Blog
Posted on 3/31/2017 8:17:44 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
Life in a large city like Houston, large not only in urban population approaching three million (double that if including suburban and outlying areas) but also large spreading over nearly seven hundred square miles, means that many of us spend a lot of time in cars. As I drive back and forth to schools where I teach or just to take in the incredible possibilities that the city offers, I listen to the radio, mostly NPR (National Public Radio), which not only gives in depth news and commentary but also has many interesting and creative features. One of these is Story Corps, short narrative and historical recordings by known and unknown family members – husbands and wives, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters and other combinations – that become archived at the Library of Congress. Today’s broadcast was daughter Morelia interviewing her father Manuel Cuevas, 83, known as the Rhinestone Rembrandt.
Manuel Cuevas is an internationally recognized tailor and designer who has designed and crafted one of a kind suits and costumes for a mind-boggling who’s who of music and entertainment and modern American History. Here’s a taste: Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Gram Parsons, Elvis, Marty Stuart, the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Dwight Yoakum, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Emmy Lou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Elton John, the Jackson Five, Dwight Eisenhower, George W. Bush, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, and the rest of the Rat Pack, Audie Murphy, Loretta Lynn, and on and on.
As a boy in Mexico, Manuel said he was like an outcast because he cared nothing for sports and other boyish activities. He would fall asleep dreaming of fabrics and leathers and all the things he would make when he awakened. He began designing and making prom dresses when he was thirteen years old and soon all the girls no longer wanted the dresses made by their mothers. They wanted Manuel to make their dresses. This early success led to immigration to the U.S. in the fifties where he flourished as a tailor in Los Angeles (movie stars and music) and eventually in Nashville. He has an uncanny gift for creating just the right style for individuals – he created Johnny Cash’s signature Man in Black outfits and Elvis’ famous jump suits not because those were requested but because that was how he pictured those entertainers as personalities.
One comment he made in the interview was that he didn’t want to make two of anything – that’s why he never makes socks. He also noted that a pretty dress is not just a pretty dress – it’s about the person wearing the dress. His commitment to his artistry was evident in his humor and his commentary. His closing words were “the sewing machine and the needle and the thimble. That’s it for me.” In short, the artist lives for his art, and he is most at home in his studio. What an inspiring figure.
Posted on 3/28/2017 5:31:30 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
It has been said that art is something that heals, that enlivens and uplifts, that enlightens and inspires, and that brings people together. I suspect that if someone did a random survey of people exiting a theater production, that person would find an interesting cross section of individuals based on sex, age, and political persuasion. There would likely be less difference in economic and educational backgrounds. Why might this be?
This is a projection, perhaps, of my own bias for I have no real evidence here. I would guess that audience members are solidly middle to upper middle class with some being very well off. They are most likely college educated, and many also are working professionals. They tend to see art as an enhancement rather than solely entertainment (like going to the movies, for example). I can do a mental poll among my friends, and that result would look very much like what I would expect from the exit survey. Most of my friends are college educated. Most of them have an interest in the arts although this interest may vary among the different kinds of arts, and I do think that mostly these friends see art as an enhancement to life, to emotional health, and to the intellect. This also reaches across any political divide since I do have friends on both sides of the political aisle, some even being far right and some far left. Interestingly, art is a meeting place that transcends any political or other cultural divisions.
What’s also interesting about this latter observation is that within the larger political arena, conservatives typically want to remove the arts from a budget arguing that the arts should not be publicly funded. Granted many corporations do contribute to arts funding, and people who buy the products or services of those corporations are, in effect, publicly funding the arts whether they utilize them or not. That seems no different than tax dollars contributing as well. The arts are, after all, educational as well as all the other positive things said above. Why shouldn’t the government fund the arts like any other public venture including safety, health, transportation, or environmental concerns? Recognition of and support of the arts make powerful statements about who we are as a people. Taking care of ourselves includes taking care of our emotional, mental, intellectual, and spiritual needs, which is a primary function of the arts generally. I readily admit the bias in favor of the arts because I firmly believe the arts can heal many of the afflictions that divide us.
