The artist, Jervis Corner, a.k.a. Maurice Johnson, took his name from his birth place. Jervis Corner is a neighborhood in the little town of Port Maria in Saint Mary's Parish. It is situated on the north coast of the island of Jamaica, sixty miles east to Kingston, Jamaica's capital. He spent most of his childhood between the serenity of Jervis Corner and the harsh city life of Kingston. As a child he attended Port Maria Parochial School. When he was 10 the family moved to Kingston. However, he would return to Port Maria often to see his grandmother whom he dearly loved. He loved her sense of humor. He was a teenager living in Western Kinston when he met Ras Daniel Hartman, an artist and actor who would eventually appear in the 1972 Jamaican crime film, The Harder They Come. They became close friends. Hartman encouraged Jervis’ interest in drawing and social issues.  He also exposed him to the brilliant poet, Claude McKay (1889 - 1948), who wrote about his Diaspora while living abroad. McKay’s poems - especially, If We Must Die - had a deep influence on the art of Jervis Corner. In the mid Sixties, Jervis left the island to reside in the UK, eventually moving to Canada and then the United States. He presently resides in Berkeley, CA. Jervis is a largely self taught artist; however, he has completed some formal art training in the UK, Canada, and the United States. He earned his bachelor’s of fine arts at the San Francisco Art Institute where his major study was in abstract expressionism. The artist's main concern is with the Diaspora of disenfranchised people.