Good Day Uncut: ft. JAMES ATKINS

Philadelphia, we are uncut. All right, everybody, what's going on? It's your old pal Hank. It is time for Uncut, 11.30 in the morning, guys. Art show for you today and a beautiful one at that. I'm not going to go outside to show you where we are because we are outside the home, actually inside the parlor of the home of Philadelphia artist, and he may be up there in the old... Philly artist Trinity, the painters, everybody here knows him. He's done it for life. I am with James Atkins right now. And if you look at the wall out here in the parlor, it tells you the story of his trip through art, the Cubism, portraits of his parents, the name Jay Atkins on the bottom. He's shown all over the world. James. Dude, thank you so much for having me over. I really appreciate it. Hank, it's a pleasure, man. Well, I think that you had said, and I'm going to go ahead and see if it's there. I think you had said there was a statement that you had wanted to make, you know? The statement I want, I don't want to look stiff on this. Right. Well, I don't think you will. The statement I wanted to make is that. All of, I'm doing this for my family. Okay. I'm doing this to add, because I got so much material about myself. Okay. But I want to add things to it. For sure. So, once they see me doing this, and once they, well, they all been here before my house. Right. They're probably fairly familiar with your work, right? Right. One, people that really know me through art, like, I just did a big show at the library last year. Okay. And when they came here, they was blown out. Sure. Because this is your home pieces. This is your home. These may be your favorite pieces. And being a noted artist and them being fans of yours, they've seen what you're willing to put out in galleries, what you're willing to show. But when you let them into the house to show them what is special to you, that must have blown their hair back a piece or two. And then people that I knew since I was a little kid, I want to put this in here too. Right. They know me when I was seven years old. I was always the best drawer, like back then we used to have drawing contests. So even as kids, you were good with it. As kids, I was the boy, I was the guy. Right. And back then, my name was, they called me, they used to call me Mardu. Why? And Mardu, that originated from when I was little. Hank, I used to draw in the mud in the backyard. So even as a baby, you were out there making shapes in the mud. You're an artist from birth. Oh, my God, yeah. Yeah. But what happens with drawing in the mud, like, I used to pray for, like. Pray for it to rain. So you'd have mud. Mud. And then when the sun come out, it would get thick. Right. And I would take branches off the trees in the yard. Get a garden hose and maybe soak it down again. And then sketch. Oh, wow. Sketch like houses next to me and all of that. And the ladies that live next to me always see me doing that. They would say, my mother, grandfather, they used to call me Duke. Where's Duke at? Okay. Oh, he's out in the mud, drawing, making things in the backyard. Right. So, I just want you to know, I want to give you a quick tech note, because you got that microphone on, we can totally hear you, and you and I have the same, no, no, no, the point I'm making is if I look away from you, like at that mirror over there, or some of your other artwork on the wall, and you're talking, I'm just trying to show what you're talking about, we're still listening to you completely, I'm just trying to show more of what it is you're saying, but you're a baby. And you're out there in the mud, or in the dry dirt, making shapes, doing some art, because something inside you's calling you to do. That's where that name, Muddu, came from. Muddu, because he plays in the mud, and he's an artist already. And then I started doing sketches when I got eight, nine. I went to Maryland School on Fifth and Fifth Border, Monroe Street. Now, that's just a straight school, right? That wasn't an art school. No, no, it was a regular elementary school. But I was always good at art and that, you know? Uh-huh. I used to do things for the, you know, the teacher would always pick me out to draw clowns and do different things. Sure. But I just had a, I had the feeling for, like, doing nice things with art. So where does it grow? I mean, I don't mind that you're a man in your 80s, so this is a trip that's taken many, many years. I mean, how, where, what? You're my kind of guy because you're a complex dude. You have your dreams that you're working toward, but you don't mind working in a warehouse to make sure that you got food on the table and you got the rent paid and everything. I had to have security, insurance, all of that. Right. And then you come home after a hard day at work. Hank, I didn't have that fear of trying to sell anything. Right. I just wanted to show. Right. Now, maybe that's your ace in the hole as an artist, because a lot of artists underneath it all, they might be trying to come off a certain way, but they won't really want to sell paintings. Not all of them, some of them, but you didn't care, maybe. No, no. I just wanted to show. And then when I started showing, people were saying, oh my God, where's this James Adkins? Who is this guy? You know, my first year at the Painted Brack. James, is it talent? Do you learn it? Is it a combination? I'm looking at this example of your work. The shading and the lighting on their faces and the shading underneath. That's the stuff that makes them look natural. That's what good artists can do. It's just, I don't know. As I got older, I was thinking, The way I was getting attention, people were saying, oh my God, you've got a talent. And they