The musicians (and their progenitors) illuminated in “HEADROOM” are mere portals into humanity that examine self awareness, self-hatred, will-power, heritage, self-determination and life after death just to name a few. Stylistically, the paintings echo Robert Rauschenberg, Romare Bearden and Franz Kline, and each one speaks across generations, and musical genres to illustrate the human victories and sub-human scandals that form or deform our ambition for a more perfect human union. The narrative of each poem is dramatic non-fiction, and its intent is to render a myriad of impressions (visual, auditory, physical, associative and subliminal) that sway the unconscious to form rational thoughts. Marshaled by compounds of transcendentalism, bombast and lyricism, it conforms to none of the rules by which poetry is routinely judged and owes to its individuality the obligation to be limited by having no limitations.

Whether at a wedding, graduation or funeral, to enliven a work-out, survive repetitive tasks, to relax or simply to drown out the world’s incessant rattle and hum, every culture of human being has listened to music to aid them. In an international survey, it ranked as one of life’s sources of supreme pleasure and emotional power. Scientific studies confirm that the human brain is hard-wired to music, and they even suggest that one day it will be used to help patients heal from mental disease or stroke. Researchers have always assumed that the human brain must be equipped with a “music room”, a cortical infrastructure solely dedicated to deciphering the harmonic symbols of a song. With conventional brain-scanning technology, scientists failed to find overwhelming evidence of a music-specific psychological space, and the quest to recognize a quintessential human passion for melody floundered. But researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have recently devised a radical new passage to brain imaging that reveals what previous studies have missed. Their conclusions offer researchers a new tool for exploring the contours of human musicality in the mind. They discovered that when a musical passage was played, a distinct set of neurons tucked inside the auditory cortex fired in response and other noises by contrast left the musical circuits unmoved. Art of any form is a medium for discovery and communication. Creativity is the catalyst for purpose and harmony in an otherwise strange life. The mandate of creative people is to be pioneers. Whether through the exploration of new sounds, materials or techniques, we must be wary of repetition and conformity. Artists can produce works that promotes dialogue that helps us understand ourselves and in turn, discover all knowledge and mystery. By activating the creative forces within us, we can vitalize ourselves. Through this solitary brooding in the dark, we eventually call forth the light.

He was born in Chicago and raised in a neighborhood where the wrong word to the wrong person might cost your life. It was a district deemed the most dangerous place in the nation, and those who resided there were given only a two percent chance of emerging from it. Reared in a single parent household with eight other siblings (each uniquely and artistically talented) he survived through unassailable familial love and an inherited fanciful escapism. His mother didn’t discourage his abilities as idealistic oddities but fostered them with an encouragement that he could be anything he willed to be. By expressing from an ever evolving self, he hopes to produce a career of work that informs and invigorates while it progressively challenges limitations. His work and life are dedicated to the education, proliferation and dispensation of produce that serve as an antidote to the reductive default of status quo ideology and demagoguery. His current style echoes the past works of Robert Rauschenberg, Romare Bearden and Franz Kline, but one shouldn’t assume that what they see now is what they always will. The task of every human is to mature as a unified mind, body and spirit with the source of all creation as our guide. Life requires that we create something in which we are totally reflected, but artists can produce spiritual, universal and meaningful expressions for others. With innovation and imagination, we can search the frontiers of our soul for the good of the commonwealth. The external passions and expressions we manifest permit us to speak across generations, cultures and political affiliations. Blessed with an inner-vision, Vernell Garrett's mandate is to elaborate on the human victories and subhuman scandals that form or deform our ambition for a more perfect human union.