What started as doodles on the margins of assignments in elementary school has led to Memphis artist and educator Jamond Bullock emerging as a bright splash of color in local galleries, classrooms and events.
His vivid paintings evoke celebration and joy, while capturing snapshot moments of life in our colorful city. Often drawing crowds with live-painting at events like the Soulsville Foundation’s yearly Staxtacular fundraiser with the Memphis Grizzlies, Bullock was recently commissioned to paint a mural at the Bethel LaBelle Community Center through his affiliation with the Urban Arts Commission. During the work week, his artistic vision is focused on Memphis’ future artists, as an art teacher at Whitney Elementary in Fraiser, where he grew up.
“I remember coming to the school as a kid, when my mom would go there to vote. Some of the kids I teach,” Bullock says with a chuckle, “I was in 8th grade with their parents.”
While at Craigmont High School, Bullock won a Silver Key for his work, an award given by the Brooks Museum to young artists at schools in the Mid-South. Combined with his first commission, a portrait of a friend’s sister and her fiancé, the award edified a career ambition in art, steering him towards a degree in art from Lemoyne-Owen College.
“In high school and early college, I was still into pencil and charcoal,” he says. “My sophomore year at school, I started using watercolor markers and brushes. And then I discovered acrylics. For a class at Lemoyne, I painted a piece from a photo I took, of a pregnant woman. I used warm colors; browns, yellows and oranges. People in the class, students and teachers, said I was on to something.”
Bullock says the city has informed his work, finding its way onto his bold canvasses. “Our city has soul,” he says. “Connecting history with the soul of Memphis is what lives in my work. I feel like art should capture the essence of someone’s life story in a picture.”
After college, Bullock became a sought after portrait painter and live painter, creating spontaneous works in front of audiences and patrons at special events and business around town in addition to works commissioned by clients. Being paid for work is deeply meaningful to him, and as he says, “the first checks I got for paintings made me cry. It was so rewarding, so overwhelming.”
But as much fulfillment success as a painter has given him, teaching Memphis kids is a huge part of what makes his work as an artist feel meaningful to him.
“My students are studying cubism right now, and its roots in African art,” he says. “I just told the kids about Picasso’s trips from Spain into northern Africa, and how African folk art influenced his work. I like showing how diverse influences can impact not only an artist’s view of art, but also their approach to life.”
To see more of this work on his website, click here.
