Arts Professional Story: Patric McCoy, Diasporal Rhythms

Patric McCoy, art collector, founder and president of Diasporal Rhythms

"Our music produces many images painters would seemingly go berserk with images God has thru us revealed all these, images"

- Laurence Jones, Images.

I am an African American who collects contemporary African diasporal visual art images as fine art. I, and others in Chicago, maintain that it is important for the peoples of African descent in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa to be in the forefront of acquiring and validating the creative images produced by the artists in their communities. And, through those collecting and promoting activities, be the first voices in naming those high quality productions as fine art. This position does not preclude anyone from liking or acquiring anything that they choose.

Art appreciation is for everyone, but the art as a culturally defining concept belongs to a people, in a place, at a specific point in time. The more involved a people are in promoting their artists in creating images - in all of their manifold subject matters, concepts, and techniques - the clearer the direction will be of where those people are going and a clearer description will arise of who they are. Visual images are important; important on the grand scale of culture and history and simultaneously important on the very personal level of contemplation, inner peace and sanity. I love our visual images just as many of us love and collect one or more types of our diasporal musics. Consequently, I collect visual images with that same intensity. Primary for consideration of inclusion in my collection are those visual images created by diasporal artists of things seen, experienced, expressed, imagined or abstracted out of some aspect of our cultural life.

Also high for consideration are images of concepts explored and stories retold. Those images could be produced through any one of a variety of visual art techniques. I also collect images, created by others, about us doing the myriad things we do. I feel it is important to have images of how others see you. The deciding criteria on what I collect have been 1.) my spiritual connection with the image upon seeing it, 2.) the technical and/or innovative quality of the presentation of the image, and 3.) whether the piece is contemporary to me.

Over the past 30 years I have collected over 400 paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages, assemblages, etc. and have displayed them in a five room space. Each of those pieces of art has spoken a message of its importance personally and has also revealed its importance to our culture here and now. I believe "˜importance' is accomplished through the creating artist's mastery of our visual vocabulary. However, the images in my collection are not all about "happy talk". Cultural importance addresses both that which should be honored, contemplated, promoted and enjoyed but also those concepts and behaviors that should be thrown away and avoided. Once I am engaged in such a conversation with a visual image, I can reach a point where "I have to have it!"

Consequently, when asked, I counsel those debating the purchase of an art work, that they should, above all other considerations, acquire work they like; get the work they can live with as a companion, instructor, inspiration or confidant; and have the work that speaks to them now and has the ability, much later on, to say "but did you see the other messages that I contain?" I collect artwork from which I discern a quality concept in its production. Quality is hard to conclusively describe before hand, but most agree, you know quality when you see it embodied within a compelling visual image. There are many standards (academic, economic, technical, etc.) that have been established in Western society for evaluating art and its quality. I do not reject them nor do I slavishly apply all of those standards in making a purchase. As an example, I accept that very good African diasporal artists can either be formally trained or self-taught and can be unknown or un-shown.

I believe the more important "artist" question in evaluating an artwork for purchase is "did the artist, through the utilization of the materials and techniques available, impart quality and or cultural innovation in the presentation of the visual message?" In regards to the act of collecting, that question puts an obligation on more of the diasporal community to passionately seek out the creative images in the same manner as we seek out the new and the quality music. Our passion and critical ear for our own music has made all of its forms globally recognized and appreciated. We can do the same for our visual images with our collective critical eye. In all aspects of society and inquiry, our diasporal culture has actually been shown to be very rich in promoting inventiveness and innovation, in making do with less or with something else, and in syncopating and abstracting the prevailing pattern.

We have been especially successful in those disciplines involving rhythms and flow - from mathematics to music. Consequently, when I look around me, I see we actually have an abundance of good visual artists - and not just an elite few. These artists are imparting quality and innovation in their production of images in part because of our diasporal heritage. Our artists are using their trained or self perfected art talents in ways to create "new" images by quilting visual art concepts from our root culture with those of the cultures where they find themselves. Those images are inherently of cultural significance without their being produced under a manifesto to create, as in the 1960s and 70s, "˜cultural art' movement. I prefer to collect "˜contemporary' images produced during my life and by the hand of artists that I have met and known. I have only one painting that is older than I am and it was done by my father. I have the highest regard for the master diasporal artists of the last two centuries. It is important that they are finally being recognized for their genius, talent and perseverance and that their works are being collected at the highest levels worldwide.

I have special regard for the artists, many unknown to the general public, that created art work in the middle decades of the twentieth century without outside patronage or any meaningful community support. With all due respect, I do not plan to collect those artists' work. I leave that to others. For me contemporary images reverberate with special meaning and importance. Its not because the artists of today are inherently better at creating important images than those artists creating images in the past.

Today's diasporal artists have been exposed to and have experienced the same societal and cultural changes that I have also experienced and lived through, from the mundane to the major. In general, artists' works are like mirrors and harbingers; they reflect and they project. Even though most of the works produced in our communities today are not consciously done to represent some aspect of the culture, they are in the collective reflective of that culture and its interests, perceptions, prejudices and its changes. Tracking the changes in the quality art produced by a people provides a means of knowing where the culture is going. Each piece in my collection is special because it represents a manifestation of the evolved cultural life that has occurred around me. The collection as a whole is one record of this time. You could be putting together another one. When I listen to the current master collectors of African American art speak on collecting I hear a common message.

They say to collect the artists producing quality work right around you, just as they did, and if you do, they project, you will end up with an important collection. I, the members of Diasporal Rhythms and many others in Chicago, have taken heed to that advice.

In our collecting we are giving special attention to the Chicago artists. We attend their shows, we invite them to our homes, we visit their homes and studios, we work together on common projects, we introduce them to other collectors and galleries, we write about them and we collect their original works. As a result, the atmosphere in the African American art community in Chicago is now electric. Many more people have developed critical eyes and a passion for collecting contemporary art. We believe that phenomenon will also occur in other African diasporal communities across the globe when those communities are the first to claim the visual images created by their artists.


Patric McCoy is a 28 year veteran of the Air and Radiation Division of the U.S.EPA Regional Office in Chicago. He currently serves as the National Expert on air pollution control measures at Petroleum Refining Processes (Sulfur Recovery Plants and Flares) Prior to working with the USEPA Mr. McCoy was the chief chemist for the Gary, Indiana Air Pollution Control Department and was a chemistry and physics teacher in the Chicago public school system. He has a BA in Chemistry from the University of ChicagoGovernors State University. and an MA in Environmental Science from been collecting contemporary African American art from Chicago artists for 30 years. In 2003 he cofounded a not-for-profit arts organization, Diasporal Rhythms, for promoting the collection of contemporary art works by artists of African descent.