The death Wednesday of A. Jack May drew expressions of sadness but also poignant anecdotes about what the prominent local artist meant to the community in which he lived.
May was an attorney and police judge by occupation, but his avocation was visual art. Longtime friend Wilma Brown, who knew May for 30 years, said one of his legacies is his devotion to teaching art to the masses in community classes.
“A great many people learned to paint from Jack,” Brown said. “We’ve lost one of the few people in our community who taught art to the community, to people who just wanted to take art classes.
“Jack was for sharing. He wanted to teach people what he had learned about visual arts.”
Former mayor John W.D. Bowling, another longtime friend, said he took art lessons from May.
“He was persistent. He could articulate what he was teaching. He knew what he was doing,” Bowling said.
Of May’s legacy, Bowling added, “He (had) a talent that very few people have. ... One of his biggest legacies is the artwork he is leaving behind for other people to enjoy.”
May’s artwork can most readily be seen at the Danville post office. A dozen or so of his pen-and-ink drawings adorn the walls of the building. Brown said the pen-and-ink, architectural drawings were May’s forte.
Local artist David Farmer, who knew May since the early 1970s, said May was one of the originators of the now-defunct Wilderness Trace Art League.
“We convened there and got acquainted,” Farmer noted. “We visited from time to time, and painted together years ago. He was a community artist of record for years.”
Farmer said May worked in oils, watercolors and acrylics, as well as sketching and carving.
“He did it all. ... He was a town personality — one of the municipal characters,” Farmer said.
Bowling said May painted a 53-foot-long mural as a backdrop for Bowling’s model railroad.
“It’s a background of Eastern Kentucky —¿the hills and outcroppings of rocks, and it’s in fall of the year,” Bowling explained. “He painted it for me eight or nine years ago.
“It was a delight, quite frankly, to see him do that. I sketched out what I wanted, and he put colors to it. I’m not that talented. He just brought that whole wall to life.”
Brown said May was designated a Kentucky Heritage Artist in the late ’60s or early ’70s. A select group of artists was chosen from all over the commonwealth for the designation, which was created before the Kentucky Arts Council became the more organized entity it is today.
“Most of the Kentucky Heritage Artists are either deceased or in their 80s now,” Brown noted.
She added one of the things she loved about May was, when he exhibited at Constitution Square State Historic Site, he would “let children come up and paint on his picture.
“That was very much in line with his sharing his talent and helping the community,” Brown explained.
“He is an artist of record, and having been here for so long, he is part of the arts community and has been for some time. ... I especially respected him because he wanted to share his art. He was never reticent to do that.”
