Jack Beverland is a  folk artist living in San Antonio, Florida.  He also goes by the name Mr. B!  In 1991 he suffered a complete career loss from a major corporation after 32 years of loyal employment.  At 52, Mr. B was alone, depressed, anxious, loveless, and most of all suicidal.  He couldn’t get a job anywhere.  It was basically the worst kind of identity crisis imaginable.  He even started to think, who can I kill to make this better. That never happened and he found something to calm him down.

Art is the great savior to those who are lost, tired, meek and weak.  Mr. B was born poor in 1939 and is an entirely self-taught southern outsider artist. With the help of other people, those close to him, that love him very much, he was able to contain the angry beast of resentment and bitterness towards his job loss into art.  Painting art that reminds him of better times.  The art helped turn misery into tolerance.  He is extremely active in VSA Arts, a non-profit 501c for disabled artists.  Mr. B has uncinate episodes which are medically controlled.  He also has spina bifida occulta which results in dumbness. He does not have any neuropathy or radiculopathy that is occasionally seen with spina bifida.  

Life is better now. With love and support and new marriage to Karen (who is almost always included in the paintings) he lives at the Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club Community.  Governor Jeb Bush displayed paintings of his for 1 year in his office.  His paintings feature animals, birds, trees with pointillism that are lush and full of landscape effects.  He paints with 70 different acrylic colors of particle board recycled from the dump. His paintings are whimsical and are inspired from his roots in Idaho and as well as the southern rural life, and the grand landscape of Florida.  You can feel and touch the art—he informs us.  They are bright and glow in the dark, a neat feature for kids who like to see their bedrooms light up in the night.

He’s in Marquis’ Who’s Who of American Art 1999-2008
A book cover "Extraordinary Interpretations" by Gary Monroe, 2003
VSA Arts International Conference, Washington, D.C., 2004
Keel Library display includes paintings by local folk artist Mr. B (Jack Beverland)
Award Of Merit For Art 2004, Ruskin Seafood Festival
Tampa Museum of Fine Art 2007 show
St. Petersburg of Fine Art 2007 show
Cotton Club Museum, First Place Gainesville, FL 2007
Just Above the Water Book by Krintin Congdon 2006

Information courtesy of  Jena Coghlan.