GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) - When Gastonia native James Biggers reflects on his influential career as an educator and visual artist today, he sees the undeniable brush strokes of his equally renowned uncle.
“I think it was just his unique personality,” he said of John Biggers, who died in 2001 at the age of 76. “He was always motivated to inspire us, and we loved it.”
John Biggers’ humble beginnings didn’t suggest greatness. He was born in a shotgun house in Gastonia, the son of a preacher father who was a jack of all trades and a mother who did laundry and cooked for white families. He was the youngest of 7, and while the family wasn’t wealthy, they were close-knit.
John Biggers often paid attention to the fact his elder brothers were always drawing and creating things. So when he grew up and made it into college at Hampton Institute, he enrolled in an art class taught by a Jewish refugee. That professor encouraged his students to learn about the culture, art and sculpture that tied them to their own heritage.
The guidance set Biggers on a path of self-exploration, knowledge and artistic discovery. By 1949, he had moved to Houston, where he became the founding chairman of the art department at what is now Texas Southern University. He held the position 34 years.
He became an immensely influential African-American artist. And before his 1983 retirement, he left a 50-foot mural in the university student center that depicts the progression of birth, death and the continuity of heritage. Today, a glass tile mosaic of the work, titled “This Little Light of Mine,” is on display at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia.
Jim Biggers was growing up here at home while his uncle, who never had children, was making a name for himself in Texas. Yet when Jim’s own father died at the age of 10, the strength of family ties saved him, as well as his younger brother and sister.
“Even with the distance between Gastonia and Houston, John kind of moved in as the father figure for me,” he said. “He was the inspiration and the one who asked me questions where he challenged me to go find the answer - about everything. Because of that, I was always stimulated to research and discover things.”
Jim Biggers went on to earn a master’s degree in art education at Appalachian State University. His paintings, drawings, monoprints and other creations have incorporated themes of mythology, mathematics and reflections on his African heritage. He has taught in schools, colleges and a museum, while his works have been exhibited across the state.
He credits the inspiration he received from teachers and fellow students while attending Highland School in Gastonia in the days before segregation came to a full end.
“I recognized how fortunate I felt all the time being a Highland student and a citizen of Gastonia,” he said.
Today, Biggers has a commissioned work hanging in the N.C. Legislative Building in Raleigh, as well as the Charlotte Convention Center. He also collaborated on several projects with his uncle in the early 1990s, including large murals at Winston-Salem State University and Hampton University in Virginia.
“My uncle provided inspiration all the way through to the later years,” he said. “He was a master teacher and artist.
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