Posted on 3/26/2017 5:53:04 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
Shuttered
In today’s Houston Chronicle an opinion piece by Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, offers strong reasoning for not defunding educational agencies like the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. This could easily extend to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting System, other groups that Republicans have targeted for years while also promoting tax breaks for the super rich. Take away from the majority (all these agencies benefit everyone) and give to the minority (the wealthy and powerful). The argument against these organizations is not that they use massive amounts of public dollars; it is that they are seen as non-essential. In other words, they are not understood for what they represent and do.
All these organizations represent American culture at its best. They fund, support, and promote research, education, and expression of who we are as a people and a nation. As Walker so eloquently points out, these groups have the power to “open our hearts and minds, to help us imagine new possibilities for ourselves and our world. In a time of divisive political discourse – of competing, conflicting ideas about our future – the arts can build empathy and reconnect us with the human experience we all share.” Reflect on the recent theatrical phenomenon Hamilton as an example.
The current political leadership came into power promoting fear, antagonism, and separatism, and has continued to pound those drums in its effort to promote its agenda. This in itself shows a profound lack of imagination and a misplaced trust in short-sighted financial savings though a kind of shell game that will leave us morally and culturally bankrupt. Walker goes on to say that at “this moment in our nation’s history, the arts and their power to inspire empathy have never been a more necessary and worthy investment.” Consider, for example, the potential negative effects of the recent attempt at health care reform – the poor would have been shafted (where there is no empathy, there is no assistance) and the wealthy would have benefitted once again. We see it with so-called immigration reform – no empathy for families torn apart or for the brain trust provided by immigrants that have fueled this nation, its creative and innovative culture and economy for over two hundred years. And never mind that our very institutions and way of life were cobbled together initially by those who themselves largely were immigrants.
Walker rightly points out that the imaginative community annually adds $750 billion to the gross domestic product, supports millions of American (not off-shore manufacturing) jobs, and creates trade surplus. He emphasizes, however, that the enrichment from the arts reaches into the far corners of rural America, assists veterans, and enlivens our experience of ourselves because much of the focus is centered within communities large and small and provides access to growth possibilities for all ages and political persuasion – education, creative expression, and who we are as human beings. He concludes with “we owe it to ourselves not to retreat from our national commitment to our unique cultural inheritance, but to renew it for an America in transition, and in need of every ounce of our creative energy.”
Walker, Darren. “The Arts Are Fuel for American Dream.” Houston Chronicle. March 26, 2017. A31-32.
Posted on 3/25/2017 6:44:57 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
I’ve lived in my current house since buying it in 1991, so just under twenty-six years. At time of purchase the front yard contained two trees that were like mirror images, both Arizona ashes. A landscaper friend characterized the trees as overgrown weeds, but they were willowy, bright leafy green in the spring, and though beginning to show their age, my wife and I enjoyed them. Several years after we moved in, one of the trees began to lose branches whenever there was a heavy wind. Subsequently, that one had to be removed. When a city tree-trimming crew was working on the block one day to clear limbs from power lines, I asked the foreman what he would charge to have his crew take it down. He gave me an incredible price of seventy-five dollars cash. He gave his three-man crew five dollars each, and he pocketed the rest, a bonus for all since they were already being paid by the city.
The other tree flourished for another five years or so until it too began to lose smaller limbs. The main trunk grew into two trunks about five feet up, and both of those started to decay from the crotch upward. Despite this, I didn’t want to remove the tree because it gave the south face of the house great shade in the afternoon, and over all the tree was still quite lovely as it leafed out in the spring and swayed gently all summer long. The real reason I kept the tree, though, is because I came to admire its tenacity. Even with weakened trunks that grew slimmer each year, that tree withstood several hurricanes and other windstorms that took out oak trees and other stalwarts in the neighborhood. There was something almost heroic about that aging tree standing up to the elements, becoming a naked gaggle of twisted branches every fall, and reviving with rich, variegated crown each spring. It even produced two smaller trunks on its east side as though to say, see, there’s still good life in me. Hurricane Ike blew through Houston in 2008 and took out two support posts from the front porch and dozens of oak branches in the backyard and trees all over Houston, but that tree did not lose a single branch.
