Marble Hill artist’s family history is the heart of his work
Before 69-year-old Dennis Shelton was an artist, he was a boy in Montgomery, Ala., born at the height of the city’s Civil Rights Movement.
Now a Marble Hill resident for more than 35 years, Shelton uses discarded materials and found objects to create pieces inspired by a family who challenged racial segregation in the South. His grandmother, Mineola Dozier Smith, was on the same bus as Rosa Parks when she was arrested, prompting Smith to join the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott.
After Smith died last year, Shelton’s work took on a deeper meaning. With few family members still living, he felt he needed to start documenting the strengths and accomplishments of his bloodline.
In a new exhibition by Yonkers Arts called “WORDS”, Shelton is one of 65 creatives featured. The gallery’s walls are lined with artists’ interpretations of words, a theme Shelton embraced by using Scrabble tiles to spell out his title: “All God’s Chillun Got Shoes.”
Against a pale, wood base are recycled heels and tennis shoes, with their laces and straps winding across the surface — suggesting the many paths life can take, Shelton said. Beneath the Scrabble tiles are printed instructions, detailing the seven-step process for making shoes.
“All God’s Chillun Got Shoes” is a reference to a religious folk song created by enslaved Black people in the 18th century, or a spiritual, that conveyed resistance and the hope for equality.
Before Yonkers Arts, Shelton had a solo exhibition at Blue Door Art Center in January, titled “THROUGH MY EYES, The Black Experience.” One piece, “The Unnamed Ancestors,” shows women’s faces from the nose down, with vibrant hues of blue, red, orange and yellow above. Between the colored stripes are children’s faces.
It represents the “unsung heroines,” Shelton said, particularly single mothers who made constant sacrifices so their children could thrive. The show featured 50 different pieces in total, made from wood assemblage, paper collage and mixed media — the three main techniques used by Shelton for the last decade.
Prior to 2016, Shelton said he hadn’t created a piece of art for 20 years. Despite having art-focused degrees from Lehman College, and later a job teaching art at John F. Kennedy High School for more than 35 years, he struggled to find the free time between working and raising a family.
Shelton’s wife, who handled payroll for the New York Police Department, died from uterine cancer 13 years ago. The two met as teenagers, finding themselves in a rivalry over who was the better Pathfinder, a program that develops outdoor skills.
Years later, they ran into each other on Southern Boulevard. By their early 20s, the couple was married, and soon moved to Marble Hill where they spent more than 30 years together.
Shelton has considered doing a series on his late wife’s strength, and said he may be ready to endure the feelings and memories the work would evoke. In the meantime, he continues to draw on his family’s legacy — and on silence — to fuel his creativity.
“When you don’t have music, you really start to talk to yourself,” Shelton said. “You hear voices and you have memories. There’s a different strength and deepness that resonates.”
With two exhibitions this year, Shelton believes his art will reach a much wider audience.
“We are ready to rock and roll,” he said.
Keywords
Dennis Shelton, Marble Hill, Yonkers Arts, WORDS,
