For three decades, John Miner has established himself as a screen-printing legend in Los Angeles. He has worked with the biggest and the best. A short list is easy to remember, when you are in the league of John Miner to name one art star you would have to name them all, suffice to say that some of the great prints on paper in art history have been realized by his eyes and hands.
John is getting serious on the L.A. Art Scene now. He is curating exhibitions at SERIO PRESS with an eye devoted exclusively to showing underexposed screenprinters. His opening show is this Friday and I caught up with him to find out what was going on.
MAT GLEASON: WHO IS THE ARTIST YOU ARE FEATURING IN YOUR FIRST SERIO SHOW CURATION?
JOHN MINER: The artist calls himself “Mhiachnoti” this is a phonetic spelling of his last name McNulty, when I asked him how he came up with his artist name he gave me two reasons, one, is that he was born at home without a birth certificate, so he can call himself whatever he chooses! Reason two, is that in a heavy, Deep Southern accent, people down home would say his last name as, “Mhi…ach…noti”
MG: HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT HIM?
JM: Mac has been one of our students a Pasadena City College for a couple of years now, he has studied with myself, and my colleagues, Kris Pilon, and Erika Ruvell. It is not uncommon for elderly people to take our classes from time to time, but this guy really warmed up to us, and pretty soon was using our lab as a private studio, with our direction of course! He always walks in looking like the last undiscovered delta blues man, with his derby hat, screen in one hand and a satchel completely stuffed with drawings, some are ideas for prints, but most are things he just wishes to share with his teachers and younger students. When he comes in, he listens to lectures and demos, once lab time is on he goes right to work. When he is waiting for ink to dry, he holds court with whomever is in earshot, eighteen year olds gladly listen to his stories about growing up in the south prior to the civil rights movement, or maybe a wild one about his stint as David Carradine’s personal photographer! Last year our department published two of his works as fine art screen prints and had him lecture for African American Heritage Month.
The Artist Mhiachnoti
MG: WHAT WAS HIS HISTORY BEFORE HE TOOK CLASSES AT PCC?
JM: He was born in 1940, in the village of Bogue Chitto Mississippi, a one time sawmill town and Indian reservation. He is a grandson of a slave, and his elderly grandfather lived with him and his family. Mac had a close relationship with his grandfather who told him stories of life as a slave. His family was poor subsistence farmers. Mac told me that when he was a small child they were so poor his father drove them around on a horse drawn sled, years later only affording a wagon, and never owning a car. Life in the segregated South for him and his family was as terrible as any accounts one might read about. He came of age surrounded by racism, but it seems clear to me that he came from a family that stressed hard work, and retaining a positive outlook as a tool of survival.
Mac aspired to better his position in life through education, he attended an all black high school in the next county, there he began to discover his creative side, drawing and painting signs for the school. He caught the attention of the white principal and his daughter, a teacher at the school. Upon graduation, they helped get him into one college, that then made it possible for him to transfer to The Layton School of Art and Design, in Milwakee, Wisconsin, where he studied drawing and painting. He was greatly influenced by western abstract art, that is visible in his work today. Upon graduating, he took an interest in photography. He would photograph celebrities who passed through town on a local golf course, here he met African American country star, Charlie Pride, who he is a big fan of. Charlie Pride urged him to come out to Los Angeles to peruse a career in photography, and he did, arriving sometime in the early to mid 1970s. He arrived in Los Angeles to find a closed shop when it came mainstream magazines and newspapers. He found a way in through the back door, and it was the Spanish language media. He obtained his press credentials through La Opinion and other Spanish news outlets, that would send him on red carpet assignments, backstage all access shoots and more. He later had shots end up in People Magazine and other mainstream media publications. He worked as a freelance entertainment photographer for decades, had a photo studio in the Victor Clothing Co. building through the 1980s. He has just bits and pieces of this work, it is one of those, sad, “improper storage situation” loss stories.
An untitled multi-pull screen print by Mhiachnoti
MG: DOES MAC HAVE A WEBSITE?
JM: He has no web presence, nor email address, or business card, you just have to be lucky enough to meet him. One amazing thing about his art is that can be perceived in so many ways depending on who is viewing it. If the person wishes to see it as contemporary African American Folk Art, or Western influenced outsider art, or even conceptual art, so be it. This guy just does art for his own enjoyment and expression on a daily basis, not trying to fit in anywhere, or get it placed in any one scene or style. He really could care less, but people seem gravitate to the art.
SERIO PRESS is at 4444 Hunting Drive in South Pasadena 90032. The opening reception for MHIACHNOTI is Friday, March 21 at 5:30 PM until 9:30 PM. The event is free and open to the public.
