Tin Man's life, art

By Katie Nichols (Contact) | Selma Times-Journal

Published Friday, November 6, 2009

SELMA – The artist who spoke to “Lunch at the Library” attendees took an interesting path to get to the place he is at today.

Charlie “Tin Man” Lucas, along with Chip Cooper and Ben Windham, talked about “Tin Man,” his autobiography just released through the University of Alabama Press.

Cooper, director of photography at the University of Alabama, and Windham helped the Tin Man shape and create his book through photography and writing respectively.

“I’ve been trying get a book deal for years,” Lucas said. “I wanted to tell my story and show my art in a different way.”

Lucas life has taken him from a man who only went as high as the fourth grade in school and is now a world celebrated folk artist, but he has not forgotten about his past and lets that fuel his art.

In 1984 Lucas began to grow more determined to pursue art as a career. In this case his determination shared the same mother of invention — necessity.

Lucas was badly injured in a truck accident. With a bad back, he was forced to stay pretty much confined to a bed for a year.

The Tin Man said when he woke up in the hospital he knew what he was going to do. The following morning Lucas had $10, a few pieces of work and a vision. He took that and became the “Tin Man.”

Since then his life has lead him to be one of 12 artists from Alabama to travel to France as an artist-in-residence. There he met two people who would prove to be very special in his life.

“I met Charlie when we went to France on an Alabama sponsored trip,” Cooper said. “Both of us went and so did Kathryn Tucker Windham.”

That trip to France forged not only those two relationships, but also in return a friendship that is more like brotherhood with Ben Windham, Kathryn’s son. These relationships jump off the pages of the book.

One Charlie Lucas fan, who took a lunch hour from her scheduled day, knows about that well.

Shannon Speed has Lucas as a teacher during the Summer Art Camp at Ceramics.

She has learned how to make “junk art” and her mother, Sudie, says her works of art are displayed all over the house.

“She just loves when Charlie teaches,” she said. “She has really learned a lot from him.”

When asked about her favorite thing about Charlie, Shannon quickly responded, “his hugs.”

The warmth and playfulness that is in Charlie’s art transcends to his other passion, which is educating kids.

“I remember seeing Selma in the 1960s and thinking that is a place I would like to go,” Lucas said. “I thought I would like to go over the bridge too, but when I got here I also thought I would like to go over the bridge, but that’s not the end of it. We’ve got to go out into the communities and help each other. Selma has given me so much in it has given me ideas and a family. So we’ve got to help it.”

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