Jackson Free Press

"Feeling the Spirit: Church and Other Visions by H.C. Porter" opens at Southern Breeze Gallery in Highland Village on Nov. 15.

Mississippi roots twine together Southern gospel and art in the release of a new CD entitled "Church: Songs of Soul & Inspiration" (Universal Records). Jackson natives H.C. Porter, visual artist and a Madison-Ridgeland Academy graduate, and Tena Rix Clark, a Waynesboro native and USM grad who is now a Los Angeles-based music producer, participated in the project to reproduce visual and musical aspects of the Southern experience.

Gospel music and images of Southern culture are in our blood and in the water here; yet, the cover of the CD exports some of the experience for others to share. A choir-robe-clad young girl, arms outstretched in the heart of a small Delta church, smiles beatifically with eyes shut. Colors stream like light through the stained-glass windows while the girl's form of the cross yields the largest blocks of color in the foreground of the picture.

H.C. Porter's mixed-media style began in 1992 with a grant to fund "Avenue of Art" in her Millsaps Avenue neighborhood. She spent five summers with neighborhood kids, imbuing in them a passion for art as an avenue for self- expression. "The neighborhood kids have always been an ever-present presence around my studio," says Porter; they eventually found their way into her serigraphs.

The process begins with a black-and-white photo image screened onto a page; then each color is added one screen at a time, layering the color to create vibrant blocks of color either tempering or juxtaposing previous layers, depending on where each color is applied. "My work is a question of identifying with my characters. You must respond to their realness, to what they bring to you and what you can bring to them," Porter says.

Clark, a long-time supporter of Porter's work, chose her to do the cover for the CD because Porter's work embodies the spirit of the whole project.

"[It is] about where these incredible women started and where they ended up," she says. The singers' backgrounds have a common denominator in church and the music sung there.

While the music on the CD is not strictly gospel, a gospel choir backs up each artist including Jennifer Holliday singing Elvis Presley's "The Wonder of You," and other performances by Stephanie Mills, Chaka Khan and En Vogue. Maya Angelou performs a spoken-word piece, and Toni Morrison wrote the liner notes. Each performance adds another dimension to the project, while Porter's serigraph cover provides the final unifying wash of color.

"Feeling the Spirit: Church and Other Visions by H.C. Porter" opens at Southern Breeze Gallery in Highland Village on Nov. 15. The series consists of 10 images with girls in choir robes and three other images of Delta churches and text from hymns and spirituals. The images will be on display through Dec. 31.