Show negro painter pai anter Is a real genius G e nl u s sees pictures in air and impulse forces him to paint them ife he sees pictures in the air and Is possessed by some demon or uncontrolled force until tip lie puts puls them on carans ns all lite ills life he tins been seeing pictures und and tins hns felt fell tile tie urge to paint tiem them into the corn plex welve of his being run hirk and bloody thredda the murder of n tits his father hip flip cruelty of a the benign influence of a Vat holle priest who tried to ti tench him painting several attempts of nt suicide tile the death of the bride halde of tits his youth now nt at fifty a janitor in nn an apart ment house here jesse oliver liver ford feord a negro uneducated untutored in flip technique of his art Is producing oil ha s flint have been exhibit hv by the arts club noted artists were unwilling to believe that these were the work of tin nn ann until they visited him in HIP basement of tile the apartments seventeenth and n R streets find and saw mm him lit at work A modest man Is jesse ford billel mannered courteous kindly disposed rie he has a keenly intelligent mind flow did you happen to take up pointing painting tip was asked 1 I help it tile the thins thing comes on m mp allen I 1 nm eating mopping up tip a floor or walking tile streets aind I 1 list go to my mv room and paint the in ull till of its infinite details Is fixed in n my mind I 1 see it before my mv eyes staring sten steadily tiffy of nt me and nil all I 1 have to do Is to copy it ns as I 1 see it visions aright on rainy days on rainy davs they are very verv bright like a xii sometimes when I 1 nm im olif on walking in tile the rain and I 1 imp hop pen ta tr look of at a dimp wall I 1 see five wp Jv d pictures ench each one clearly defined 11 how flow does tile the power soul you it cornea comes down from above like slipping lipping something over your hend I 1 can see it coming he made n gesture with both hands na act if putting pulling something t filmy over tits his hend fiend and shoulders and I 1 break out in a cold sweat ns as it envelops tile me then inside of me tells me to go homp and paint lie ile bro brought light out three ol of his can vases one was a scene in algeria an old monastery in moorish architecture with north african setting another was set in the north carolina mountains the third was a simple countryside scene his ells lire life story as he tells it Is high ly colored with drama its ills fattier father was in the union army ills his mother was a native nate of winchester VH va und and nt at tho the close of it the war she and tier mother followed the union army to pittsburgh ten years after the witt war his parents parent Fi met by chance nt at tile the philadelphia adelphia la centennial married tin and went to pittsburgh to live lire there jesse ford was born when he wits was fire tits his fattier father was doorman for a big gambling house run by a man fumed mimed john robinson one night a gambler tilled filled nathaniel for fords ds sandwich full of at arsenic and he died horribly soon rhe the widow married again to n man who wits not kind to the boy bov in school he was taught drawing uno and then without instruction he began to paint the stepfather thought ought li this a waste of time lie ile threw out the points paints thrashed the boy and had him token taken out of school and put to work arouses priests interest before he fie was twenty jesse married in rapid succession he lost two babies he fie had and just begun to point paint again ilia 1118 sorrows broke his health and like many other geniuses he tried to kill himself each linah effort ended in failure fellure during the dark period an old german priest fattier karl attner of tarentum Tarent Taren tum lim allegheny county touched his life fire ile he was tin nn artist skilled with brush and violin ile he visited in nil all the conits where there was illness or death and thus he met jesse ford the youth was recovering from his last attempt nt suicide this excited tile the priests sympathy on his visit to the lowly cottage he was shown the top of a cigar box on which ford hod had painted it a picture who did this bis lie he asked with excited interest 1 I dd said tile the sick youth sly bly boy when get cot well come to house and I 1 will give you lessons in painting you tire re nn an artist and so it began negro boy and german priest the boy a methodist by rearing and baptism the priest of the roman faith the lessons in painting came to nought naught the boy was bill tie could not grasp a single thing the priest showed him for several years lie he was a janitor and an engineer the urge to paint never failed him film but he resisted tile power for five years lie fie never took up tip the lite brush not yet had he put paint on in canvas three years ago while out walking one drizzly dafter 00 noon oo he gln up of nt a wet all land sow in i picture the spell came on him film 11 HP 4 pulled back bach and the picture hecko beckoned reckoned ned film on the impulse to point finally barll overpowered him lie he run ran to or nc art store and bought can ans brushes palette and points oe ile ann hark to tn tits lilo room and sat eat down and painted until he was exhausted |