TEXAS HILL COUNTRY
The Artisan’s Way Inside the universe of sculptor Jonas Perkins
“I moved here with a tent and only a wheelbarrow and some cement,” Perkins said. Perkins hails from the Chicago area. His father was a Pullman porter, and his mother cleaned at a mental institution. They sent him to a Catholic school to get a good education, but he wasn’t Catholic, and he was also the only Black kid. His status as an outsider, both at school and in his neighborhood, propelled him to make art that draws people inside his creative spirit. “Inside is outside. Outside is inside,” Perkins said. “Art has a way of moving around people that talkin’ by itself don’t get at.” His mother believed in him from an early age, telling him, “God’s got a plan for you, son,” Perkins recalled. She also taught ceramics and gave him clay to play with. Even as a child he could make clay look like actual, recognizable people. He still doesn’t sketch before he starts to sculpt. He simply sees an image and follows it. “When you do a sculpture, you visualize. It’s my perception of what I see.” he said. “What you’re doing as a sculptor is a collective of many aspects of a person.” He has sculpted numerous historical figures — George Washington Carver, Governor Bill Clements, Frederick Douglass, Quanah Parker, Gordon Parks, Rosa Parks, Harold Washington, Carl Solms-Braunfels (and his German castle). He’s currently working on a sculpture of Jim Collums and his windmills for the Longhorn Museum in Pleasanton. Perkins’ work can be found in hospitals, libraries, museums, parks and in private collections.
He said, Charlie, thirty years went by way too fast, it seemed. / I just chased an artisan’s dream / And I said, Jonas, that’s just the artisan’s way. – song by Charlie Kelley, for Jonas Perkins Imagine if an artist exuded his craft in every aspect of his life: his demeanor, his domicile, and yes, in his artwork. Fredericksburg has such an artist, a man who lives near the bat cave. He is the internationally known sculptor and mosaic artist Jonas Perkins. An artist and an artisan are different — one makes fine art, and one makes fine craft. Perkins makes both. He can turn clay into bronze. He can build a house out of abandoned wine bottles, satellite dishes and Aircrete. He can inspire a song.
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