The Art of Jerry Prettyman :: Lifetime Artist

Jerry Prettyman

Jerry Prettyman, studied Applied Art & Design at Catonsville Community College, Maryland Institute College of Art and Fine Art at Morgan State University. He had been employed as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator for thirty-nine years for the Department of Health and Human Services in Baltimore, Maryland. He has been a guest artist on numerous local, public radio programs and local television and cable television shows in the Maryland, Washington, DC area. He has also given numerous lectures and presentations of his works to private groups, schools and organizations. He has been a guest juror and curator for many exhibits. His works have been exhibited in many Galleries, Museums and Public Buildings across the country.

Some of the more notable exhibits were the Smith/Mason Gallery and Museum of Washington, DC, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park & Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, Banneker Douglas Museum, Annapolis, Maryland, Corcoran Gallery of Art Washington, DC, JVC Jazz Exhibition , New York, New York, The Jazz Gallery, New York, New York, Duke University, Durham North Carolina, New Harlem Renaissance Exhibition, Indianapolis Art Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, Charles O. Taylor Visual Art Center, Hampton, Virginia, just to name a few.

His works are also in the collections of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company of Los Angeles, California, Mr. Joseph Haller of the Jesuits Residents of Georgetown University, Washington, DC, David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, Mr. Paul Pierce, Most Valuable Player of the NBA World Champion Boston Celtics in 2009 and many more.

He has numerous commissions to his credit, his most significant being a commission after an exhaustive nationwide search by the firm of Joseph A. Wetzel Associates, Inc. of Boston Massachusetts, to create and design for the Jazz Plaza at the Jazz Museum, an eighteen foot Italian Tile Floor Mural honoring legendary tenor saxophonist, Mr. Lester Young of Kansas City, Missouri.

He has always had a love for art and cannot remember when he has not sketched or painted. As an artist he never got locked into a single style, constantly pressing the need to innovate, trying anything. He stirs things up and moves them around. You see him here, then he’s gone. He is always thinking about creating. The victory is complete when the art and the viewer embrace as one.

Lifetime Artist,
Jerry Prettyman