Lot Essay
With its peering eyes and mischievous smile, Sam Doyle’s I’ll Hit You Man is both enthralling and chilling while immediately grabbing the viewer’s attention. Born in St. Helena, South Carolina, Sam Doyle (1906-1985) spent his life on the island and it is where he opened his “Out Door Art Gallery” in his yard in the late 1960s. His paintings depict people and folklore from within his Gullah community, as well as important political and social figures ranging from Ray Charles to President Abraham Lincoln. The present picture is a visualization of a folkloric character from the Gullah culture, which was brought to the North and South Carolina, Florida and Georgia in the 1500s from the descendants of West and Central Africans who were enslaved. The rich culture has its own language, myths and legends. I’ll Hit You Man is Doyle’s imagined Devil or Boo Hag. In Gullah lore, the Boo Hag is a night spirit that does not have its own skin and has bright, reflective eyes. The creature attacks sleeping victims, steals their energy and takes their skin to wear and disguise themselves in the next day. I’ll Hit You Man shows a Boo Hag in a victim’s clothes. The feline-like face, with a teasing smile, eerily stares out at the viewer. This work is one of at least two known works by Doyle that depict this Devil-like creature. The other I’ll Hit You Too Man!, painted later in 1982, similarly shows the spirit in human clothing, with a tail and with long spindly fingers, toes and whiskers.