Painting angels
By Sierra Henry
Published in News on September 5, 2018 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/SIERRA HENRY
Guy Simmons, of Goldsboro, adds details to the portrait of Miss Ella May, a woman who lived next to the D&C Mini Mart for years. Simmons wanted to pay homage to people like Ella May, who used to sit on her front porch and talked to those who walked by.
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News-Argus/SIERRA HENRY
Guy Simmons paints a mural on the side of D&C Mini Mart at the corner of Elm and Dail streets.
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Guy Simmons works on a "Rest-in-Peace" mural to remember those who have died from poverty and gun violence. The mural is on the west side of the D&C Mini Mart on the corner of Elm and Dail streets and features several angels against a vibrant sunset.
Guy Simmons dips the end of his paintbrush into a gallon of rusty brown colored paint before contouring the cheekbones of a portrait of a woman, who he called Miss Ella May, on the side of the D&C Mini Mart on Elm Street.
Starting with her cheekbones, Simmons used short strokes to outline her face and chin.
The portrait, which is located on the west wall of the mini mart, is close to May's former home on Dail Street. May is depicted as a young woman wearing a hat with a soft yellow light emitting behind her head.
"There used to be a lot of people through here growing up. It was a real dense population with people walking and intercommunicating with each other," Simmons said. "As the years went by, they kind of thinned out and you don't see a lot of people through here. (Miss Ella May) was one of the people you would always see on the front porch when you would walk or drive through.
"She's always been next to this business. She raised kids here and they raised their kids here ... people would speak to her and she'd talk ... she would just always hold court on the front porch every day."
Simmons said he wanted to do something to pay homage to May, who passed away a few years ago. The portrait is only one aspect of a large mural Simmons has worked on for eight days to remember those who have died from poverty and violence in Goldsboro.
While the mural is not finished, it features several anonymous angels bordering the word "Peace" against a vibrant blue, pink and orange sunset.
"We've lost a lot of people in the older generations and the younger generations, not just by violence but a lot of poverty and things of that nature. People have lost a lot of loved ones period, and (the mural is) for them," Simmons said. "This is for them to be able to say, OK, somebody is remembering my loved ones, my classmate, or my family member.
"They don't feel like they matter in this community at this moment of history. It's something that they can connect with and feels like it's a part of them. (It's) something they can call their own."
Simmons said that many people in his community feel as though society ignores and demoralizes them. He referenced issues such as black-on-black crime, which he said has been very pronounced in the mainstream media but is not being addressed by people in power.
"They see stuff on the news," Simmons said.
He added, "There's always somebody getting shot or shooting somebody. They don't feel like they've been getting paid any attention to by society at large, so they feel demoralized, and they get into trouble sometimes."
Simmons, who is painting the "Rest-in-Peace" mural as a way to give back to the community, has worked in Goldsboro for years doing wall art and murals for different businesses.
Five years ago, Simmons worked on a mural that had a similar concept as the "Rest-in-Peace" wall. He said it had anonymous faces of people from different kinds of backgrounds and ethnicites to represent the people who were moving to Goldsboro at the time. He called it the "City of Diversity."
"I'm doing this free of charge," Simmons said. "I'm doing it for the community, and God has provided the means for me to do it by supplying paints from different businesses."
Simmons is a self-taught artist who began drawing when he was 8 years old after being inspired by Marvel comic books. The 49-year-old remembers how Brogden Primary School had life-sized portraits of superheroes such as Captain America in the media center. He said he was so distracted and affected by the superheroes that he could not pay attention to the movie they were supposed to be watching at the time.
"I remember looking at the walls, and I couldn't look at the TV because I was looking at the walls. There were life size superheroes all the way around and that really struck me," Simmons said. "By the time we moved back to Goldsboro, I was drawing.
"I could draw stuff that I couldn't afford because I couldn't get the toys back then -- Superman toys -- and I would draw the comic book characters."
The Goldsboro native later began working on painting wall murals when he was 13 after being influenced by different artists in New York City and Philadelphia. Since then, he has worked with paint and aerosol and is always finding new projects to work on to practice his art.
"I just always loved to draw and now over the years (I) have mastered some things, but I always practice," Simmons said. "I love to practice. Picasso made art out of practicing, and I didn't know that he had did that, and I said, 'Well now, I don't feel so strange practicing.'"
When Simmons finishes his mural, he plans to return to Las Vegas, where he has lived for the past four months. He plans to go on tour with his art in cities such as Durham and Chicago whenever he finishes the few projects he is currently working on and has the free time.