Maya Gwynn
With KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn with Black Perspectives IE, a show where we learn about the amazing things members of the Black community are doing in the Inland Empire. My guest today is oil painter and author Dr. Calvin Jefferson. So nice to meet you.
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
Oh, nice to meet you.
Maya Gwynn
Your professional background, as we talked about, spans healthcare, leadership, military service, entrepreneurship, and you hold a Doctor of Health Science degree. Who inspired you to start painting, and when did you first feel like an artist, officially?
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
As a kid, I want to say maybe Disney, watching cartoons as a kid, watching every Saturday morning as a kid with your Fruity Pebbles, you know, Reading Rainbow. All those type of things inspired me. And I kept all that in, and that's how I found out I could draw. Sitting there watching cartoons, I could copy a cartoon off of TV. Like at five years old, I could draw cartoons. And got into grade school, met a teacher that inspired me about the oil paint, Monet, and all that. And I really like impressionist style oil painting. I started copying Monet and Picasso pictures as a kid, and that what taught me, kind of self learn. But then I had a little - a mentor, you know. So that's how I got started.
Maya Gwynn
That's awesome. Do you remember the first cartoon you drew at five years old?
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
First cartoon was a magazine clip, and it was something in a magazine with a duck with a hat on. He had a hat, and I can draw it to this day. Yeah, you know, had a hat with a C or something in a little baseball cap, and that was the first actual drawing from looking at nothing without looking.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, that's incredible. Yeah, I can't wait to talk about your book, Chromatic Woman Collection features seven paintings representing women from different cultural backgrounds. What inspired you to create this collection, and why was it important to represent women across different cultures and identities?
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
I was doing my three years of my doctorate program. My research was on the socioeconomic issues of healthcare and the economic issues where people accept the trust, in different situations, in healthcare, and so I was doing a paper on how women carry the mitochondria, whatever, carried down, and I looked at how powerful that was, how a woman birthed us. Civilization wouldn't be here without a woman. Plus, it's carried through her, through the woman, and I'm an oil painter, and I always want my - even though of my education and all of that, I always think about art. Everything I see, everything is art, and I like Picasso. And that's how I got the sleeping, like the rest. And so I had to come up with a concept with it. The resting woman, like she always working, all these different jobs. A woman can drive, eat, can be back there talking to the kids and doing her makeup and multitasking. A man, we can only maybe drive and listen to the music, and we - you know I'm saying. So, so you look at all the things a woman do, and don't feel like you even got - just now, women are starting to get they just, even basketball, all the different things in the world, and I just wanted to show in the visual form of a woman resting, and that red chair is like, like the throne. And I wanted to deal with different cultures. I didn't want to just be, you know, Afro American. I didn't want to center on, I want all my artwork always to be open to everybody. It spreads how I feel and how I give to my mom. You know, she's still living, and she having medical issues. So I want something to, you know, for my mom growing up to a mom having me at 15. As a Black man, you know, I'm not supposed to be where I'm at with a mother having me at 15 years old. You know, Little Rock, Arkansas. Most of my all my cousins, you know, they all in jail or dead, and it's another thing that inspired me to get my doctorate because I wanted to show my mom, I wanted to show society that you can make it. I could have been out there selling drugs or doing whatever. My mom worked and I was free. Me and my two youngest, raising two little sisters, you know. So with this painting, it just brings everything full circle with me.
Maya Gwynn
I love that. And you kind of answered this, but a central theme of the collection is the idea that women deserve rest, particularly those who spend most of their life caring for others, like you talked about with your mom, working and fulfilling responsibilities. What message are you hoping viewers take away from seeing those women depicted in moments of rest?
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
I just feel like in society, in the workforce, that women are all equal? They are equal to men. We are so divided right now at this stage. I want everybody to see man and woman, creed or color, we're all equal. We all should be on the same playing field, having the same pay scale, and shouldn't be nothing different.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah.
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
And that's what I want this painting to - I want a way of a peace. Like if you see my picture, that means this is a peaceful place.
Maya Gwynn
I love that. Of the seven paintings featured in the book, is there one that holds a personal significance for you? And can you share the story behind it?
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
Well, gotta be the first one, African American. Yeah, I looked at the picture and I got a daughter. I don't wanna say you know, but the picture looked like my one of my daughters. So it kind of caught me. I'm like, wait a minute, I didn't, and I wasn't meaning to have it to look like nobody. I just did the picture. I didn't try to try not to have it look like nobody. But then I started looking like, wait a minute, like one of my daughters. I'm like, so, the first picture that I painted.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah. Okay, we're gonna move to our rapid-fire portion. If your work had a theme song, what would it be?
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
Imagine by John Lennon.
Maya Gwynn
Oh, that's a great answer. No one said that yet. I love that song. If you had to teach a master class or give a TED talk on a random skill you have besides oil painting, what would it be?
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
Roller skating.
Maya Gwynn
Oh, that's a good one. I love that.
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
I keep my roller skates in the car right now.
Maya Gwynn
Okay. As someone who's lived in the IE for a while, what's your favorite Inland Empire restaurant or landmark that reminds you of the Inland Empire?
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
I love Victoria Gardens.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah.
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
I like the vibe. You know, and it's growing, and every day I can go there a month later, and it's a new place, a new feeling. And looking at that mountain, I think that what drew me into just looking at that view is just you know, I don't know, that mountain gives you a kind of peaceful, like a comfort.
Maya Gwynn
And how can people find your book?
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
It's on all platforms right now, but you just type in Calvin Jefferson, okay, or Chromatic Woman. Just Google it, and it'll all, everything will come up.
Maya Gwynn
Awesome! Thank you so much. This is such a good conversation.
Dr. Calvin Jefferson
Thank you.
Maya Gwynn
Dr. Calvin Jefferson is an author and oil painter. Find this segment and others at kvcr.org/bpie. To directly support this segment, visit kvcr.org/bpie. Donate. Support for this segment comes from the M.E.C.C.A. IE Fund at the Inland Empire Community Foundation, advancing racial equity and supporting long-term investments in Black-led organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Join us again next week for Black Perspectives, IE. For KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn. Thank you.
