The University of South Carolina Upstate’s latest exhibit, “Mac Arnold: Bluesman Close-Up,” is on display through March 7th at the UPSTATE Gallery on Main.
A 2004 graduate, Kelley has followed Mac Arnold’s career for nearly 10 years, capturing images of him as he tended to his crops and took the stage with his band Plate Full of Blues.
Arnold has worked alongside musicians such as Muddy Waters, James Brown, B.B. King and Otis Redding to name a few. He also helped to develop Soul Train with Don Cornelius and was honored with a Blues Music Award for his contribution to the 1967 performance of the Muddy Waters authorized bootleg, “Live from the Filmore West.” In 2014, Arnold was recognized by the University of South Carolina with an honorary Doctorate of Music.
Over the years, the two men struck up an unlikely friendship, entrenched in a love of good Blues music and a desire to keep the arts alive in public schools. Out of this bond, the two have established the Dr. Mac Arnold Scholarship Fund and money is awarded to USC Upstate students seeking a degree in the arts. The artist will donate 50 percent of the proceeds from artwork sold during the exhibit to the scholarship fund.
(Photo: Mac Arnold on stage. Photo by Brian S. Kelley.)