Narrating Friendship: The reciprocal relationship between J.B. Childers and myself

• Main Author: Engelmann, James Thomas
• Format: Others
• Published: VCU Scholars Compass 2004
• Subjects: childers; storytelling; narrative; painting; Art and Design; Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/905; http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1904&context=etd

For the past ten months I have explored the life of a deceased artist named Joseph Barley "J.B." Childers. In the graduate catalog Gregory Volk summarizes Childers as, "an alienated Korean War Veteran, who took up painting as a refuge from his troubles, and who also doesn't exist. Childers who is naturally right-handed, painted everything left-handed because of a war wound, and so Engelmann, who is left-handed, painted with his right hand, which is quite a limitation." Of course, there's more to the story than that and the writings that follow will explain many of my reasons for pursuing this project.