Monday, April 26, 2010

Regenerate, Renew & Restore


As I was going through my inventory of flat files, I came across a monotype whose divider sheet was missing. The seeming tragedy of this careless mistake was that the medium had adhered to the back of its neighboring monotype. I removed the piece as tenderly as possible, but heard the sickening tear of paper as part of the paint remained on the back of the other monotype and pulled away a thin layer of paper with it. I felt my temper flare as I turned the piece over and saw three white fibrous craters where paint had been.

To calm myself I returned to the chair I draw in and picked up where I had left off earlier. I had been exploring a design element I had seen employed by the master chef and autodidact
Hiroyuki Doi. Hiroyuki had begun his drawings 20 years ago to help him deal with the death of his younger brother. Although my drawing was nowhere near the magnitude of Hiroyuki Doi's work, the repetitive drawing of circles was soothing and pleasing to the eye. Once I had returned to a calm state of mind, I picked up the ruined monotype again. The answer was now clear. I began to employ this design element in the void left by the missing paint and then continued it in the white space across the entire monotype.

This crystallized a notion I had been meditating on all week. As I mentioned last time I have been asked to act as director and host for a new exhibit using art to raise awareness about environmental issues. Certainly not a new idea, but one I believe in. I had begun with the concept of "Limitations," but immediately ran into the same territory everyone else crosses in exhibits like this. "Do you limit the entries to only environmentally safe materials? Do all the supports have to come out of a recycle bin to qualify?" I also played with the notion that the theme should be "Regenerated Art." This would have required the entrants to provide an original artwork (or print of the original) next to the piece that had been reconstructed from parts of the original. But, one thought prevailed as I sought different ways I might interest a wide range of artists in a project like this. The resource we must consider sustaining above all others is the artists themselves.

Last weekend I was honored to be invited back to the Affinity artists meeting at The Haley-Henman Gallery in Dallas. While others were getting coffee and water, I was waiting for the meeting to start near the front of the building. At that moment a young man came through the door, who at first I thought might have made a mistake about the address. The assumption was a natural mistake on my part. It was an art gallery and the meeting was for artists and this young man was being assisted by his guide dog. However the young man was much more at home than I was. He found a seat where both he and his guide were most comfortable and when I finally did enter the meeting room, he greeted me most cordially. I cannot say enough nice things about this writer and artist who introduced himself as
John Bramblitt. I found him to be very engaging, gentle and generous. After the meeting, I hurried home to look up his work online, since his exhibit has not officially started at Haley-Henman. I think if you follow the links I have provided to John's website you will be as impressed as I was. Whether John Bramblitt is sighted or not this is beautiful work you really have to see to appreciate, although ironically John does not. However, the take away that makes this relevant to our topic is a statement that John made in his video. Basically as anyone would, John had a lot of anger over losing his sight. It was in the act of creating art that he was able to come to terms with and dissipate that anger. So, here is one more example of art sustaining and nourishing the artist.

I was also privileged to attend the PCPC kickoff for their yearly art festival this week. The speaker was the juror from last year,
Makoto Fujimura. If you are not familiar, Fujimura's accomplishments are numerous, including being a writer and master of Nihonga painting (the traditional Japanese art form which he has fused quite successfully with his own abstract expressionist style,) being appointed to the National Council on the Arts in 2003, winning the Chairman's Medal for contributions to art advocacy, founding the International Arts Movement (IAM), and most notably being commissioned to illuminate the 400th Anniversary edition of The King James Bible.

At first I was a little taken back with Fujimura's statement about using the best of materials possible, especially in light of my own recent struggles with trying to find ways to limit use of non-renewable materials. Here is a man who uses gold, platinum, azurite, malachite and other semi-precious stones and minerals in his Nihonga paintings. I almost found it impossible to reconcile that fact with his gentle words of hope for the arts community, recognition that most artists are marginalized and the idea I have long believed, that all men are creators painting with the fabric of their lives. It was only after I had time to read some of the blog entries Makoto calls
Refractions that I realized how much he had struggled with that very issue, but had resolved the inner debate with the knowledge that his art (as well as all art) is meant to reveal those mysteries of the divine, speak peace and harmony into a world that brought destruction so close to his New York home near ground zero, and encourage creativity by sustaining artists. Much of Makoto's work and ministry has been to the arts community in New York where he strives to help artists "restore their humanity."
So, here's a novel idea for a sustainability awareness exhibit. I would like to see submissions of how art sustains you, the artist. I am interested in works that convey a sense of peace, harmony, truth, joy, beauty and goodness. Personally, I believe these are the ideals that comfort and strengthen our souls. These notions restore us, renew us and regenerate us as humans, and in doing so, encourage us to be better stewards of our home. These themes and the artists who present them should be what we endeavor to sustain.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Limitations and Lounge Acts


The experts say that as a marketing tool the enterprising artists should blog at least every week, if not every other day. That just proves either how terrible I am at blogging or how busy I have been. Consider the later and disregard the former.