Each year I would have to trim out some branches from that ash tree to keep its crown somewhat balanced, I trimmed the fast-growing newer trunks to encourage them to grow taller, and I continued to admire that tree’s strength and flexibility though its main trunk continued to thin. Last night, during a fast-moving thunderstorm with high winds, the trunk on the north side was finally blown down across the front walk and halfway out into the street. I called my landscaper friend and he contacted the tree man with whom he has worked for over twenty years.
I remembered J.W. from work he had done at my mother-in-law’s house almost ten years ago, although I did not meet him at the time. He arrived several hours later with a crew of two young bucks. J.W. is now quite elderly himself, and he made his command post at the edge of the shaded front brick planter from which he barked orders to the younger men. His forty-two years of working with trees had wizened him in the ways of growing things, and there was an air of Entish thoughtfulness in his slow movements and bark-like furrowed brow. I could sense a bit of Treebeard in his twinkling eyes.
J.W. told me that he never went to school to learn about trees, but he kept his eyes open and paid attention. He knew how to save trees that were diseased or damaged and when it was time to let one go. He could see as could I that it was time to let this old ash go, but he also concurred when I told him I wanted to preserve the two young slender trunks, and so we did. He also told me that he traveled over several states doing his tree work. He had built a clientele by word of mouth, and many of his Houston customers who had vacation homes elsewhere would always call him to take care of those treed properties. He said he never turned down a job no matter how small and would travel anywhere without hesitation. He was a fitting surgeon for my Arizona ash and made its loss a respectful win as those two young trunks now stand on their own.
Posted on 3/24/2017 9:13:30 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
My work schedule this week has made it impossible to write my blog as usual. I’ve spent nearly three hours each day commuting between two campuses and back again. Outside of class I’ve either prepared for future classes or graded papers, and with this latter chore I am behind. This weekend will be spent catching up to be able to start next week fresh. I dislike feeling behind in that or any other work.
While driving, I at least can think about art or observe surroundings, traffic flow, other drivers, and listen to radio news, commentary, stories, or music. The other day, for example, while heading to the north campus, I reached an area where lanes narrow and merge because of construction just to the north edge of downtown. A previous vehicle had lost part of a load of white onions, which looked like tennis balls collected by the road edge. As I moved through the area, I could smell the strong odor of onions. It was sunny and over eighty degrees outside, even hotter on the asphalt. Multiple images converged in that moment of chopping onions for spaghetti sauce, of hamburgers ladened with tomato and onions, of peeling the outer layers before slicing and chopping, and of Japanese hibachi chefs artfully slicing onions with quick, deft flashes of razor sharp knives right onto the grill.
Most people have memories triggered by visions and aromas, but unlike Proust do not turn them into art. For the artist, however, any momentary sensual experience can be the stimulus for an artistic idea. There is no predicting when this may happen even though many of us will use music, particular experiences like going to a museum, looking at other art, drawing, or taking a conscious walk to put ourselves into the creative mood or to make ourselves available to the muse. Art almost always come directly from life experience.
Posted on 3/19/2017 7:14:32 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
Music is ephemeral as are many other art forms. Live performances happen in the moment, and what occurs at one performance may not do so at another. There are magical experiences that audience members will praise and follow with “you had to be there.” Recordings allow us to view or listen again and again those films, concerts, and other performances found particularly moving just as literature can be read again and again. The appreciation of paintings is always at the viewer’s choice for how much time is spent since the work is permanent and unchanging being fixed in time.
