Universal Chair

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    Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio
Collection of
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

"A strong piece. It used to be on the porch, but I been working with it a long time now. The red, white, and blue of the United States of America. God over all of it— God is not dead. We got some strong numbers, man. Three threes: that's strong as acid, nine on time. Prayer is the key. I work with different things, but prayer is the thing. That golf is control, like Tiger Woods, you got to play. God is a miracle worker We going up. We don't want to be down. Like Reverend Ike say, 'We want to have a pie 'fore we get to the sky.' Two fives on them dice: five is alive, the gift of God, eternal life. And the three: Father Son, and the Holy Ghost. All together is thirteen. Jesus worked with that: twelve disciples, thirteen with him.

That pot something a white man had in his house, owned the cotton gin down there. I had a lot of respect for him. That wood, that's a hard stick. Got to keep it hard. Sunny Delight is for strong bodies. The other bottle [Sprite] is for the spirit. Silver and gold hanging on there keep a lot of things away from you. Keep lightning away, evil spirits away. It's a sex thing, too. I used to have a silver Eldorado, gold in my pocket.

A piece of newspaper give me a good feeling, talks about graduation, education. My mama used to teach us about stuff." —Jessie Marshall