Every day for the past two months, I have walked past this pair of murals that surrounds the entrance to a hair salon on my street. The large paintings were painted by Jamal Ince, dated 2014. Jamal Ince is a Brooklyn born artist with who has had his work in many art galleries and shows, and even did a mural for the MTA entitled “Fusion”, which is in a subway station for the G line on Clinton and Washington. The paintings reflect Ince’s greatest inspiration for making art: music. He stated in an interview he did with Ishka Art Studios, “I am inspired by musicians, primarily, Jazz musicians because I believe music is the highest art form. Music comes from an invisible world but yet it evokes such emotion. I love how Jazz musicians use improvisation and I try to emulate that in my works for the most part. I wondered if one wanted to see sound, what would it look like? For me to create a visual for sound inspires me completely.”
The mural I chose, which he created working with kids, depicts five African men, each playing a different instrument: bass, clarinet, drums, trumpet, and piano. The men are all wearing long, patterned shirts and colorful headwraps, and instruments being played have sound waves of different colors being projected outwards. The colors used in the painting play a big role in connecting the work back to Ince’s caribbean roots and to music. He says the turquoise of the Caribbean is a part of his cultural background that inspires his work today, and this is evident through the shades of blue and green he used in the mural. The other colors also work to set the caribbean mood of the piece and help bring out the emotion from the “invisible” music. Ince’s perspective on color in art is that, “Color like music has the same ability to evoke emotion but color doesn’t come from an unknowable world, color is very visible. Color and pattern are like layers of thought and emotion likened to musical phrasings, cadences, crescendos, and themes and variations. I am a colorist…” The viewers can feel from the painting the funky rhythms and tunes found in jazz because of the colors and style of the artist.
I think the artist just wanted to spread his culture and emotions through color by painting this seemingly permanent mural on Flatbush and Farragut, a fairly busy area. The visibility of the artwork and its location leads me to believe that the artist sought out to have many people glance by it on their daily walks along Flatbush; it is a fun piece of work that can brighten up your day with just a quick glance.
