Ernie Barnes by Raymond Tyler

Ernie Barnes the artists who painted brilliant and art changing pieces for Marvin Gaye and the TV Show Good Times has passed according to BlackAmericaweb.com.

I remember sitting and watching these images Mr. Barnes created of Black people living these super animated lives on canvass as I watched Good Times. I myself was already drawing. However, when I saw "JJ" holding up a piece of Mr. Barne's work, it changed me and my approach.

From then on I was less concerned with making everything in my drawings "look real."

I was more concerned now with telling stories with my pictures and conveying emotion.

When I piered at Mr. Barnes'painting even through TV (which in 1976 was decades away from HD and sometimes in Black and White...)I could see the story of kids playing ball on a hot day and feel the heat,hear the ball, experience the rush of bodies passing by to score. Every one of Mr.Barne's paintings that I have seen has spoken to me, the people and sometimes even the objects like bences and signs tell me a story.

That my friends is art.

For those of you who keep stats. Ernie Barnes was born in Durham, NC in July of 1938. He was a professional football player for The NY Titans, (My) San Diego Chargers and The Denver Broncos. His career continued on with out stop after Good Times and he was the Official Artists of The 1984 Summer Olympics (the first Olympic Games I followed.) In 2004 he was named The Sport Artist of the year. Also in 2004 he painted a commisioned piece for Kanye West called A Life Restored that was based on the accident which nearly killed West before Kanye's rise to fame.

Those are the stats. However you can never quantify any real man's life with a assortment of words and paragraph's no matter how skilled they are put together.

I will always dread this day because I was dreaming of the day when I would meet Mr. Barnes. I could show him something I created and he would politely wait until I was gone to laugh at me. That meeting will never happen in what we now know as life.

Still on a sunny day when I see kids at the park running and jumping...I will think of the long arm in the famous Barne's painting of the kid dunking. I will remember that life and art sometimes dance together for a short time. When that occurs people are blessed.

Mr. Barnes has been a true blessing in the dance that is my life.

God Bless Us All!