{"id":9695,"date":"2021-06-10T03:06:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T03:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=9695"},"modified":"2021-06-10T19:47:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T19:47:40","slug":"mason-archie-sees-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=9695","title":{"rendered":"Mason Archie Sees the Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mason Archie<\/b> Sees the Light<\/b><\/h2>\n
by D. Amari Jackson<\/span><\/pre>\n
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There’s something about the light\u2026 the way it glows, the warmth, the serenity. Like glowing embers in a dying fire. You can <\/span>feel<\/span><\/i> the warmth, even bask in it, as your eyes step into one of Mason Archie\u2019s enchanting images, be it the golden red rays of sunset illuminating a pristine marshland or a glowing, unbroken field of snow.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>\u201cOften, with my work, I\u2019ll hear there\u2019s a serenity to it, that the mood of it is serene,\u201d acknowledges Mason, a successful oil painter specializing in landscapes. A resident of Indianapolis, Mason employs an Old Master style of layers while, to a degree, incorporating a mixed palate of Hudson River School technique and Impressionism. \u201cGenerally, when I am painting or especially when I\u2019m doing landscape, I am painting how light, the atmosphere, and what is going on in the day affects the scene that you see.\u201d So, with a piece like <\/span>Sunset Across the Marshland<\/span><\/i> (2014), \u201cyou’re going to know that the sun is pretty much going to affect the colors of everything that is there,\u201d with the sunlight \u201cbouncing off the marshes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Sunset Across the Marshland by Mason Archie<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cWhen you see that sun coming across, how is it hitting each clump of marsh that\u2019s higher than the other?\u201d probes Mason. \u201cWhat shadows is it creating and, if there\u2019s trees in it, how is it hitting across water? How does the light affect the reflections you’re going to see? And is there going to be a warmth right on the other side of the reflection that you\u2019re seeing?\u201d When done effectively, continues Mason, \u201cthe piece feels natural to the viewer, like he’s seen it before. And his eyes can just relax and enjoy it. Everything is right there, and that’s what his eyes are used to seeing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Given Mason is used to enjoying success in the fields of commercial and fine art as he has for four decades\u2014his much sought-after landscapes can be found in such private corporate collections as Wells Fargo Bank, Eli Lilly, and Nationwide Insurance\u2014it is only natural to wonder how he himself came to see the light.<\/span><\/p>\n
A native of Dayton, Ohio, Mason\u2019s prowess for art emerged early as local teachers recognized his considerable talents, putting him to work<\/span> drawing diagrams for class lessons and painting backdrops for school plays. Given his impoverished upbringing,<\/span> and that his parents never owned a car, an art teacher from the local Boys and Girls Club<\/span> would pick him up from his house to bring him to art classes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cMason was one of those young artists that you saw had great talent and potential,\u201d says Willis Bing Davis, a longtime mentor, artist, and former public school art teacher in Dayton. \u201cBut he also had a tremendous drive, like an athlete, to really want to excel. It was that obvious.\u201d Further, adds Willis, \u201che always had a seriousness about himself and about his work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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Marshland by Mason Archie<\/p><\/div>\n
Fortunately, as a good student<\/span> with<\/span> good attendance, Mason was able to attend Patterson Co-Op, a unique public high school in downtown Dayton where he could devote a significant part of his coursework to the field of art. The school, which offered a two weeks on-two weeks off schedule, also helped the promising 16-year-old land a job at Lamar Advertising Company where he immediately worked forty hours a week<\/span> painting 14 x 48 foot billboards during his recurring two weeks off from school. The company, one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in the world, was sold on Mason and his rare talent from day one. The capable high-schooler was soon making more money than his parents.<\/span> \u201cBy the time I was 19, which was really unusual, I\u2019d already worked for them for three years,\u201d notes Mason who, upon school graduation, was promoted to art director. \u201cThey literally put me over 40-year-old people and I was the only African American who worked there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Despite facing substantial animosity from his white coworkers as both the youngest, and the only<\/span> African American at the Dayton location, Mason went on to forge a fruitful and lengthy relationship with Lamar Advertising, so much so the company later supported him when he started his own commercial sign company and immediately contracted with him when he eventually left Lamar to run it.<\/span><\/p>\n
