Dean Poling | The Valdosta Daily TimesGrady 'Mr. Spanky' Whitfield stands in front of one of his paintings on exhibit at the Snake House.

VALDOSTA – Grady “Mr. Spanky” Whitfield is an artist and a storyteller.

Through the visual arts, theatre, writing and voice, Whitfield shares stories of his life and other people’s lives. He tells stories of his life that sound like something out of “Forrest Gump,” a life full of adventures and meeting famous people – Miles Davis and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, for example.

His paintings touch upon those adventures and a life lived fully and artistically.

Whitfield’s paintings are on exhibit at the Barbara Passmore Literary Arts Center in the Snake House, 110 W. Force St., the home of the Snake Nation Press, a Valdosta-based literary publisher.

He has stories for each painting. Stories that touch upon his experiences, the Black experience, the human experience.

For “Keep Blowing, Miles,” Whitfield has a story about an encounter with jazz trumpet great Miles Davis.

“The Marriage Day” is “taken from a photograph that Spanky found in a New York library archives, showing African and Spanish man and a Seminole woman, dressed in native costumes,” according to information provided by Jean Arambula and Roberta George with the Snake Nation Press. “The man is an Indian Scout, who worked for the government and the woman is obviously pregnant.”

“Henry Green” is a painting of a man “born blind and into slavery. His mother worked in the big house but the ladies in the big house got tired of him banging on the piano, so they taught him how to play. He often played for the Confederate and the Union troops, depending on who was winning at the time,” according to Whitfield’s story behind the painting.

“Henry Ossawa Tanner” is a painting of the Black American painter who gained international fame in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Paintings portray South Georgia people, too.

“The Last Seminole Scout” appears in a white jacket and hat, “often called ‘Timbuktu’ is related to Spanky through his 104-year-old grandmother, Rosalee Whitfield. The others are members of Spanky’s family.”

The late Rev. Willie Wade is painted wearing his Union Army cap and coat in “Company 103.” Wade researched the history of the Black Union troops who occupied Valdosta after the Civil War and traced his roots to a soldier in that troop.

“Mr. Riley” is based on a man “from Johnson Street in Valdosta, Georgia, who lived to be 93, and even into his 70s, helped lay railroad tracks all over South Georgia,” according to the Snake Nation information.

“Bill Pickens” shows a “Brooks County individual in Gainesville, Florida, dressed in an authentic bulldogging costume, 21 years after slavery was abolished,” according to information provided by the Snake House. “The man’s family were farmers in Rosewood, Florida, but at that time, cattle could be driven to where the cows were purchased, requiring men who could do bulldogging.”

Whitfield was born in 1947 in Lowndes County. He speaks of early years with his grandparents, Charlie and Emma Hall, who encouraged his art. He recalls drawing with crayons and color pencils as a child.

“I attended the Magnolia Elementary school and developed an interest in the fine arts,” Whitfield notes. “Dr. Carter D. Marshall was the visiting music teacher for the Valdosta School System and became my mentor. I learned the meaning of ‘When I follow directions, I will be successful.'”

As a young adult, he moved to New York, where he was involved in various artistic activities including painting, writing and theatre. He also spent time in Boston.

“After several different kinds of jobs and meeting famous and infamous people, I returned to the South, living for a time in Tallahassee and Gainesville, Florida,” Whitfield notes. “Now, I am the self-appointed Valdosta Westside archivist.”

Through his Westside Archives project, Whitfield has honored numerous Black men and women, mostly in their 90s and 100-plus, in the Valdosta area. In the past, he has led youth artistic programs and is working on a play that he hopes to stage next year.

Grady “Mr. Spanky” Whitfield’s exhibit can be viewed 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, at the Snake House, 110 W. Force St., or by appointment by calling Jean Arambula, (229) 444-5191.