Visitors to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, can now enjoy “The Guardians,” a work created by retired JBU visual arts professor Bobby Martin. The museum acquired the piece for its permanent collection in September 2025.
Martin created the composition using oil paint, encaustic, collage and 24k gold leaf on birch panel. At 7 feet by 10 feet, the piece is his largest work to date. The work pays homage to the monumental impact of sustained care and the roles of women in his life, as well as the impact of matriarchs on tightly knit rural communities more broadly across America.
The painting portrays Martin’s childhood home on old U.S. Highway 69, which no longer exists after the highway was widened decades ago.
“‘The Guardians’ is basically a ginormous self-portrait,” Martin said. “I’m the little guy in the middle. My mom is directly behind me. My aunties are there. My granny is there. I remember sitting on the porch with my granny. She spoke English, but Muscogee was her heart language. We’d sit on the porch at night and wouldn’t say a word; just listen to the cars go by.”
Martin’s paintings, prints and drawings evoke memory, family legacy and connections to the land, particularly his home in northeast Oklahoma. His Muscogee (Creek) heritage plays a vital role in the work he creates from his studio in West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma.
Martin first considered using a family photo for print while taking a printmaking class decades ago.
“I was looking for some kind of subject matter,” he said. “I was at my mom’s, and she had these old photos. I thought, ‘I should make some prints out of these.’ It was just a whim. I thought, ‘I’ll make this little series. Then I’ll know about printing and move on to something else.’ Now, here it is 30 years later, and I’ve made a whole career out of this. I never expected that.”
Martin discovered that his dad, mom and aunts all enjoyed taking photos. As a result, he found boxes and tubs full of amazing photographs to use in his art.
Once Martin’s cousins realized what he was up to, they started showing up to family get-togethers with family photos, bringing some that Martin had never seen before.
“I don’t see that I’ll ever run out of ideas for how to use family photos in my art, and I don’t think I’ll ever run out of the desire to use them either,” Martin said. “Every time I’ve thought, ‘I’m going to change direction,’ I’ll show a piece at a show and invariably somebody will say, ‘That reminds me of my aunt or grandma.’ There’s an immediate connection with their own memories, their own family. That to me is the reason God has allowed me to keep showing these. It’s my family, yes. It’s very personal to me, but it becomes personal to other people too.”
Over the years, Martin has increasingly added to the backstory of his works, incorporating maps, and scriptures and hymns in the Muscogee language.
“I think viewers are drawn to the people, but then when they investigate a little bit, they ask, ‘I wonder what those words are? What does the map mean?’ That’s been a blessing too, to be able to tell those stories in a way that isn’t strident,” he said. “I’m not trying to be super political with it. I’m just reminding people about the histories — about the survival and the resilience of the people they’re looking at in those pictures. Maybe it reminds them of the survival and resilience of their own ancestors.”
Jordan Poorman Cocker, curator of indigenous art at Crystal Bridges, discovered Martin’s artwork while researching the Gilcrease Museum’s collection in 2020 .
Cocker visited Martin Mountain Studio in August 2024 to explore acquiring one of Martin’s pieces for Crystal Bridges.
“We talked about his family photographs, his family history and his connections to the allotment and family land. The time flew by,” Cocker said. “These women were strong matriarchs who left an impact on Martin as guardians, as protectors and as leaders. Learning more about his family history and more about Muscogee history through the lens of his childhood really struck me.”
Cocker spotted an older piece of artwork, but Martin proposed a new piece he hoped would be his best yet.
Martin had long wanted to create a life-size painting to honor his family’s matriarchs. Cocker replied, “Let’s try it.”
Martin worked up some sketches and initial ideas for what would become “The Guardians” and sent them to Cocker.
“I hadn’t started the piece yet, but I felt like it was something God was calling me to do. So, I was going to do it no matter what,” he said.
In January 2025, Cocker told Martin the acquisition committee had approved their proposal. That spring while preparing for retirement from JBU, Martin began the painting, completing it in August.
“The Guardians” is now on display in the Visions of America gallery at Crystal Bridges.
“Ever since I cleared my JBU office out, God opened the floodgates of all these projects,” said Martin, who retired in May 2025 after 17 years of teaching.
This year, he completed a 6-foot by 22-foot painting now on display in Eufaula, Oklahoma, and currently has a solo show at the Gregg Museum of Art and Design in North Carolina.
Visit Martin’s website to learn more: www.bobbycmartin.com.
This article is from the summer 2026 edition of the Brown Bulletin. Access the full issue.
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