Artist
“The reason why I turn to African imagery for most of my inspiration, African art or ethnic art, I feel is a splendid quality that is given not only to Africans but African Americans: the strength to show dignity and grace through their visual art work.”
Equal respect as well is given to African and African American women whom Hooker says, as an artist, he is fascinated with their aesthetic appeal.
Dr. Willie Hooker
“By looking at my work in the gallery I use a lot of female imagery in my work surrounded by multicolors. I also consider myself a colorist too. I am an artist that deals with a lot of mixed media in my work and the reason why I do that too, because I want my work to show some kind of, sort of an intimate feeling to the viewer when they walk into the gallery.”
For his latest show, Hooker said all the pieces on display were produced just three weeks ago and highlight the black family. While this is the artist first appearance in Belize, Hooker’s pieces have received international exposure, thanks to television celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby.
Dr. Willie Hooker
“Well, I had the good fortune of attending Tennessee State University back in the early seventies and Oprah Winfrey was one of my classmates. She was an undergraduate student, I think majoring in Communications and Theatre and sometime about ten years ago, I wrote Oprah at Harpo Studios in Chicago Illinois and I sent her a painting. Ever since then my work has really been skyrocketing.
And I sent my work off to Bill Cosby and I had the good fortune of having my work on one of the episodes of the Cosby Show back in 1985, I think.”
Today, the artist is experimenting with a combination of paint and sculpture.
Dr. Willie Hooker
“If you can notice this particular piece, this piece is called the three dimensional African. This is the image of my face there and I have been doing some casting on my face and putting the cast piece on the canvass and surrounding it with the nylon stocking technique. So this is something new that I am really doing now, dealing with the casting of my face and body parts.”
It is this technique of using pantyhose to create most of his pieces that the artist believes he has gained much popularity.
Dr. Willie Hooker
“You know a lot of people laugh at me when I tell them that my work is created out of pantyhose. I teach an art class at Dillard’s University and about, I say eighty percent of my students are females. So I have this big box in the lab and what the young ladies they do is just dump their old panty hose in the box, but I tell them one thing, please wash them out before you bring them to the art lab.”
So ladies, don’t throw away those old stockings as perhaps one day some artist in Belize may wish to follow in Doctor Hooker’s footsteps.
