Tribute to Siddha Weber, colleague and friend has joined the ancestors but not before leaving an imprint. Last summer he was determined to refurbish his murals that face off on King Drive/40th a gateway to the Bronzeville Art District.
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I was introduced to Dr. Siddha in 2001, by Jon Pounds while I was working at Chicago Public Art Group, he was my Naprapath, that took me through a healing journey, gave me a focus, always reminding me of what my purpose was foremost as a mother, and creator.
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Siddha Webber: I’ve painted about 57 murals. I started out painting to create change. In 1968 we were painting in The Alley, that’s when the gangs are at their highest murder rate and they’d been highly proliferated those summers, maybe two or three preceding and after. We were painting somewhat in fear, because there was so much shooting. And I took on the initiative that through art we could create a change in the environment. The summer before, in 1967, I participated in the Wall of Respect as a poet with the band that I played with at 76th and Cottage Grove.
Excerpts from The DAVID Creative 2013
mentioned being alone. You mentioned...disappointment with the lack of engagement from the black community. What keeps you going in the midst of that disappointment? What keeps you working, despite the lack of engagement from your own?(pause) What keeps me going is knowing that I may look, occasionally, physically alone. Physically alone. Personally, body-wise alone. But what keeps me going is the Spirit of God. That I know. Because I know that, for me, art is a spiritual exchange (of) creativity with The Creator. That's what keeps me going. It's a spiritual exchange with God and The Creator. Also, now, art has always been a ministry with me. Art is ministry. Public art is public ministry.
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/wailing-walls/Content?oid=895682
https://never-the-same.org/interviews/c-siddha-webber/