started mentioning painters. I never heard of Van Gogh, Matisse, and all those people. But yet, I was painting like them. Oh, wow. Yeah, and they're telling you this? Right. What does that do to your head as a young man? All these people that you admire and honor. You're a great artist. No, I mean great. No, I mean great, Jameson. Oh, my God. While we're on that subject, man, let me show you. Okay, well, hang on one second. Don't pull the cover off of that yet, guys. We are obliged to a quick commercial break. I am with great Philadelphia artist James Atkins. We've got a ton to show you, a lifetime of Philadelphia art from his home, only the best. We'll be right back with more. Okay. All the time in here. All right, you're looking at a portrait that James Atkins painted of himself and his wife. And having James here with me, guys, I just had to make the point. Dude, you're like a rock star. You go through these different sort of style phases. This was like your priest phase or something like that. But look at you. I mean, but now you want to see some class? This right here? Uh, the wife? No, this up here, okay. Now, this is a show I did on South Street. Okay. The Gallery Salon. Mike, I've been in Paris and Auburn. This guy had the nicest gallery you ever wanted to see. Down on South Street? On South, 623 South Street. Okay. It was called the Gallery Salon. You know, people would go crazy if you wrote a book just with a few notes in it, included some of your portraits, but just thoughts about all the different galleries that you've shown at in Philadelphia, many of which aren't here anymore. You know, you're like a walking art history of the city. And I'm not joking, man. Like people would love that. I didn't advise it to you. Well, of course, 76. I remember getting a deck of cards for that as a kid. Of course, you were painting for that. Out there, yeah. Did you have a show Bicentennial? No, we all put together a show for them. Okay. On Broad and Christian for all the Africans. Yeah. And it was me, about 10 of us. Right. But they would always call me for everything that was big. They would, oh, we got to call James Atkins and make sure that he'd be in the show. But when I get there... You know, they wanted me to be the judge and jury of who to pick. I didn't want to hurt people. I'm not here to be judging artists. No, no. But, hey, James, I wanted to use this picture. I think that you said that this portrait, I believe you told me this is your father. That's my father. All right. And my mother up top. Oh, wow. Yeah. Son of a gun. What good looking folks. It's in both of them, but I think what it is, is I don't know if it's your style, maybe a sensitivity to your subjects. There's like a softness in your portraits that's kind of endearing in a way. I'm not talking about pastel. Yeah. Is that what you use? No, no, that's the way I'm. I took my oil painting. Ah, so you painted with oil, but in a pastel style. In a quiet style. That's crazy, because it looks, you can see it, but you're painting in oil, and it comes out like a pastel style. You're a mad doctor. You really are. Son of a gun. Now, these masks up on the wall, when I initially saw them, I came in the painting, I'm guessing, is yours, but these masks you told me were collections of the wife. Oh, right, yeah. Now, did she go to Africa to collect them? Oh, no. We've been going on a doom day. We would go out there every summer when they came, and she would, oh, let's go, let's go. Now, guys, I've got to take an opportunity here because a lot of you are going to be saying to yourself, wow, I'd like to meet James outside of doing Uncut with Hank or whatever. The fact of the matter is I don't know about meeting him. Keep your eye out on the street. You never know how you might run into him because the dude gets around. But he is absolutely showing at Moody Jones Gallery, a gallery that we have detailed for you on Uncut Up in Jenkintown. It is on 319 York Road. The show is Memories to Dreams, an exhibit by James Atkins. It may get extended, but it's open October 8th to November 13th. And if you're looking at this one piece that they used and asking yourself, what is that, a crowd, a light? I said, James, honestly, it looks like a flying saucer. I mean, he goes, it is. That's what it is. And if they go there, they'll see the whole deal. Right. You know, they'll see one. Paintings when I was first started, paintings of six paintings of this right here. I just like the notion, because it doesn't seem, I'm trying to figure out where the in-between is with you, because you're clearly an excellent portrait painter, you're a wonderful painter. You've got these things from the Civil War age, I think, that you said, they look like ghosts, to be honest. But then you turn around, and you're going to give me huge credit. This is like the Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind. It's the whole human race meeting a flying saucer. How do you get from portraits of your parents to flying saucers introducing themselves to the human race? When my wife passed away, you know, I was in a really bad mood. I bet. But then I started having these dreams about these places. Hank, you would not believe. Serious, and I would get out of bed and draw my dreams, sketch these down, and then turn them into paintings. There's six of them. Are they still rolling through? Do you think this was an emotional reaction from passing your wife a little bit? Right. Yeah, yeah. But it was so real doing these things. Well, if you're getting out of bed to paint it, songwriters do that. They'll hear something, and they'll get up to keep a recorder by the bed so they don't forget it. They get it up and sing it real quick so it'll be there in the