I once again found myself sitting in the airport, waiting to get back home.   But this airport at least had some interesting art that celebrated the region.

The airport had some contemporary art right at the top of the escalators on this terminal.   And as this was contemporary art, it needed the label “airport art”, otherwise one might wonder what it was and why it was in the glass case.

As I mentioned, they had a bit of art that celebrated local deities celebrities or somehow notable persons.   This is Robert Johnson, the renowned delta blues guitarist from Mississippi.

More Southern icons from left to right (not a comment on their politics):  Hank Williams, a country singer/songwriter from Alabama, Elvis Presley, a singer from Mississippi, Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer from New Orleans, and Olivier Hardy, film comedian from near Augusta, Georgia.   The dude whose picture hangs below is former president Woodrow Wilson who also lived in Augusta, Georgia for a spell.

This bit of art had some identifiable faces as well as a couple of mystery folks (I suppose I could have looked for a sign).    Patsy Cline, country singer from Virginia, and ‘Tennessee’ Ernie Ford, country singer from of all places, Tennessee.  The people in the middle were the mystery, I don’t recognize the woman and the man is possibly Ike Turner, a musician from Mississippi.   Dr. Martin Luther King was a minister from Georgia, and Ty Cobb, a baseball player also from Georgia.  Hanging below the rest is Jackie Robinson, a baseball player from Cairo, Georgia.

The circular portraits are set inside a notched automobile inner tube, which is a popular way to make a planter in the yard for one’s posies.   So I suppose that the artist wanted us to know these persons were all grown in the South.  Maybe.