Talking Sheds
Jubal, local musician and visual artist, has added a new landmark to Ocracoke Island over this past year, which will surely become a sightseeing necessity, ranking with the Lighthouse and the Howard Street cemeteries!
With each new holiday, Jubal repaints his wooden shed door, making a different art piece to represent what we’re celebrating. He uses spray paint from his humongous stash, acquired from Lowe’s and the Ocracoke Hardware Store! The first of this series occurred around Halloween, when he was inspired by the wooden bats made by the Ocracoke School vocational Ed class. He purchased three at the Variety Store and took it from there.
Ideas for what to paint come to Jubal pretty easily. He has always loved working with spray paint. Whether that involves illegal jobs on underpasses, or free expression walls in Durham or Raleigh, he is into it all.
“I always wanted to live in a place where I could do more graffiti,” says Jubal.
There is something admirable about the passion that goes into public art for everyone. Growing up, when he first caught a glimpse of street art, Jubal knew he wanted to take part in it. So this is his Ocracoke contribution! His shed door always got on his nerves with the way it closed, so he made art out of it so he wouldn’t be annoyed by it. He mostly just wings it, he says. Sometimes he designs a sort of layout pattern first, like for the turkey’s tail-feathers at Thanksgiving. He also does some sketches sometimes, but he doesn’t mind if the painting takes its own course and breaks away from the original idea.
The sweet Celtic knot shamrock that currently decorates his door was made in about 2 hours over the course of two days. But for some versions, it takes about twenty minutes, in the traditional graffiti attitude of bombing and running. Both Christmas and New Years were commemorated this way.
Of all the versions of his door he has created in these five months, he’s most fond of his Martin Luther King Day piece, which was a big painting of MLK Jr.’s face. It was hard for him to paint over that one. It was also the only Martin Luther King memorial in Ocracoke this year.
There may have to be one summer design to last out the season because it is the busiest time of year in Ocracoke, for musicians and everybody else! But he’ll make it good. His shed is an awesome thing to stop and see, with something fresh about every month. “I get to enjoy it more than most because I go by it half a dozen times a day,” says one fan, Cathy Scarborough, owner of Over the Moon gift shop.
When I met with him for this interview, Jubal was sporting a UNC baseball cap. “I had to wear my Carolina hat so people don’t think it’s for Notre Dame,” he said.
Jubal says the whole project is a good practice in being satisfied at some point. It teaches you to find the stopping place that’s best for the art, even though you could keep going.
Jubal also experiments with another style of spray painting, in which you burn it. He made a beautiful drum cover this way. This method creates a planetary look, and indulges his pyromaniac ways!
Jubal spent five years working at the Life and Science Museum in Durham as an event coordinator, and helping in their percussion world. There he got to make big sculptures out of old used cans and stuff which he loved being a part of and seeing brought to life because they were awesome and playable!
You may have seen some of his work with duct tape, like the pieces he featured in the OPS "Ocracoke Through Your Eyes" art auctions in 2014 and 2015.
“Obviously I love working with weird media,” Jubal said.
Stop by and see Jubal's amazing, ever-changing, one-of-a-kind art shed!
You can also hear Jubal on WOVV 90.1 FM (listen online at wovv.org) during his "Island Vibez with Crucial Creech" show, every Saturday, 11am – 2pm. Jubal plays the best in Reggae, Ska, Dancehall & more!
Click on any photo below to enlarge it, then you can scroll through them all by clicking the "next" button in the upper right corner. Lucky for us, Jubal took a photo of each version of his shed. Enjoy!
