Schepis Museum in Columbia hosts display by Calvin G. Daniels

by joni taylor
Calvin G. Daniels is a very soft spoken man that loves to create drawings with graphite and pencil. When speaking with Mr. Daniels you have to lean in to hear what he has to say. He said that he wasn’t good at public speaking. I said just tell me what is in your heart. Tell me what inspires you to create these drawings. After speaking with Daniels you know that he has a very kind and gentle soul.
Daniels is a very spiritual man and feels that his drawings are a gift from God. He doesn’t feel like it is art and doesn’t draw to generate money. He feels it is a ministry, a spirituality from his creator. When asked how he got started he said that in 1982, when he was 24, he watched a friend create and it greatly inspired him to give it a try. He said it was a blessing. Daniels will often wake up and start drawing. When inspired he spends many quality hours and will complete one of his portraits in several days.
Most of Daniels works were of people that were very significant to Black History. He had drawings of Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone and others. Daniels posed in front of two of his favorite drawings, Mahalia Jackson and John Coltrane. Jackson was the first spiritual lady he had heard of and Coltrane was his favorite Jazz musician.
His penciled portraits, he calls them living faces, depict history as early as the 60’s. One of his portraits of a young woman, titled Ramona Africa, is so captivating and draws you in. He said this was when he really started working with values of light and dark. Many of the portraits look like black and white photographs.
Mr. Daniels was born in Arkansas and later moved to Minnesota before relocating to Caldwell Parish with his wife, Gloria Whittington Daniels, who is from Columbia. He has shown his work locally at Union Central Elementary for the students. Some of his drawings have been reproduced for important clients.
For more Caldwell Parish news, go to www.caldwellwatchman.com