Milton Bowens

Last Updated on Friday, 14 March 2003 01:02 Written by Steve Friday, 14 March 2003 01:02

While I was in Oakland, we stumbled into an art show. We weren’t looking for an art show, but happened upon one put on by Milton Bowens, an African-American painter from Oakland. It was the most amazing art show I have been to in a long time. He leans toward direct communication with his art–much of his canvases are covered with written words. His communication is about the history of the black man in America, a history he was inspired to paint about after 9/11. It was refreshing to see a insightful journey through America’s less than proud history was inspired by the same events that have brought us jingoistic short sightedness. I would have loved to walk away with many of his works, but they were priced outside my art budget. One of his most powerful works, Strange Fruit, reminds us that America is hurtling into the future without fully resolving it’s past. No wonder we are doomed to make the same mistakes all over again.