However, he was not very good at disguising his newfound affluence and he attracted attention from law enforcement.
Rembert and Patsy started building a family, and he became wealthy working for a drug gang. He then suffered a debilitating hernia and had to leave the job entirely. He worked as a longshoreman but was not permitted to join the union and therefore couldn't work full-time.
He fled Georgia and the overt racism of the Deep South for Bridgeport, Connecticut, but he struggled financially once he arrived. It was in prison that Rembert first learned to paint on leather - an art form he later perfected and became famous for. They married after he was released, and Patsy served as Winfred's anchor throughout the rest of his life, encouraging and inspiring him in his artistic endeavors. The two struck up a conversation and began corresponding while Rembert was still in prison. One day, while working on the chain gang, he saw the woman who would be the love of his life, Patsy, in her front yard. This was followed by a seven-year stint in prison where he was forced to work on a chain gang - an excerpt of this harrowing chapter is available from the New Yorker. When he was caught, he was nearly lynched, but survived purely through luck. He escaped jail by beating up a police officer and locking him in a cell. At 19 he was arrested for grand theft auto after fleeing white men with shotguns at a civil rights rally. Born in Cuthbert, Georgia in 1945 and raised on a cotton plantation, his early years were filled with terrifying and traumatizing racist episodes that chased him through the rest of his life.
Rembert (who passed away in March 2021) lived during tumultuous times. The good, the bad and the unambiguously ugly details provide insight into the forces that shaped Rembert's art, and his amazing story offers a holistic and refreshing approach to discussing racism that is extremely compelling. Artist Winfred Rembert holds nothing back in recounting his life, reviewing all of its beauty and hardship.
A powerful posthumous memoir about an artist who channeled the agony of racial injustice into his work.Ĭhasing Me to My Grave might be the most authentic, vulnerable autobiography you'll ever read.
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