When I blogged about motherhood in African American art, I mentioned two select negro artists (Sylvia Walker and Charles Bibbs) who valued maternity. In honor of Father’s Day, let’s, this time, spotlight one artist who really seems to get the notion of Pops…
Cbabi Bayoc is a product of St. Louis, Missouri, and there is more to his moniker than first meets the eye. His forename is shorthand for “Creative Black Artist Battling Ignorance,” while his surname is an acronym for “Blessed African Youth Of Creativity.” In terms of relevance to this blog topic, Bayoc himself is a dad to three kids (which, as you will see, is why he has such insight into fatherly love). So if you visit his personal artistic website, you will see many works devoted to the theme of fatherhood.
Cbabi Bayoc, along with his wife, also manage a confectionery store in the STL. There you the customer can satisfy both your sweet tooth and your love of fine black art at the same time. The duo have a bakeshop and studio website to represent their shop, so you can get a sense of what their establishment is all about.
In perusing both of his online sites, I noticed that Bayoc’s “pop” art exhibits certain recurring themes, and several of his pieces seem to cover more than one theme each. Now, I can’t link directly to any single art piece due to the flash nature of his domains. (Which is a small quibble I have with the sites: the extensive use of the flash app, again, makes it harder for web surfers to reference specific items; and, also, relevant graphic aspects of both sites might get buried in search engine results.) But I will try to point out each particular item by stating either its specific category and its sequence number under the “artwork” link at cbabibayoc.com, or just its sequence number in the paintings subcategory under the “sweet/art pics” link at the SweetArt site. (I hope that’s clear to you all, cause I done confused my damn self.)
Or, when possible, I’ll simply send you somewhere you can purchase a print of the item…
Back to those recurring themes, with named (in most cases) examples:
- The concept of Father just being there when you need him – In Daddy’s Care; first steps, paintings, 9th in series; Daddy’s Love (negroartist.com is a prime source for…ummm…negro artists).
- Paternal physical contact – sold artwork, 4th; sold artwork, 10th; safety net, paintings, 7th (As you can see, this piece contains elements in the Daddy’s Care piece)
- Papa uplifting his kids (literally as well as figuratively) – available paintings, 4th; Daddy’s Shoulder.
I suspect that a lot of these Afro-American visual treats not classified as “sold” can be had for a price by visiting Bayoc and wife’s brick-and-mortar store on S. 39th Street. But if you can’t pay them a visit, and you got it like that financially-speaking, there’s no need to fret. Drop him a line at his artistic website (cbabibayoc.com) – by hitting the “CONTACT” link – and he can come out to your neck of the woods and whip you up a print. Something really personal and really good. Maybe something for your dad.
Even better…
), I’d also like to bring up the native-born Biggers, another feature artist in the Art of the Masters exhibit. He is one of twelve black painters and collagists whose masterpieces appear in the 
