Eugene Franklin Jemison

Eugene Jemison was an artist and musician who embraced all aspects of the creative process, from writing folk ballads to creating abstract prints. Jemison was born in 1916 on a farm in Alton, Kansas. His father and uncles were balladeers who toured the region performing traditional ballads. Jemison spent his youth playing the family organ and painting on an easel next to it.

In 1934, Jemison graduated from Osborne High School, then entered Washburn College as a music major. However, before he graduated he was drafted into the Army for World War II. From 1942 to 1946, he served as director of the Special Service School of Art, painting murals and teaching art therapy to soldiers.

After the war ended, Jemison completed his undergraduate studies, then enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Kansas City to study with the balladeer John Jacob Niles. After receiving his master's degree in 1948, he was hired by the Art Institute to head their photography, print-making and graphic design department. 

As a faculty member, Eugene Jemison was a passionate educator, interested in cultivating creativity and curiosity in his students. Jemison was also committed to his own ongoing education, studying in New York at Columbia University, Hunter College and the New School, and at the Mexico City Institute of Art.

He served for many years as an ambassador for the Association of American Colleges, giving lectures and performances of folk music around the country. He published a book of experimental print-making processes, including methods called "Imaginative Processes of Graphic Visualization" and "Objective Realism through Psychic Automatism." In 1954, he released an album of folk songs called Solomon Valley Ballads, which was accompanied by a series of thirteen lithograph illustrations.

From 1965-1968, Eugene Jemison lived in New York to study and perform folk music amidst a growing community of folk artists. Then, in 1969 he became a professor at Lake Superior State College in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. He stayed there for the next seventeen years, teaching an array of art courses, holding community workshops, and organizing public art exhibitions while performing ballads at venues nationwide.

Jemison retired in 1986 and moved to Port Charlotte, Florida. Until his death in 2000, he continued to explore the creative process through music, writing, painting and print-making. Today, his artwork is preserved by the Sault Area Arts Council and other private collections, and his ballads can be heard through digital platforms including Spotify, Youtube, Amazon and Apple Music.