Bearden created this collage about the black migration, depicting a man leaving his home and his lover behind for a better life in the North. A life long fan of the blues and jazz, Bearden took the title from "Good Chib Blues" as recorded by Edith Johnson. During the period this work was created, the mid 60s, Bearden began incorporating a wider selection of materials, as the busy and dense feel here demonstrates. An activist and social worker, Bearden spent his life working on social struggles and this passion is deeply interwoven into his work. He often set his work in the areas he lived, here setting it in his home state of North Carolina. The piece is a document of real life as much as a display of the artist's talents and original voice. His choice to deform his subjects, over-sizing their faces and limbs, represents the fractured emotions of abandonment and longing.
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