The viewer or audience is the receptor of the artistic communication, and though this is mostly a personal experience, all art also exists in a critical space where ideas and experiences are written about, discussed, and expanded in a sense into a larger context of social dimension. Some viewers will actively participate in this social dialogue while others may consider what is written or said and some will ignore it completely. This is another area of choice whether to engage the social criticism, use it in some way to better understand the personal experience, or to stay solely with that personal experience. Whatever the individual decision, the art enters into the historical stream of artistic expression. For some art, much extra concerns will accumulate from its entry into the public eye onwards. Hopefully, the art remains at the center and doesn’t succumb to the wash of response that may continue to follow it to its detriment or to enhance it so much that it can no longer clearly be seen.
Posted on 3/18/2017 7:31:13 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
In a recent article in The Village Voice about Andy Warhol and his continuing influence, R.C. Baker writes that “In a 2010 New Yorker essay, Louis Menand wrote, ‘Marcel Duchamp loved the Campbell's soup can paintings because, he said, they freed art from the tyranny of the retinal image. You don't need to stare at the paintings to get them.’ Yet Warhol, who avidly collected art by everyone from Braque to Magritte to Johns, obviously loved ‘retinal’ art, that combination of vibrant color and lush texture that has characterized painting from the cave walls onward.” Many have said that painting is an art form that is immediate since it is two-dimensional and can be taken in at a glance whereas it takes time to walk around a piece of sculpture to appreciate it.
Of course, taking in a painting at a glance is not the same as ‘getting it,’ which for any good painting will take a longer perusal and perhaps more than one viewing. Paintings can be very complicated, and I’m not convinced that, as a whole, painting needed to be rescued from lack of immediacy – meaning thoughtfulness, care in execution, and their interrelationship with personal vision – these and other things that make the appreciation of painting so rewarding. In fact, one might question the reward of seeing an oversized representation of a soup can or other singular consumable.
I understand the philosophical and critical or even satirical and certainly ironic statement behind much of Warhol’s work, but one consumable portrait says little different from another. And, we could argue that the electric chair series, portraits of celebrities, and other pop subject matter comment on other aspects of society that create a larger context for the art. I do get that. Isn’t it more rewarding, however, to contemplate works of art rather than have them be a one-time statement that then becomes a decoration, a colored spot on the wall that in future only takes up space? For me, the best paintings invite the viewer into their pictorial space which always includes the unspoken mind of the artist actively at work as evidenced in the vibrant or subtle color and the specifically handled texture. I’d hardly call that tyrannical.
Posted on 3/17/2017 5:45:31 PM
By Donald Fox
2 Comments
Open Door Policy
Political and religious fundamentalism is the enemy of history, culture, art, and common sense. The Taliban has destroyed ancient monuments in Afghanistan, Isis has destroyed ancient ruins in Syria, the Baathists looted and plundered in Iraq – these are the most ironic, perhaps, since they occurred in an area known as the cradle of civilization. During the Second World War, Nazi Germany confiscated art and destroyed books and works of art they considered decadent and counter to their paranoid ideology and were also responsible, resulting from the war they began, for the destruction of art and architecture throughout Europe. Now, in the United States, the right-wing regime of Donald Trump is proposing eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Public Radio (NPR), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and Public Broadcasting System (PBS), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund a xenophobic project across the southern border of the country among other self-serving or myopic interests. What this regime is also doing to public education and climate science are topics for another discussion. Fear is at the root of all these perpetrations whether religiously motivated or philosophically aberrant.
The NEH helped fund the most popular historical series of all time (also that was solely shown on PBS) Ken Burn’s The Civil War, and speaking of irony, that program brought to life the most divisive period in American history whose effects are still being felt today from the unfulfilled promises of the civil rights movement to Black Lives Matter to states’ rights versus federal overreach to a Republican party that has moved to the far right of the party of Lincoln. The NEH has also supported other Burns documentaries illuminating a wide range of American history (the National Park system, baseball, jazz, prohibition, World War II, the Roosevelts, Mark Twain – and more to come) all readily accessible to all Americans regardless of political leaning through their local PBS station. Additionally, the NEH helped create the Library of America, which is tasked with keeping in print American literary classics in conservation editions that will long outlive their authors. The NEH has also funded continuing research into Jamestown, the first English colony in America, and helped to bring its story and impact out of the historical shadows. These are just a few of its (NEH) contributions to the continuing saga of American history, a much-needed contribution since it is well known that many Americans are ignorant of their own past.