Since last I posted I have been running a pop-up gallery at 2501 Parkview Dr in Fort Worth under the name
ARTworks DFW. Pop-up is the term art marketers and hip artists use for a temporary space for exhibition negotiated with the realtor in exchange for beautifying their space and making it more appealing. Some of the artists whose work I have the pleasure of showing along side mine include Robert Berry, James Haddock, Anita McConnell, Michael D. Smith, Eddie Phillips, Linda Little, Sheri Jones, Danny Owens, Nancy Dekolb, and Sleepy Gomez. The property owners liked what I did with space so much that they have purchased several of my pieces, and have improved the space to my specifications while expanding the area in which we can exhibit. So, if the space has not rented, look for a call for additional artists from me shortly.

I managed to squeeze in a couple of lectures at
The Modern, most notably Liam Gillick. Gillick, a minimalist, writer, sculptor, artist, composed a public art project (one of his many) in Japan with uncomfortable seats and a joke about God limiting Himself to the idiosyncrasies of a popular director. The joke actually works better with God and a famous golfer. (Write or call. I will tell you both versions and you can decide for yourself.)

I have also attended an Affinity meeting at the
Haley-Henman Gallery in Dallas. Dr. John Marcucci, the director of the gallery, honored me with his invitation to this meeting at which all the other artists attending had exhibited in that gallery. The speaker at this particular gathering was David Rodriguez (LEED accredited professional and Former Chairman of the board of Directors for the North Texas US Green Building Council.) Dave spoke about his own paradigm shift and considering limitations as a response to the challenges of preserving our planet. He also inspired me to check the VOC (volatile organic compound) numbers associated with the paints I use.

So, there is all this talk about the challenge of limiting ourselves in the creation process, and vast amounts of discussion on creating an exhibit to raise awareness. Now, God is not a minimalist, and since I am trying to be more like Him than Liam Gillick, I am not a minimalist either. However, I know that God does limit Himself in dealing with us, so I suppose that is why I have come up with a new project and a proposal for an exhibit. Instead of limiting the material that artists use, which only stifles creativity, I propose that each artist interested in participating take one of their pieces already created and regenerated it into something else. I do not mean to chop up one of your paintings and use the pieces, although I did something like this. The original image can also be manipulated digitally into something fresh (something else I frequently do.) The bottom line is that we limit the use of new materials by repurposing artwork.

The new project I have undertaken to accomplish this exact concept is something I call
"Underworks." I have found several photo prints of digital collages I have made, sliced them into strips and folded those. I will give you a sneak peek at what I mean.

In addition to everything else I have been working on a non-fiction work concerning the limitations (there is that word again) on creativity imposed by the artist or by other external authorities such as culture, religion, economy etc. Since most of my material is derived from my own experience I have decided to title it (get ready for this biblically inspired doozie) First & Second Kenneth.

Keeping with the Bible motif, I considered the fifth book of the New Testament which we all know as Acts, short for The Acts of The Apostles. In my own case I do more lounging than acting so as I tried to fit that notion into my new book it turned into The Lounge Acts of The Apostles. In the performance piece, Paul would be played by Paul Anka singing "Having My Savior...what totally immaculate way to say you love me."
The standup routine would include the topics of environment. Peter would be talking about how despite the oil situation cars get bigger and bigger. The Hummer, Hummer II, III, the Hummer limo as big as a city block, and the new Hummer Condo. It's six stories, seven counting the wheels and tires with a racquetball court and a laundry room. On the other end of the spectrum, Ford announced its new Mini-Nan. That is not a van. With the help of nano-technology, Ford has developed a totally functional vehicle smaller than the head of a pin. Of course, it has no real market potential, but was commissioned by the Vatican since it can seat six angels comfortably.