'If it's not authentic, I don't want it'; Morganton artist Jarvis Conley paints from the heart

A rainbow of colors covers the canvas — a blue sky, an orc shaded with green, a young boy wearing red, all against a central backdrop of orange with flecks of yellow and red and purple and white.

The piece started as splatters of paint. Some of it was shaped into circles with a paint scraper. Some of it dripped, creating its own organic shape. Other parts remain splattered.

Jarvis Conley let his imagination lead his brush to create “Khalil’s Colossal Dream,” giving solid form to the shapes he saw upon the canvas. A dragon in the center with an elephant just above. A cloaked wizard. In one corner, the incomplete outline of Khalil with a book in his hands. Khalil is in another corner too, a helmet on the young hero’s head.

“These are things that, I just took a Sharpie and stood back from the painting, and I just started to outline the things that I was seeing,” Conley said. “All of these things were there. They just needed to be pulled forward.”

Conley, a Morganton native, is a lifelong artist whose work is on display in many local businesses, including Madd About Hair Studio. One painting even hangs in an office in Germany, Conley said.

Most of Conley’s work depicts people, an artistic interest that began in first grade.

“I remember the teacher showing the class how to draw stick figures, but I just knew it wasn’t right,” Conley said. So instead of a stick figure, he chose to outline a human figure. “I remember getting complimented by my teacher. … But I think she was a little shocked that I wasn’t drawing the stick figures that she was.”

Conley’s love for people extends beyond his art and into his profession as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). He has been a CNA for more than 20 years and has no desire to become a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), though he’s confident he could.

“There’s just something about being hands-on daily and helping people do the activities that they are not able to do anymore,” Conley said.

The quiet moments in life are a big artistic inspiration, Conley said.

“I love to watch people in a crowd, and I love to see when one of them gets separated from it (and) how comfortable they feel with themselves,” Conley said. “It tells you a lot about people. What they’re hiding, what they’re going through, or what they’re surviving.”

Authenticity is a must with all his paintings.

“If it’s not authentic, I don’t want it. … This right here,” Conley said, gesturing to his painting of Khalil, “was actually a Care Bear.”

The Care Bear’s foot is still visible in “Khalil’s Colossal Dream.”

Conley said he wants to write a short story based on the painting. It would be about a young boy who is transported to a fantasy world.

“I think it’s important for Black stories to be told, whether it’s fantasy or not, (but) I don’t think we get enough fantasy as far as movies and different things like that,” Conley said.

Conley’s work can be found on Instagram under the username @jarvistalent. He is also on TikTok as @JarvisConley2.