The NEA has been higher profile largely because of some individual grants to controversial artists, which unfortunately have overshadowed its more egalitarian support of the arts. These would include arts education, community theater, dance, visual arts, literature, public art, folk and traditional arts, media arts, and music. Again, these are arts for all the people from all segments of society. Consider that every major culture and most minor ones throughout history have been largely judged by their cultural arts, for it is the art, architecture, and monumental works that often are what remains of civilizations long after they have faded from their days of glory. Their contributions, however, become part of the larger human fabric that extends well beyond short-sighted and ultimately doomed nationalism. The despots and demagogues of history of whatever stripe rarely recognize that fact.
Posted on 3/16/2017 5:16:29 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
Art is real, imaginative, seductive, valuable, truthful, daring, in-your-face, contemplative, serious, satirical, encouraging, uplifting, ennobling, alternative, engaging, terse, beautiful, illustrative, narrative, deep, inviting, encompassing, peaceful, agitating, enlivening, metaphorical, illusionistic, restorative, vital, conceptual, universal, mysterious, bewitching, astonishing, symbolic, ancient, cosmic, arcane, immutable, brilliant, arresting, glorious, formidable, democratic, useful, funny, academic, hypnotic, graphic, questionable, soothing, harmonious, colorful, multidimensional, playful, liberating, illogical, generous, healing, timeless, human, piercing, essential, inquisitive, supportive, secretive, critical, important, spiritual, philosophical, striking, indispensable, life-affirming, commendable, pleasing, reflective, mimicking, perceptive, inclusive, fundamental, luscious, intriguing, ingenious, inventive, hopeful, multi-layered, esoteric, common, ordinary, expressive, ongoing, dependable, mirroring, extraordinary, therapeutic, necessary, comprehensive, pictorial, life-like, communicative, decorative, needed, illuminative, elusive, everywhere, non-judgmental, personal, humanistic, forward-looking, revelatory, entertaining, thought-provoking, high-powered, natural, curative, mesmerizing, celebratory, impassioned, logical, monumental, multi-purposed, binding, unique, and a thousand other things.
Posted on 3/15/2017 4:30:32 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
In the world of science, truth is that which can be verified. If it cannot be verified, then it may remain possibility but only within a fictional world that does not follow the principles of the one where it can only exist as fact. Both scientist and artist deal with possibility, but only the artist has all possibilities for he or she can create any realm according to whatever governing principles he or she chooses and whatever happens only has to follow the rules laid down for that space. The audience can suspend judgment but still will expect some sense of coherence in order to believe in that time and place. In the conjuring of the aesthetic world, the creator may take artistic or poetic license, which basically means that certain rules of behavior may be suspended or manipulated for the purpose of a story, an image, or expression. It is because of this that some people do not relate well to art since they feel it is not truthful and may be considered a lie. And if it is a falsehood, then it has no real value.
For the artist, however, that magical realm where anything can happen feels like the only true reality, for it is boundless much like the scientist might speak about the universe, it being vast beyond measure. Within the boundary of a painting, a particular space is created. It may lie on the surface of its support, layered as it is with one coat of paint after another. Shapes may overlap or appear to do so like a tree in front of a house or the house in front of another object – at least this is the appearance in the virtual space, the so-called picture space of whatever segment of reality is represented. In truth those shapes abut each other because the space is only planar even though created from layers of paint. If the image is abstract, then the paint texture may be more important since the space is not about replication of something in the observable world – it is a totally imaginary world, a made-up world that resides on that surface but may suggest something that has no equivalent in reality. It is its own reality (as is any painting regardless of subject matter). The painting exists as some kind of philosophical and aesthetic statement that is bound to our human ability to imagine and to project ourselves visually and virtually into that other realm.
