Local artist launches Black History Month at the Napa library
One night in October, Jermaine Burse woke up at 2 a.m. “I couldn’t sleep. I got up, I went to the gym, knocked out nine miles, came home and started painting,” he said.
When Burse was a kid in Vallejo and American Canyon, he saw police officers, he saw firemen — but not a lot of full time artists. So, he blazed his own trail.
Now, Burse sought after for commissions by a range of big names: Moët Hennessey, Steph Curry and Robert DeNiro, for starters. For two years, his portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has adorned shirts and posters for San Francisco’s Museum of African Diaspora’s free community day on Jan. 19, Dr. King’s birthday. And Burse still finds time to be assistant coach for his son’s basketball team at American Canyon High School.
Burse’s paintings pop with bright acrylics. Whether it’s a commissioned portrait of Tupac or of Harlem Renaissance figures, Burse immerses himself in a subject, a process he likens to method acting.
“My grandmother told me early in life: ‘Paint with color. It improves people’s lives and makes them happy.’ So, I just continued that.”
Today, he kicks off Napa’s Black History Month today with an exhibit of paintings in the Napa County Library from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. At 6 p.m., he has a Q&A, with wine poured by Justin Michelle Trabue of Ward Four Wines. Burse will also have copies of his recently released book: “An Autopsy of My Former Self: A journey through grief, transformation, addiction, personal triumph, and purpose.”
“I’m excited about it,” said Burse. “I want to see the artists that are local celebrated.” A lot of times, he said, Napa companies or city agencies will hire artists outside of Napa for events. “They don’t look within,” he said.
On Thursday, Burse wants to “showcase pieces that really explore Black excellence, to showcase the icons that we grew up looking at — James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, MLK, Harriet Tubman — they were like living legends to us in our homes. These are the people that fought for freedom and justice for us in a world that denies us that.”
Burse paints full-time out of his studio in Cordelia. He typically does portraits but has learned to adapt to the needs of corporate clients, too, going abstract for big companies like Kaiser Permanente. For inspiration, he does what a lot of us do: He takes BART.
“I’ll take BART from Berkeley to Emeryville to San Francisco. Just so I can see graffiti on the sides. I have no purpose, nowhere I’m going. I just jump on and jump off — just so I can get that feeling, that inspired feeling … It reminds me that I’m nothing without my faith. It reminds me that I’m just nothing compared to the universe.”
Like the icons he paints, he has a seemingly endless list of endeavors, from writing to arranging spots on podcasts and raising a teenage son.
Next week, health podcaster Jay Barnett is flying out from Texas to join a talk Burse organized at Vin En Noir, a Black-owned wine tasting room, with other Black men who grew up in Napa.
“I don’t understand how everyone has the same 24 hours as Michael Jackson, but you choose to be a nobody,” said Burse. He’s convinced that people want a lot more than they go after. “You should be fearless in your life. And that’s how I approach it, with this tenacity and fearlessness.”
Years ago, that drive turned dark. As a kid, after moving to American Canyon from Vallejo, Burse bused to Vintage High in Napa — there wasn’t a high school in American Canyon then. An art teacher at the school discouraged him from sketching the comic book figures he loved, and he stopped drawing altogether. In his 20s, Burse’s dogged work ethic was focused on a job setting up bars and beverage service around the North Bay, which led to alcoholism.
Although he was successful in the industry, his dreams felt further and further away. “I would see the guests that were coming in, and I’d want to be them, sitting at that table,” Burse said. “But here I am, serving them.”
“Drinking eliminated my goals. It eliminated my purpose. It eliminated everything. I was day-to- day trying to figure this thing out, and then paycheck-to-paycheck, then getting cars repo’d.” At 33, Burse hit rock bottom when he woke up in the hospital, unable to walk.
Since he couldn’t move, Burse found himself drawn back to his childhood passion: art. ”I just started sketching and painting what I did as a kid, and [for] the kid, it was fun.”
Sobriety helped him double down on what he really wanted in life. “There was no possible way I was gonna work nine to five for someone else’s dream,” Burse said.
“Genuine focus is saying, ‘OK, I’m going to forego this entertainment for this night, and I’m going to email X amount of people,’ or, ‘I’m going to forego being tired and just watching a Netflix series. I’m going to forego that to go to that event because I might meet someone.’”
He’s also learned to prioritize rest. But it has required years of effort to help himself change. “To me, it’s deeply falling in love with yourself. Over and over again.”
The emphasis on Black wellness is growing, said Burse, “just like the wine world is growing, just like the art world. There are more Black restaurants in Napa Valley now than when I was growing up there.”
“It took them a long time to get there, but we’re getting there. That representation is important. We’re humans at the end of the day, and we want businesses, and we want to be successful. We want to enjoy wine, experiences, great food and great ambiance. We want all those things too. We are deserving of them, right?”
Napa County Library’s Black History Month Artist Spotlight: Jermaine Burse is on Thursday, Feb. 5, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. with an artist talk and Q&A at 6 p.m. at the Napa County Library, 580 Coombs St., Napa
