Sun Records & Texaco Stadiums: Poems by Alexander Forbes, Paintings by Tricia Sellmer
Gallery Catalogue
Wells, BC: Island Mountain Arts, 2008
“The images of Tricia Sellmer and the words of Alexander Forbes in Sun Records & Texaco Stadiums pay homage to Elvis Presley, one of the world’s most loved and praised icons of our time. The works also beg of the viewer to dig deeper into the myths that surround this larger than life character.” - Julie Fowler, from her introductory “Curator’s Statement”
“I was eight or nine when Elvis hit. I was in grammar school, and we all talked about him. . . . In retrospect, I think his greatest legacy is that he brought black music to a segregated white society. He did not stop by opening the door for white musicians to play black music; he opened the door for black musicians to play black music to white audiences - to become mainstream and accepted by white society.”
Henry Small, from his introductory essay “Remembering Elvis”
from Sun Records & Texaco Stadiums:
in the blue pre-dawn
In 1953 Sun Records was
an obscure affair, but Bear Cat and
Little Junior Parker would soon
find their way to Union Street.
When Elvis made his first Sun
recording, he accomplished what
Sam Phillips had always wanted,
though Sam didn’t know it right
away. And if Elvis joined country
to the blues, the union proved so
natural everyone wondered why
no one had thought of it before.
Two of the great
strengths of Elvis:
he could play by ear;
he was colour blind.