morning. Believe me, brother. No, no, no. It was so real. You know, and I was saying, oh, I wish my wife could see this. You know what, James? You know what? Oh, you got a commercial? No, in a minute. My ex-wife is a psychic medium. Uh-huh. And... And, you know, take it however you want, but she would tell me when something like that happens, when you get a signal as hard as you did that has you jumping out of bed to go and sketch it or draw it and paint it so you've got the idea there tomorrow, you can really flesh it out. She says that's absolutely a signal from beyond. It might have been your dearly departed lady sending you some signals and letting you know she's still there with you. Right, right. It was so real, oh my God. And I would tell her, you know, before she passed away, I would tell her about my dreams. She says, there you go again with your artistic mind. You keep talking like that, they're gonna have to, you know, put you away. And but she married you too, you know, she loved that artistic. Oh yeah, right, right. But then, on the last couple of weeks that she was here, And the last couple of weeks since he was here. We talked about all kinds of stuff, and she said, well, you know, as long as you got your artwork, keep doing what you're doing. And I promised her, on her dying bed, that I would never stop painting, you know? I would get so serious with it. And every year, Hank, it get better and better, you know, for what I do. Thank you for sharing this whole experience with me, James. I'm really enjoying it. Guys, we've got to go to another quick break. But before we do, the video is absolutely worth it. We've got to pop in on Big Mama on the table. Oh, she is here now. Oh, my God. And she will be here when we get back. Big Mama, the Atkins family cat, and James Atkins, Philadelphia's own painter. We will be right back with more Uncut. We'll be right back. I tell you what, the art is in the crooks and the crannies. If you walk out the back door and hook a right, James said to me, Hank, you remember you mentioned Cleopatra before? Well that right down there at the end, that is apparently King Tut, a 15-foot tall one that he painted on the building of the house up front, and this is back here in the back. James, you can't, you can't help it. You're gonna put some paint on a brush and lay it up there, and this is wild too because this is what's killing me is that your style seems to match whatever it is you want to paint. This is like some ancient styles. This is almost like... That's Greek. Yeah, that's what I mean, though. But, I mean, you know, it's a Greek god battling a lion, and it feels almost like some allegorical cave drawing type stuff. You know what I mean? Right. Now, who is she? More Greek stuff. But that was... She was back in the day. I found her in the old book years ago. And I said, oh my God, they haven't been doing artwork back then, but art was always here. Yeah. You know? Now, were the stained glass windows always here? Because those are hard to beat. Those are beautiful things. A buddy of mine on my job put that in for me. Those are nice. The light is just right. They can just change the world. A lot of people helped me out with this place, putting it together. Sure. Well, there's art everywhere I look, I mean, even to, like, what do you, do you, are you meddling in sculpture, or you just found something like that that you wanted to kind of do and make? Oh, I used to, you know what, to lose the gallery, send you up the gallery. I used to be on 20th in town, real bougie. Okay. And she would have all kind of paintings of mine, of all the best artists. Okay. And she would do things like little sculpture things. She did, got all of the painters that had shows, to do things on these blocks. Almost like an acknowledgement of the painter doing the show. Right, right. So I did three, I mean, she asked all of us to do three, Right. Oh, how much we sell all these for? $1,500? No. $400. Just for the little guy. Ho, ho, ho, ha, ha, ha. You know? Yeah, listen, man. I tell you what, there's some smart people out there who know how to make a buck. Yeah. But that was always, you said you're ace in the hole. It's not hustling that hard. Right, yeah. Just living that work, you know? Right, right. Now, you wanted to show me upstairs, right? Yeah, okay. All right. So. What is this space upstairs? You got some house. It goes around the side. Did it used to be a storage space or something? Oh, yeah. That's why I took over this house. My father used to own this house. Okay. There used to be a horse and buggy. Oh, wow. This used to... Okay, so this was like... Man. Yeah. It goes off to the back street. Good Lord, James. That's how long this house is. It's huge. Yeah. All right. But it's... You don't have to turn it off. It's different now. Yeah, sure. I just like the things that you've done to it. Plus the fact that you've lived here over the years. How long have these been here? This been here? Yeah. Well, I mean, you've been here for 30 years. Like last month. I don't know. Oh, no. Once I got up here, my wife didn't want to move up here. But I got up here and started going crazy. Made it pretty for her a little bit. Right. And when she got up here, oh, wow. She's like, give me a couple months, hon. Let me pretty it up for you a little bit. You good? Yeah. Listen, I'm the one with the broken legs. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Now, was this, James, when you were working, like when you were like going full guns at it, this would have been, I guess, your studio up here, right? Right, this is my studio up here. It allows you to kind of separate yourself from the house. Otherwise, you'd be getting up out of bed doing signals all the time, I guess. Right. Boy, me and James going up these stairs must be a pretty picture. All right. Know what I would like to do, Hank? There's more up there. Do what, James? I'm right behind you. I would like to show you when I come up here how I lock everything out. This is my creative place. Man. This is it. Did you show the people that you were talking about before your studio? Did you show them in here? Yeah. This is where they had heart attacks when they came in here. Guys, look at this. If you ever loved the work of James Atkins, you just fell off of the truck into heaven. What? These are paintings from all different shows that I had. You've got babies and queens. You've got trolley riders. That's the Bay 90. This is iconic. And Julia Cooper, was that commissioned somehow? Oh no, I did a show about women's suffrage. Yeah. I did a show about everything you can mention, I did a show about. Woman from Rome. That's Rome. That's when I was doing the show and I did the portrait of the Pope. This is South Africa. Well, again, now see, this would have been the ones, and I don't know how old this is, but you made a reference before to somebody comparing you to Van Gogh. They would have been looking at that particular painting right there. Over your career, you flirted with a ton of different styles. Is this how you finally come to who you are as a painter, is by trying different things? Ah, that road's a dead end. I'm going to try this. I don't know. Paint what you feel. People say things to me, and I keep it in mind. That's Richie. Oh, right. So there's a painting, guys, of a legendary folk singer, Richie. No, no. All right. That's not him? Who's that? That's Bizarro. Bizarro? Yeah, Bizarro. Oh, my bad. All right. So here's you and Richie Havens. Yeah. Richie Havens and James Atkins in New York in 1978. Right. That's all right. I saw Richie one time. Why did you and Richie get along? Kindred spirits, maybe? He always wanted to be a painter. Oh, did he? Yeah. He had some... Richie's a star. He could paint. You can put the guitar down and pick up a paintbrush if you wanted to. Right. We all, back in those days, we were supposed to do a show together but it never happened. That would have been crazy. Him strumming and singing and you back there blasting paint onto the wall. I never do a show without playing Richie Havens. Never. When I do a one-man show, I always play Richie Havens along with other things. That works. And people know this. This is like a whole... Dude, this is like an altar. No, that's a good idea. Mike G was just like, we got to get to this last break, Hank. I'm going to take a quick break, guys. Last break of the show. When we get back... We're going to wrap up this fine episode with James Atkins, probably with some commentary on whatever this altar of totems is. It's incredible. It's like 70 different countries. That's what I'm talking about. I never get tired of the artists in this town. It never gets old. It just goes deep. We'll be right back. It's not pretty, anybody. It is not pretty, and it is not a clean business. Painting requires paint, and it requires you to pick up a brush and slap it on a surface. You're going to get paint on your hands. That's half of the fun. Look at James Atkins' table. If this is not a man that is steeped in all the way up to his nose. In artwork, I don't know what it is. James, congratulations on your life and your career. It's been a real treat to have you tell us a little bit about it. It looks like you might be in the process of maybe working on something. Oh, yeah. Family or something. It's a family, unfortunately. They've been asking me to do this for years. Oh, have they? So they're friends of you. I just started on it, yeah. But they own a lot of my paintings. So, you know, you go up and down, you know. I got two minutes left in this show, James, and we always got to come around to it. Did you do that? Get what? That collage? This collage over here? We did it, but we're running out of time. Oh, okay. Come over here and tell me about it real quick, but while you do it, go ahead and look into the camera as well and give some advice to young Philadelphia artists out there that think. Oh, because I'm working in a warehouse or because I got to deliver Amazon or whatever it is. I can't be an artist. You're the absolute roadblock to that story. Oh, well, this is proof right here. Okay. If you want to be an artist, you know, this is the proof that. It's red hair form, you know, and you got you got to be dedicated. You got to have discipline, too. Yeah. Discipline is the main thing. Discipline, doing the thing that you know you need to do, especially when you don't want to do it. Right. See, discipline. Once you get discipline, you get the reckoning. I can't believe it. All right, guys. That is what happens when you ask an artist to explain his particular style or how he got here one piece after the other. You gotta just sink into what you love, right? And everything will turn out okay, I suppose. But painting comes to me so easy, right? You know? Like, I might... That's what people like about me. I might walk around... I could be clumsy at everything else, but when it comes down to painting... Not too clumsy. That's your home space, isn't it? Right, yeah. James Atkins, listen, I can't thank you enough for sharing with us. This will be online for you in a couple hours, probably by this afternoon. Everybody, James Atkins once again. What's the gallery he's showing up in, where he's showing up in Jenkins Town? Moody Jones Gallery. Moody Jones Gallery. Of course, Moody Jones going all the way into November. He's on the walls now, and it may get extended. So go to Moody Jones Gallery in Jenkins Town to check out James Atkins.