Seminal punk rockers civil rights portraits on display

• WHAT%3A "You Can Color Outside the Lines%3A The Work of Tim Kerr and Friends"
• WHEN%3A Through June 19

When one thinks of Martin Luther King Jr. or John Lewis, punk rock may not be the next thing that comes to mind. But at Troy University's Rosa Parks Museum, the two are coming together.

An exhibit from Tim Kerr, an Austin-based artist and founding member of several punk and indie rock bands, recently opened at the museum. "You Can Color Outside the Lines: The Work of Tim Kerr and Friends" features portraits of musicians, civil rights activists and counter culture icons from Kerr.

"It's all people that I've been influenced by," Kerr said during the exhibit's opening on Thursday. "They are people that have either done or said things to me that are really meaningful."

There are a wide range of subjects on the walls in the exhibit room, from King and Lewis to Jim Thorpe and Aretha Franklin. Kerr said he wanted the influence he felt to spread to those looking at the portraits.

Kerr took that same mindset to his Montgomery visit as he spends a few days in the city painting a mural in downtown next to the skate park on Bibb Street. The public painting, which will be a tribute the Montgomery Bus Boycott, began Thursday night and is expected to last through Saturday, weather pending.

"Hopefully it will start something where more of the community will get involved and start painting stuff on this wall and turn it more into of a big open space art gallery," Kerr said.

Art and music have always been a big part of Kerr's life. He is a member of the Texas Music Hall of Fame and has been a member of bands such as The Big Boys, Poison 13, Bad Mutha Goose and the Lord High Fixers. He also holds degrees in photography and painting from the University of Texas at Austin.

For Kerr, the lines of music and art have always been blurred.

"There was this group of kids that did the same thing we did with music but they did it with art," he said. "'I'm not crazy about this choice, I'm going to get something started over here.' Those kids would come to our shows and would start asking me to come to their show."

With a sense of community in mind, Kerr left a wall in the exhibit room for works from other artists. He said there is also a signature on the portraits that reads "your name here."

"If I'm going to put some stuff on the wall, I want it to be a positive influence on somebody," he said. "If someone realizes that somebody did this not to be famous, but did it straight from the heart, then it's a "you can too" kind of thing."

The exhibit hall at the museum is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. The exhibit will be on display through June 19.