Artist, Jack Whitten: You should make your own tool. Don’t just depend upon the brush. That’s why I don’t even use the word to “paint” anymore. I say, I “make” a painting. I’ve changed the verb from “to paint” and I’ve changed it “to make.”
Narrator: In 1970, Whitten began inventing tools to experiment with different ways of applying paint to the canvas.
Jack Whitten: In those days I had a big Afro, natural cut, and the practice was you keep the Afro comb in your hair. [Laughs] So I’m looking at this comb over there, I said, “My God, that’s a beautiful tool!” So I started combing through the paint, and there’s a series of those paintings.
Narrator: The triangle-shaped painting nearby, Homage to Malcolm, was made with an Afro comb.
Jack Whitten: Then it went to a carpenter’s saw. Cut the handle off a carpenter’s saw, mounted the saw onto a straight piece of wood and I’m pulling it across, down on my knees. My background in cabinet making and carpentry—tools and tool-making has always been a part of the process.
Narrator: To make the ridges in Golden Spaces, Whitten used a saw.
Jack Whitten: When I started combing through the paint, the light came through and revealed what was down underneath. I liked that.
Archival audio courtesy of The HistoryMakers Digital Archive and The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution