Taft Richardson Jr.

Taft Richardson
Born	Taft Richardson Jr (1943-09-02)September 2, 1943 Lumberton, Florida, United States
Died	November 30, 2008(2008-11-30) (aged 65) Tampa, Florida, United States
Occupation	Artist
Years active	1967–2008
Spouse(s)	Estella Richardson (Anderson) 5/3/63-until his demise. Children Sherron (Moultry) Richardson Herbert Richardson Hubert Richardson Taft Richardson 3rd Anthony Richardson Pamela Richardson(Hackley Cheryl Richardson Travis Richardson Dexter Myers and one stepdaughter Krystal Dawson and a host of grandchildren, and great grandchildren

Taft Richardson (September 2, 1943 – November 30, 2008) was an American folk artist who sculptured art images out of dried animal bones. Taft enjoyed creating sculptured images from bones like spiders, snakes and maps. He made an image of the continent of Africa out of tiny pieces of bone fragments. Taft often said that he did not just create art for just viewing but he also for spiritual and religious reasons. One of his famous pieces once stood at 82 inches tall. It looked like a giant snake dressed in armor. He called it the King James version in the bible, "Abaddon".

Early life (1943–72)

Taft Richardson Jr. was born on September 2, 1943 in Lumberton, Florida, to Taft Richardson Sr and Mary Lee Turner Richardson. When he was about five years old his parents moved him and his other siblings to Sulfur Springs, a district in the city of Tampa, Florida. At the age of seven, he was baptized at Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church. He attended his early school years in a church owned by his relatives. He later attended and graduated from a segregated all-black high school. He married his wife Estella Anderson at the age of 20. He subsequently began collecting more bones from different animals and made them into art sculptures.

In 1967, Taft left his hometown of Florida and moved to Washington DC to pursue his art career. He got his first job working at General Hospital. He later got a position at Howard University Medical Hospital with the help of one of good friends Walter Lattimore (father of R&B singer Kenny Lattimore). At Howard University he worked and studied Nuclear Medicine. Taft, then a young man in his late twenties, spent a great deal of his time working on his art work . He mingled with artists, politicians, activists and popular celebrities visiting town. It was in this popular area of Washington DC that Taft began to display his art work to the public, on busy city street corners and in neighborhood parks. He opened his first gallery on Kennedy St NW in the late 70s with two local artist Leroy and Elbert, which they called T.E.L. gallery, on his return to Tampa he would start Mary's House of Israel, the Moses House .

National (1971–2008)

In the early 1970s Taft took his art creation on tour. He traveled around the U.S from east to west doing art shows and exhibits, from New York City to the state of California. He appeared regularly on television shows and he has been written about in dozens of newspaper articles around the world. In the Tampa Tribune newspaper the whole LifeStyle section was dedicated to him.

In 2007 Taft became ill. He continued working on his last piece of art until his death in November 2008.