WATCH: James "Son Ford" Thomas Sculpting a Skull (1967)

A skull has got to be ugly because it’s nothing but bones and teeth. People are more likely to be interested in something like that than they would be in a bird. They’d rather see a skull. Then too, a lot of people have never seen a real skull and they’re probably wondering how it will be when they die. They say, “Will I be in the same shape that skull there is in?”
James “Son ford” Thomas interview by william r. Ferris

James “Son Ford” Thomas sculpting a skull in 1967

Please enjoy this video of James “Son Ford” Thomas sculpting one of his famous clay skulls. Filmed in 1967 by William Ferris. Included in the ‘Dust to Digital’ Grammy-winning anthology, “Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris.”

As a child, James Thomas earned his nickname by modeling Ford tractors out of the red “gumbo” clay found in the hills of Yazoo County. He later adopted the moniker as a blues performer playing the Mississippi Delta region. Thomas first learned guitar and sculpture from his uncle, and his art proved a valuable source of income, supplementing the wages he earned picking cotton and digging graves. In 1982 Thomas’s clay sculptures were featured in Black Folk Art in America, 1930–1980, organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. – National Gallery of Art

One of my favorite artists. Enjoy a look at some of his finished skull sculptures courtesy Souls Grown Deep Foundation.