Jan 26-29, 2006
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Joplin’s art parallels life and music
By Kari Reitan
Daily Texan Staff
Janis Joplin’s raspy voice is unmistakable, and her soulful delivery is legendary; yet few realize the full extent of her talents. Joplin’s first love was art. Though not as widely recognized as her wailing music, Joplin’s artwork captures visually the emotion of her renowned songs.
The raw passion of Joplin’s gritty vocals can be experienced on a visual level through her sketches and paintings, which are currently on display at Art on 5th.
“She was a very creative, expressive person and this was just another way she expressed that,” gallery director Jodi Brauner said.
Ranging from quick gesture drawings and illustrations to large oil paintings, each piece of work displays a different side of the rock ‘n roll legend.
Her artwork is largely figurative. “She painted what she experienced, and she experienced people,” Brauner said.
Steering away from realism, the figures in her paintings “Crucifix” and “Reclining Woman” are contorted and distorted to evoke powerful moods.
In stark contrast, whimsical sketches are also included in the exhibit. Joplin illustrated the letters that she sent home to Texas with doodles of her life in San Francisco. The illustration “Self Portrait” shows Janis wearing a leather hat that she made.
“We use digital cameras now, that’s what she used,” Brauner said.
Her sister, Laura Joplin, says that the running theme through Joplin’s art is “authenticity.” Her artwork is true, confident and uninhibited.
“She said once to our brother when teaching him how to draw, ‘Don’t draw what it’s like … draw it, draw what it is,’” Laura Joplin said.
The majority of Joplin’s artwork was created between the ages of 12 and 20. Her sister remembers Joplin constantly sketching while growing up. Joplin took private art lessons from an early age and eventually majored in art at Lamar Tech and the University of Texas before she was drawn to the psychedelic music scene in San Francisco.
It was there that she became the frontwoman of the reckless and self-indulgent psychedelic rock outfit Big Brother & the Holding Company. The band’s performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival showcased Joplin’s commanding vocal presence that captured the spirit and soul of the “Summer of Love.”
After one remarkable and erratic album with Big Brother & the Holding Company, 1968’s Cheap Thrills, Joplin launched a solo career that was cut short by her untimely death in 1970. Her unfinished masterpiece, Pearl, was released the following year and solidified Joplin as the queen of rock ‘n’ roll.
Laura Joplin believes that her sisters’s artwork ultimately made her stronger as a musician.
“Her experience in visual art helped with her singing, because she was learning how to break something complex down,” Laura Joplin said.
Had Joplin herself not been broken first, there is no telling what the young Texan with the searing voice and raucous demeanor could have accomplished both artistically and musically.
Along with Joplin’s personal artwork, vintage posters from her shows, photos and paintings of Joplin by Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick are also on display. The exhibit will be open until the end of the month.