Most of us imagine things all the time. We remember events and people from long ago and can reconstruct in our mind’s eye the important events that we have experienced. When we do so, in a sense we inhabit those spaces again but virtually. We also imagine events occurring in the future and project ourselves into those future times. This is a natural part of our experience of our world through awareness in any given moment. We use artistic expression as a way to verify and question meaning that we think we find or understand about ourselves and the world we inhabit. We seek definition of that world partly to quantify it as the scientist might but also to consider purpose or meaning that is expressed symbolically. This we do with words, with images, with sounds, with physical objects, with ideas and any combination thereof to which we respond with emotion or reason or both. We call this Art.
Posted on 3/14/2017
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
A good actor essentially disappears into the role and becomes the character being portrayed. This is a sophisticated form of the make-believe most of us played when we were children. That fantasy world could seem very real in the moment, but then there were the absurd arguments that might ensue when one boy soldier or cowboy would claim that he killed the other first. Some of us learned how to play roles in school or within the family, and we may have become very good at those make-believes as well. We might even carry over some of those techniques into adulthood and play out roles in relationships or in the workplace. At some point we might even wonder who the real person is behind whatever mask is presented to the world. We might wonder that about those that we encounter or who we see in news stories. Who is the person who could do such a thing? What is that person really like?
Literature is a form of art that can take us into the minds and hearts of those quite different from who we are or who we see ourselves as being. We can inhabit for a time the mind of a killer or a prostitute or a bully or a saint. We exercise our empathy and suspend our judgment or maybe we strengthen ideas and beliefs already a part of who we think we are. With film and with theater, we can do something similar, suspend our disbelief in order to occupy that fictional world for a time perhaps even thinking that what we feel or experience may have some effect on the outcome of the story. Really good literary art takes us out of ourselves and can put us through an emotional wringer.
Other forms of art do something similar. Music is certainly effective for appealing directly to our emotions. It is mysterious, invisible, and easily bypasses the logical mind that might otherwise check that suspension of disbelief. How we respond to any particular music is unpredictable. I love classical music, for example, but a romantic piece might seem too sentimental or an atonal piece might be structurally intriguing or it might seem caustic and discordant. Some pieces can build musical spaces as vast as any cathedral or even as expansive as a natural landscape. Another piece might feel uncomfortably claustrophobic, and all of this occurs from manipulated sound that blends volume, texture, and rhythm.
Since painting deals with imagery, we need to consider whether that imagery is recognizable as in realism, or suggestive (and still possibly recognizable) as in impressionism, or expressionistic as in much abstract painting. We might respond to the emotion suggested by shapes or colors or textures. With painting we react to the medium and how it is manipulated and to whatever content may be represented or inferred by the design including any symbolic or metaphorical content.
Given the possibilities inherent to individual forms of art, the audience response to art is as complex and variegated as the forms themselves. Add to this the accumulated study and discourse age after age, we then find encyclopedic treasuries of ideas, concepts, and philosophies governing both the creation of and the appreciation of art. Human expression always transcends any particular cultural expression, the whole being greater than the sum of its parts though any individual part can paradoxically seem to express the whole. Such is the power with which art is infused by its makers and its appreciators.
Posted on 3/13/2017 7:21:58 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
Forest Window
My current paintings and those for five or six years now have heavy texture and multiple layers of color. Paint is applied in numerous ways with a variety of tools including brushes and scrapers. Color is mixed and applied wet into wet where it covers other color, smears and mixes into other colors, or when dragged over heavy paint or light paint, goes on as broken color depending on the amount of pressure applied. There is a lot of nuance in the variance of pressure, and that is one area of finesse that intrigues me while working with heavy paint that otherwise might seem thick and crusty and slow as it is slathered on (I think of Philip Guston’s work or that of De Kooning). I’m less interested in the aggressive application of paint though I often do work quickly. That quickness for me is about a more balletic gesture that a macho one. I’ve often admired the grace and athleticism of male dancers like Vladimir Vasiliev, Rudolph Nureyev, or Mikhail Baryshnikov.
