The blood of Emmett Till

Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African American boy who was murdered in Money, Mississippi in the late hours of August 28, 1955. When his body was found floating in a river two weeks later, he was terribly disfigured. His mother was understandably outraged and chose to have an open casket funeral. Photos of Emmett in his coffin were published. The public was outraged and it is said this event started the modern civil rights movement.

This is the barn he was murdered in. What gives me a connection with this story, other than my own outrage, is that I was born at the exact moment Emmett Till was killed. I plan to give a giclee print to the Civil Right Museum in Memphis, TN where I am from.

Oil on canvas 16x20"

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The Great Mississippi Waterfall

I entered this design in the Memphis River Port Comm ission's call for proposals in 2003. It would sit on the Mississippi River at the entrance to Beale Street. They were looking for an "iconic" structure which would attract tourist from around the world. I got to thinking about a waterfall on the Mississippi and designed this. It would be 257 feet tall making it the tallest waterfall east of the big muddy. Fall Creek Falls is 256 feet tall. The top is an observatory. Water would be carried to the top via a series of Archimed es screws on the interior made of lexan so tourists could visually watch the water going to the top. Unfortunately, it was not chosen , and nothing has ever been built in that location. I created a blog just for this project because I put so much effort into it and have so much data. Here is the web address: http://greatmississippiwaterfall.blogspot.com/

Johnny Ashworth the 4th

This is my son, Johnny (John Wesley Ashworth, IV). It's oil on canvas and was painted in 2005. This was also painted from a photo I took, as are almost all my paintings. I started to call it "The Eye" because of it's composition. Johnny didn't seem to excited about it when he saw it, but He's pretty shy. I like to think he really is proud that his pappy would spend the time it took to "Immortalize" him.

Swampy

Woo Hoo! I just finished my first painting in almost 4 years!! I've not had any work for a couple of weeks, so I started painting again. This is from a photo I took in the Wolf River Bottoms a few years back. It's oil on canvas and very much the largest work I've ever done at 40"x47". Remember, you can click on the image to view it at a larger size.

Wesley Ashworth's Art

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