Desert Hot Springs artist unites spirituality and diversity in his work

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Perched on top of one of the dunes in unincorporated Desert Hot Springs is the home of Bernard Stanley Hoyes. The artist loves the location of his residence and studio, which he describes as “sequestered” away from the busier areas of the Coachella Valley.

It’s understandable why he feels that way. There’s something awe-inspiring about the amazing views and natural beauty of the place. He’s owned the property for over 30 years, and decided to permanently move there from Los Angeles 10 years ago.

During our recent interview, Hoyes offered a peek at several hummingbird paintings he’s been working on. These works are a continuation of a sculpture included in a new Palm Springs public arts project featuring a double helix with two hummingbirds at the top.

“We have common DNA with birds, the whole nature of existence on the planet is based on that common DNA. I was trying to create an iconography that deals with diversity, and that’s what diversity and iconography is all about,” Hoyes said.

Hoyes approaches his artistic creations with sincerity and transcendence, which are manifested in his vibrant paintings, intricate murals, detailed etchings, and striking sculptures. His art often depicts communal celebrations and religious rituals, capturing the essence of cultural and spiritual expressions.

A native of Kingston, Jamaica, Hoyes was raised by his grandmother from the age of 2 through 11. His grandmother practiced African-influenced Christianity and raised him in a religious yard where she held Bible readings and preached on Friday and Saturday nights. When his mother, an Anglican, enrolled him in a Catholic school, he was already a skilled artist with profound knowledge of the Bible.

Hoyes felt a higher calling as an artist to share his “involvement in the human race” going back to his childhood and grandmother’s religious services in Jamaica.

“When they were having their late-night ceremonies, I could hear them singing but couldn’t see them. I would have to imagine how they were and had plenty of nights where I’d just go to bed while the hymns were being sung,” Hoyes said. “As an artist, everything becomes personal when you paint, so you try to evoke your background and how it inspires you.”

Hoyes’ art is ‘beyond denominations and race’

Spirituality and diversity are the essence of his paintings “In the Spirit,” “Praising the Most High,” “Hymn in the Night” and more, but the dynamic energy in “Moonlight Spiritual” comes through shades of royal blue and purple as women clad in white gowns are immersed in the spirit under the moonlight.

“It’s the communion of bodies in motion together that evokes that, and it doesn’t take any religious icons, it just takes bodies and people together. In most of my work, there’s no jewelry or religious icons, it’s beyond denominations and race,” Hoyes said.

His 2019 picturesque mural “Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters” at the Church of St. Paul in the Desert in Palm Springs illustrates the importance of water and agriculture in the Coachella Valley, and celebrates icons such as St. Paul of Thebes, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Martin Luther King, Jr. and more.

From a cabinet of serigraphs, he pulled out “Carnival Masquerade” of a man wearing a cow mask with a crown and donning a red outfit dotted with medallions and colorful fringe on the sleeves. This work, he said, embodies all the cultures of the Caribbean that were spread between Africa, Europe and Asia throughout history.

Many of his paintings feature a striking shade of yellow, which he described as “the glory,” and even though it’s not a primary color, yellow reflects and supports all other colors in the spectrum of his work.

“Even though it’s not a primary, it infuses a lot of the primaries to be other colors, it infuses blue to be green and red to be orange. The infusion is an inspiration to me. I use yellow a lot and will sometimes put that color down first,” Hoyes said.

Hoyes came to the U.S. when he was 15

When he was 15, Hoyes moved to New York City to live with his father and went on to study at The Art Students League of New York, Vermont Academy and California College of the Arts. He moved to Los Angeles in 1975 to work as a designer for the California Museum of Science and Industry, and he became a studio artist in 1978.

During the early years of his art career as part of his civil rights activism, Hoyes painted two portraits of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, which he described as a portrayal of “a shared vision of civil rights and forward progress of African-Americans in the United States.” He was also commissioned by the National Endowment of the Arts to do a portrait of Marcus Garvey for a 1987 centennial of the Black political activist.

His first published piece, “Pie Lady,” in the ’80s was inspired by a group of women who were selling pies and cookies on a tray with flowers at an art fair in Los Angeles.

“I thought it was such an engaging visual that I painted it, and I had been painting for a long time. When I started publishing before I got into my revival pieces, I went through my pages, saw ‘Pie Lady’ and said ‘I’ll do this one.’ It financed the printing of my work.”

“The Rag Series” portrays his trajectory as an artist from Jamaica coming from poverty and the backyard of his grandmother’s church. Her rag-like clothing inspired him to work with rags as an expressive medium by dipping them in ink or paint to create monoprints and images.

“My grandmother had a big voice and she was a big woman, and I didn’t realize how big she was until she died. I always saw her in the rocking chair or the yard, and when you’re in those spaces, it shrinks you a little bit because you become part of that space,” Hoyes said.

Hoyes has sold paintings to Oprah, Steve Harvey and more

Galleries and museums began to take notice of his work during the ’80s and his art has been displayed in group and solo exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Riverside Art Museum, Museum of African American Art in Los Angeles, Washington National Cathedral, Anchorage Museum of History and Art, and more. Hoyes also had celebrity clients such as Oprah Winfrey, The Wayans Brothers, Steve Harvey and others. Some of his art appeared in the backgrounds of the ’80s Black sitcoms “The Cosby Show” and “A Different World.”

In 1992, the late singer Natalie Cole purchased the original of his painting “Thanks and Praises” and told him “I have to have that one, it says it all for me at this time in my life.”

“I didn’t see my art as a business, I was just an artist. I had to start keeping records, get certificates, licenses and all those things. I’m really good at publishing because I know printing, but when it gets down to the distribution, I was handling that, but it was a lot of work. I had to start employing people, which was a problem. I ran into the IRS and because I was paying people. When it comes to distribution, that’s more in touch with galleries.”

In the late 2000s, Hoyes was privately commissioned by a client in the Hamptons to create a sculpture of a Blue Fin Tuna. He built the 6-foot tall, 3-ton sculpture during a residency at Fuzhou City in the Fujian Province of China, which is home to foundries over 500 years old and high quality blue-gray granite. The stonemasons helped him complete the sculpture that required a 3-foot base and the installation of a 6-foot steel pipe.

“They said, ‘we have a drill bit that can do that.’ I asked if they could drill it before they sent it back and the guy said it would be better if I came there and did it. I was in the factory for two months and create the piece. I lived with them at the foundry, saw how they work, the whole process of drilling that hole, and it was engaging. And it was the perfect artist’s retreat,” Hoyes said.

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.

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