After splitting time, for years, between his own Dayton-based company and a successful daycare venture in Indianapolis with his wife, Mason experienced a glimmer of something different. One evening, he decided to paint a portrait of his eighteen-month-old daughter. His wife, who had never seen him do fine art, told him it was what he should be doing. Three years later, after their daughter nearly drowned near their Indianapolis home while he was in Dayton, Mason saw the light and permanently relocated to Indianapolis. There, he started a youth organization teaching art, computer graphics, and finance to<\/span> kids for free,<\/span> sold his successful businesses, and set up a studio to paint.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI was in my forties before I even started practicing fine art,\u201d acknowledges Mason, explaining that one of the first people he contacted was<\/span> Simmie Knox, the first African American artist to be commissioned for a presidential portrait. Knox, who also had a billboard background, began mentoring Mason over the phone. \u201cI talked to Knox, Mario Robinson, and a few others, and I practiced for about two years before I even showed my work given I had the luxury to do so from selling those businesses.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cHe came to consult with me about leaving his good paying job to see if he could develop his craft to the point where he could actually be a fulltime artist,\u201d recalls Davis, stressing \u201cthat was a big commitment. We talked about it on and off, he made that commitment and then made it work, and I was really proud of him. He left the city of Dayton and moved to Indianapolis where he really put the time in,\u201d continues Davis, depicting how Mason \u201cfocused on his craft, reading, researching, and <\/span>practicing<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>practicing<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>practicing<\/span><\/i> until he developed a wonderful touch.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
In 2007, after recognizing the popularity of landscape art, honing his style, and researching relevant galleries, Mason met prominent African American gallerists Walter and Cathy Shannon from E&S Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky. His career in fine art would begin with a bang.<\/span> \u201cWhen I brought them my paintings, they literally purchased everything that I had,\u201d reports Mason, noting his artwork began selling faster than he could paint it. Ongoing clients have since included such prominent collectors as Steve and Johnelle Smith of the investment-based Monument Circle Group, and retired NFL standout, Will Allen.<\/span>\u00a0\u201cFrom there on, they have literally sold everything I ever brought them to this day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Others took notice as well. In an article in the<\/span> International Review of African American Art<\/span><\/i> entitled \u201cWhat Lies Beyond the Human and the Made: Mason Archie and the Beautiful Landscape,\u201d<\/span> art historian John Welch wrote, \u201cViewing his work provides an opportunity to ponder the meaning of beauty in human consciousness and life as well as in the art itself.\u201d Further considering Mason\u2019s <\/span>Evening on White River<\/span><\/i>, Welch depicted how the viewer\u2019s eye \u201clingers on sprouts of wild grass, craggy rock and rippling pool in the foreground, with the eye then drawn to a spectacle of brilliant light emblazoning a majestic tree, then moving out across glassine waters and a river bend to softly colored Romantic atmosphere.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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White River, After the Storm by Mason Archie<\/p><\/div>\n
Such a<\/span> \u201cbrilliant light\u201d could also be used to describe Mason\u2019s successful career in art. Along with national exhibits and the ongoing display of his works in galleries and private corporate collections, Mason partnered for his<\/span> inaugural fine art<\/span> exhibit with mentor and art legend, Simmie Knox; was awarded a Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship by<\/span> The Arts Council of Indianapolis and the Lilly Endowment; was chosen to contribute a piece of art to the Eskenazi Health facilities for a 2014 collection designed to support the environment of health and healing; has traveled the country painting Underground Railroad historic sites; and has worked with master printmakers Curlee Raven Holton and Jase Clark to produce etchings and serigraphs for the Experimental Printmaking Institute on the Lafayette College campus in Easton, Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n
Still, despite such career recognition<\/span> and success, Mason ultimately reverts to his primary artistic purpose by clarifying how he strives for others to see the light through his unique, aesthetic lens.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cA photograph is not going to fully capture the mood, nor will it capture distance properly because a photo is going to make the distance a hard line,\u201d explains Mason, stressing the distinct visual capacities of art by the human hand. However, with distance in nature and its associated light, \u201cyour eyes see it fading away <\/span>softly<\/span><\/i>, so you have to keep those things in mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is to make sure that the viewer is experiencing what I saw, whatever type of light or whatever is going on, be it moonlight, fall, or rain,\u201d promotes Mason. \u201cI want him to experience what I saw so that he can see, whatever type of day it was, how it affects the scene I was viewing at the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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