Some people study history, some people live history, and some people make history. Then there are those rare few who do all three. Jon Onye Lockard was one of those rare few, and I am a better person for having known him for more than twenty years. Jon died this week at the age of 83; he fought to the very end – just as he has done his whole life. But, even at 83, he left us too soon.
One of Jon’s life’s mottos was “make them hear you.” Through his art and through his teachings, he illustrated and exemplified this motto.
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| Jon Lockard and Ricky Dessen 2013 |
According to the History Makers piece on Jon, he was a “painter, educator, and historian.” According to Jon's obituary, “he was an amazing artist, muralist, master painter and story teller.” Some other highlights from Jon's obituary follow:
- He was born January 25, 1932, on Detroit's east side.
- He graduated from Eastern High School in 1949, Wayne State University in 1953, and the University of Toronto in 1958.
- He was a professor emeritus from Washtenaw Community College where he taught life drawing & portraiture for over 40 years and at the University of Michigan Department of African-American & African Studies.
- He was a past president and life-long member of the National Conference of Artists.
- He led a contingent of artists to Goree Island off the coast of Senegal, West Africa.
- He co-produced and hosted Barden Cable's Sankofa television program.
- He was a co-founder and associate director of The Society for the Study of African Culture and Aesthetics.
- He served as a Senior Art Advisor for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C.
- His works speak with an uncommon eloquence, sophistication, and vibrancy and may be found in many collections nationally and internationally.
- Some of his most notable masterpieces include a series of murals at Wayne State University, entitled, Continuum, and many murals & paintings at the University of Michigan, Central State University, and the Charles Wright Museum of African-American History.
“His life's philosophy was the West African principle of Sankofa, which means, ‘You don't know where you are going if you don't know where you've been.’" [2] “Born in 1932, [Jon] grew up in the time when Detroit industry was strong and vital, but also when black people were largely invisible in the mass media (or flattened into limited, often subservient social roles).”[3] The History Makers piece discussed that Jon “won a job with Walker and Company,” an outdoor advertising company in Detroit during the first half of the twentieth century, “but was later rejected because of his race.”[4] The piece also revealed that Jon worked as a “traveling portraitist in the late 1950s and early 1960s [and] painted portraits at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962.”[5] Jon directed his art “towards human beings and to delineating their beauty, their anguish, and their joys.”[6] As described by Mike Mosher, Professor of art/communication & digital media at Saginaw Valley State University, “Lockard's art is about African American struggle, its pain, and joy. His visual style is assertive, athletic, muscular, buxom, bountiful, busting out all over.”[7] Jon’s paintings are certainly vibrant, both in color and comment. As Jon stated during a panel discussion focused on the inception, design, and construction of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., “we don’t see with our eyes we see with our mind, your mind tells you what to look for, your knowledge tells you what to seek.”[8]
This philosophy was ever present in my many discussions with Jon. Whenever we were deep in conversation, which we were often, I always knew that it was about to get real when Jon would say “Rick, now let me challenge you.” That would be the point I needed to be ready because Jon was smart … very smart, but more than smart he was caring. When he said “let me challenge you” it meant he wanted to get to the heart of an issue; no sound bites, no bullshit, no saying the politically correct thing, he wanted to know what I really felt and why. We had some great discussions about life, politics, race, religion, family, knowing where you came from, the importance of friends – true friends, and, of course, football (sometimes basketball, but mostly football). As soon as I thought I had answered Jon’s question he would ask “but why” and when I answered again he would reply “but if you look at it this way what do you think.” Later in life when I learned the principles of six sigma and how to conduct internal root cause investigations I just laughed, Jon had already taught me all of this. So even though I was never one of his students, I learned a lot from my brother-in-law. But, his students learned even more. As one of his former students so succinctly stated in his eulogy of Jon, “Jon made a difference.”
Jon, you will be missed but never forgotten. While no one word can capture your legacy, if forced to choose one, it would be “inspiring.” You inspired so many to be the best they could be. You did so by caring, by teaching, by mentoring, by being truthful, by being tough, by being gentle, by leading by example, but most of all, by being you.
[8] https://vimeo.com/31618060, Framing a Cultural Ideal.,' focused on the inception, design, and construction of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
