"Stay Strong" by Jamaal Barber and Charly Palmer

35 x 30 inches, Lino cut, --unframed

Jamaal Barber was born in VA and raised in Littleton, NC. At a young age he was fascinated by the illustrations in children's books and the colorful images in comic books. He started drawing on the back of his tests in elementary school and was soon drawing on any material that he could find. He finally decided to become an artist after reading about the life of Romare Bearden in high school. In 2003, Jamaal graduated with a BA in Communication Arts from East Carolina University.  While in school he won the 2002 JOSA award for drawing and 1st Place in Graphic Design for the Rebel Magazine, the annual ECU student art awards magazine.  In 2004, Jamaal moved to Atlanta where he now resides with his wife and two children. He has worked doing graphic design work for Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. and Spoken Magazine. His fine art painting has been displayed at the Art on 5 and with the Mano-a- Mano art show. In 2013 after seeing a screen printing demo at a local art store, Barber started experimenting with printmaking and has made it his focus. His prints have been included in the Atlanta Printmaker Studio Biennial show and the Hudgens Center For The Arts. 

Charly Palmer was born in 1960 in Fayette, Alabama and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A successful graphic designer and illustrator with his own design studio and Fortune 500 clientele, Palmer devotes much of his life to pursuing his fine art dreams and is well on his way to establishing himself as a fine artist of note. He remembers being fascinated by illustrations in Ezra Jack Keats' "The Snowy Day" around the age of five. "I could never get enough of the imagery in the book", he says, "This planted a seed in my young heart. Keats' works were magical to me". He would later realize that what appealed to him most were the random geometric shapes, the simplicity of the layered textures and patterns, along with the mix of bold colors.