Page 89 - Nashville Interiors - Winter (2019-2020)

AR T, AR TIS ANS AND ANTIQUES

Artist Spotlight OMARI BOOKER

STORY BY HOLLIE DEESE | PHOTOGRAPHY SUBMITTED
N ashville native Omari Booker didn’t

really begin to tap into his artistic side
until he was a senior at Montgomery
Bell Academy. His art teacher then,
Jim Womack, was a real inspiration
— and is still a mentor — but Booker
never looked at it then as a path of
viable employment.

So he went to Belmont and studied math, but it
wasn’t the right fit. He transferred to Tennessee
State University to study studio art and graphic
design, in which he got his degree.
“My art came sort of late. Life sort of happened
for a few years, and then that brought me back
around to what I’m supposed to be doing.
“My personal legal issue and incarceration has
sort of given me a bit of a stronger desire to
look at that side of our system, when I probably
wouldn’t have been as aware of it had I not been
in it,” he says.
Booker was arrested for drug possession in
2009. That resulted in a 15-year prison sentence.
He served three and a half years; his parole will
be completed in 2023.

“I did what I did, so it’s the laws on the books.
But I do feel moved to shift that system in a way
which is more equal and more fair. I think we can
find a better way to deal with a lot of crimes,
especially drug possessions and probation
violations and child support being late, that
people are incarcerated for repeatedly. And it’s a
lot easier to get there as a black male.”
He hopes to be able to use his experience and
art to shift that mindset, not beating people over
the head with the message, but sharing in the
best way that people can understand.
“This isn’t helping move our society in the Top: “Drug War,” 30x48 inches, mixed media (oil, razor
direction that we want it to go,” he says. wire, bullets, pills, pill bottles, wire) on panel
Above: “I Live Here Too,” 62x79.5 inches, oil on two doors
His art and style have evolved over time, spurred
on by his almost-daily practice of creating in the

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