The dense texture that shows up in my work reminds me of childhood sojourns in thick woods where I would encounter thickets of many-layered twigs and branches that created dark shadows in the midst of closed-in shapes. Or, a latticework of branches and leaves could be backlighted and allow tiny shafts of light to filter through the darker erratic lines. Dark lines against a light ground or light lines against a dark ground – either way intriguing contrasts that would be a part of nature’s shifting landscape. The range and subtlety of color within these forestscapes are imprinted deeply in my memories.
I recognized some of these complex visuals in the paintings of old masters, not so much in the same kinds of images but definitely in the handling of color and texture. The early Renaissance painters were too meticulous and blended or smoothed their colors too much to create that raw naturalism, but as Hals and Rembrandt explored the use of physical texture in paint, I could see reminders of my past experiences. It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century, however, that artists used broken color techniques to great effect to produce the flickering light and shimmering textures of nature growing wild. Even so, it wasn’t the suggested realism or impressions that attracted my attention; it was the interplay of color and texture that drew my eye. This was dramatized for me in a late seventies exhibit of Cézanne paintings at Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Those paintings have taken me many directions over the years and have culminated in my work of the past five years. Influenced by nature and a handful of past artists I admit, but the pathway now is through what is revealed by one door or window opening after another right on the canvas that is in front of me.
Posted on 3/12/2017 6:29:10 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
Early Summer Glaze
Today is the first day of daylight savings time, so sunrise was an hour later this morning and sunset will be an hour later this evening. No daylight time is really saved. There is the same number of daylight hours for this time of year, but the clock hours have shifted ahead so that it appears to lengthen the daylight by one hour into the evening. As a kid, I always enjoyed having more daylight into the evening, but now it doesn’t much matter except some days I won’t be driving home from work in the dark.
In spite of our efforts to the contrary, we have little control over nature and her rhythms. Our biological clocks tick away regardless of what we do, but if we care for ourselves physically and emotionally and if we’re blessed with good genes, then we may continue with active and productive lives long into our sunset years.
Those halcyon days of youth that at the time seemed endless, once gone, for many become nostalgic dreams or simply memories of innocence and ignorance. The realities of self-sustenance in the adult world can be challenging for some and overwhelming for others. We all experience the same basic needs but respond in many different ways as we go about satisfying them. We make decisions about what is real, what is necessary, and what is desirable and thus become realists, dreamers, conservatives, liberals, and a host of other descriptives according to those decisions. What is important and what is not are fundamental questions that we constantly answer whether we ask them consciously or not.
Fortunately for me, art has been a perspective through which perception, being, possibility, understanding, connection, and purpose have all coalesced, and through which discovery and expression have become avenues of growth day to day regardless of what time the clock may show.
Posted on 3/11/2017 7:17:13 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
There is a lot in society that we keep hidden. Either it is considered too unstable or dangerous for exposure or there is embarrassment or discomfort of some kind associated with it, and therefore it should not be exposed. Sometimes that which is hidden covers flaws and imperfections. A ripened banana may seem perfectly fine until its skin is peeled and bruises on the otherwise unblemished pulp are revealed. The character of wood cannot be seen until the bark is stripped away. One’s actions may appear a certain way and only later hidden agenda come to light. Things are veiled to protect the innocent from corruption and the guilty from prosecution. The hidden sometimes becomes a mystery and thus intriguing or enticing. Clothing, for example, can be worn to cover up and conceal or to expose and seduce.
In art, we are often provoked by surface beauty that attracts before allowing us as viewers to see more deeply especially into those areas that require internal vision, imaginative insight. Many art forms, though, rely on hidden dimensions as a base upon which to build the powerful statement that is the finished work. Some of what is underneath is not meant to be seen, yet without it, what is seen would be less effective. In the indirect method of painting, for example, the artist begins with a drawing or simplified design that lays out the basic structure and then is gradually and deliberately covered up in successive stages. Each stage leads to the next, but it is the final one that defines the work.
