Baker Artist Portfolios

Jerry Prettyman studied Applied Art & Design at Catonsville Community College and the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Fine Art at Morgan State University. He was employed as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator for thirty-nine years. Mr. Prettyman has been a guest speaker on numerous radio and television programs. He has also given numerous lectures and presentations of his works to private groups, schools and organizations and been a guest juror and curator for many exhibits.

His work has been exhibited in many galleries, museums and public buildings across the country. Some of the more notable exhibits/institutions include: the Smith/Mason Gallery and Museum of Washington, D.C., the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA, the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park & Museum, Baltimore, MD, the Banneker Douglas Museum, Annapolis, MD, the Corcoran Gallery of Art Washington, D.C., the JVC Jazz Exhibition New York, NY, The Jazz Gallery, New York, NY, and at Duke University.

His works are also in the collections of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company of Los Angeles, Mr. Joseph Haller of the Jesuits Residents of Georgetown University, the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture at the University of Maryland College Park, and of Mr. Paul Pierce, 2008 Most Valuable Player of the NBA World Champion Boston Celtics.

He has numerous commissions to his credit, the most significant being a commission (after an exhaustive nationwide search) by the firm of Joseph A. Wetzel Associates, Inc. of Boston, MA, to create and design an eighteen foot Italian tile floor mural honoring legendary tenor saxophonist Lester "Prez" Young for the Jazz Plaza at the Jazz Museum, of Kansas City, MO. Jerry has always had a love for art and cannot remember when he has not sketched or painted. As an artist he has never gotten locked into a single style. Instead, much like the jazz musicians who inspire him, he describes himself as a vehicle through which the work emerges.