Corey Barksdale has been in the Decatur Artists Market for several years and we are proud to have his work on our
2008 Arts Festival poster. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he was exposed to color and form at an early age by his grandmother, a quilt artist, and his mother, whose gift for design was expressed in her daily life.
Barksdale earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Atlanta College of Art in 1994. He was heavily influenced by the abstract expressionists and admired such mainstream artists as Jasper Johns, Clifford Still, and William deKooning. The African-American masters Aaron Douglas, John Biggers, Romare Bearden, and William Tolliver inspired an appreciation of African-American artistic heritage.
His fine art ranges from human figures to non-objective abstracts. In recent years he has concentrated on themes that portray the love and strength within the African-American community. He is also strongly influenced by jazz and jazz musicians. His paintings grace the covers of books, magazines, CDs and posters.
