Artist Statement June 27, 2013 I am a classical musician and visual artist. Mozart’s horn concertos caused me as a young African-American to fall in love with classical music and to start playing French horn here in Shreveport Louisiana in 1959. Dennis Brain, the British horn virtuoso became my idol, and this love for music carried me from Shreveport to San Francisco’s Conservatory of Music to the Royal Academy of Music in London England. The impact and power of classical music on human passions and emotions fascinated me. The way a French horn conveys mood and depth more than any other instrument has kept me playing for the past fifty years. In the process of this I have become proficient enough to perform works that demonstrate the musical artistry of the French horn. To perform a piece such as the Brahms Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano in private as well as for the community has showcased my gifting in music and has given me a tremendous sense of accomplishment. Simultaneously I began to develop an interest in graphic design and printing techniques. Since the early 1980’s I began to screen print my own designs of line drawings and textured backgrounds. During the 1990’s I became interested in shapes and figures, geometric and freeform, which, if isolated from their context, would produce new images. I experimented with various textures and discovered commercial items such as the barcode as interesting visual stimuli. Looking at new styles in art like Jean-Michel Basquiat and comparing it with Jackson Pollock, I saw possibilities to convey feelings and emotions from one extreme to another. Looking at ‘Save The Children’ conveys an intense mood of a struggle for life and death due to its graphic nature. The intensity of the colors enhances and solidifies this mood. The piece was a spontaneous visual expression of an idea based on the theme that the children of our generation are in great peril. The piece “The Disenfranchised” developed out of the notion that the barcode controls and codifies all aspects of our lives. What was once supposed to create order, has thrown society into chaos causing established order to be disrupted. The colors used in this piece symbolize night; the same kind of night that we would see under a fluorescent street-light near a shady alley. The night is the time of marginalized people, a subculture of the disenfranchised, who have no longer a voice in determining their future. In the shadows of the night they are forced to operate and thus push, twist and disfigure the barcode that defines their lives. This constitutes the modern culture of disenfranchisement, legalized, specified and codified. Art has become a means to express my ideas, feelings and beliefs through images, shapes and colors. From ‘The Heroes’ to ‘The Weeping Jesus’ I have found in art a means to say what I want to say in a creative, colorful and meaningful way. Musical performance is giving me the possibility to create moods and emotions, which become an inspiration to my artwork. At the same time I recognize certain passions in my artwork that correlate to my musical performances. Music and art has been my life, inspiring, complementing and enhancing each other, and hopefully the lives of others.Paintings submitted:True Blue – monochromatic, shapes repeating, sharp edge, intertwining images, movement and rhythmSave the Children –African colors, shapes and pattern repeating, soft edge, spontaneous airbrush and spray can rendition Heroes – graphic images, shapes, geometric patterns, colors of AfricaThe Disenfranchised – letters and numbers, breaking shapes, order pushed into chaos, geometric pattern, repeating, sharp edgeYea Though I Walk – ink drawing, abstract but still representational, black jagged shapes and figures, textured, symbolic.Weeping Jesus- symmetric, hard edge, geometric, African colors, mask like features, symbolicRed Black and Gray – abstract, shapes and textures, spontaneous

Aaron Cox
P.O. Box 19354
Shreveport, La. 71149
(318) 636-3397, cell: (318) 751-0703
[email protected]
http://shrevearts.org/artists/listings/artist/421

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WORK
2015 – 2005 Backdrops for school drama productions and community
events, Shreveport, La.
Painted and produced art works:
‘The Disenfranchised’, ‘Weeping Jesus’, ‘Our Father’,
‘In the Eyes of God’, The Dialog’, ‘Yea though I walk’, ‘No
Place To Be Somebody’, ‘Save the Children’

2013 Northwest Louisiana Juried Roster Artist with the Shreveport
Regional Arts Council, represented on the Northwest La Artist
Directory

2005 Spring Concert and Art Exhibition, Shreveport, La.
Performed classical works for Horn, Violin, Piano, and
Orchestra by Brahms, Beethoven and Mozart
Exhibited large size pieces of visual art:
‘True Blue’, ‘Save the Children’, Mother and Child’, ‘Fusion’, ‘African
Renaissance’

2003-2006 FDDOC, Shreveport, La.
Taught art at the After-School-Program for FDDOC
Painted and produced art works
1996–2002 Caddo Parish Schools/ Shreveport Regional Arts Council Shreveport, La.
Band director at C.E. Byrd High School in 1996
Taught art and music at the Boys and Girls Club - Shreveport
Taught music at Barret Elementary School and 81st Street ECE
Worked as artist in residence with the Shreveport Regional Arts
Council (SRAC)
Worked at a summer program with SRAC to paint Buses for
the Shreveport DOT
1990–1996 Evangel Christian Academy, Shreveport, La.
Teacher, Track and Field Coach, Graphic Designer
Taught art and music for K-12
Coached Boys and Girls High school Track and Field with District Championships in 1992 and 1993.
Painted large graphics on the Evangel High School football
field and various murals on school walls
Printed and designed T-shirts for school, sports and church events.

1988–1990 Graphic Arts Promotion, Inc., Shreveport, La.
Owner and Operator
 Established a business for commercial and industrial screen printing.
 Trained young people in the business with Shreveport Job Corps.
 Designed a line of T-shirt designs for retail.


EDUCATION
1964 Notre Dame H.S. Shreveport, LA
 Graduated with High school diploma
1968 San Francisco Conservatory of Music San Francisco, CA
 Graduated with B.M. in French Horn
1969- 1970 Royal Academy of Music London, England
 Graduate studies with renowned French-hornist Barry Tuckwell
1980-1983 Graphic Design School Munich, Germany
 Graduated as Screen Printer and Graphic Designer.



Languages: English and German

References upon request
Birthdate: 08-19-1944

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

1969