Whatever that final form takes, there is the additional meaning of symbolic nature that exists in a kind of virtual world of the artist’s and the viewer’s mind that completes the work as it is appreciated. In a sense, this aspect of the work is hidden until brought to consciousness somewhat like an embedded memory brought to awareness. Some artists may even have specific hidden agenda that is not discovered until sometime later, and these artists come to be known as subversive.
At this point we could shift the argument to art mimicking life and nature, for nature often clothes things in beauty for survival purposes. The design of an animal’s coat may protect it if it is prey or advantage it if it is predator. The layers of complexity that exist in all aspects of the world have been duly noted and utilized by artists consciously and unconsciously in their creative expression. We follow models according to the design of our senses and minds and naturally incorporate these into all that we do. We uncover and recover and delight in this continual game of hide and seek and of show and tell that is ordinary life but is fashioned into art.
Posted on 3/9/2017
By Donald Fox
1 Comment
Young art students often find themselves in a double bind, a kind of catch-22 situation. They earnestly desire to express themselves creatively and make art that matters (at least to them). The double bind is that they have nothing important to say (yet), and they have few skills with which to say anything. What they do have is an abundance of youthful enthusiasm along with a dearth of experience. I can easily remember when I was one of those fresh-faced excited young artists who had yet to pay the necessary dues. Granted that sometimes there is the rare individual with gifted intelligence, prescience, and wisdom beyond years who will make a big splash at a young age. Most of us, however, have to put in long hours of study and practice, make lots of mistakes, and gradually find our way to both what we want to say and how to say it effectively. This process will also be different from person to person, and that personal art journey is an interesting story as it develops over time. All one has to do is to look at the history of art and see how widely the life narratives of artists varies.
I also remember how impatient I was to do something significant. The vast majority of the early work (if it can even be called that) was embarrassing, and I saw that within a few years of its making. The overall process was frustrating largely because of the impatience but also because that critical facility was lacking as much as anything else. I couldn’t even judge how far short of the mark that work fell. It was a simple matter of not knowing that I didn’t know. When I finally met the first few of my wisest teachers, they quickly disabused me of my misplaced idealism and unrecognized ignorance. I began the process of learning how to learn.
One of the most powerful lessons was discovering how to self-critique, something that every artist needs so as not to continuously repeat the same mistakes. Part of this is in realizing that continuous, never-ending improvement (borrowed from Japanese kaizen and applied to business and commerce activities) for the artist only comes from continuous, never-ending practice. The making of art is not just about creating any singular art work; it is about committing to the practice of art and to living an artistic life. Being and doing become one and the same.
Posted on 3/8/2017
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
Fair use of published work is an issue that resonates with some artists and runs contrary to others. Probably most would agree that they would not want their work plagiarized, and some might not want it used even when proper credit is given by the user. Artists who may have found themselves ripped off by others – their work copied without permission and then sold without receiving royalties will most definitely be opposed to the idea of fair use, but then this circumstance would be violation of that policy. Fair use normally means that the user is not making money off the original work. The case of parody (or satire) is somewhat different however. The following is from today’s Writer’s Almanac (an e-mail newsletter) and may raise interesting questions among artists and users alike.
“The fair use doctrine was originally spelled out in the 1976 Federal Copyright Act. The act lists four areas that should be considered when determining whether a copyright protection has been violated: the nature of the original work; how much of it is used; the character of the new work; and the impact it will have on the market for the original work.
The Supreme Court case that was decided on this day was Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. The rap group 2 Live Crew contacted Acuff-Rose Music because they wanted to write a parody of the Roy Orbison hit "Oh, Pretty Woman." Acuff-Rose refused to grant permission, even though the band intended to pay for the rights. But 2 Live Crew went ahead with their parody, which they called "Pretty Woman." They lifted the signature bass line directly from the Roy Orbison version. The song's lyrics describe a future where the "pretty woman" of Orbison's song is now a hairy-bodied, bald, two-timing woman. Nearly a year after the song was released, Acuff-Rose sued Luther Campbell, the leader of 2 Live Crew. The district court ruled in favor of Campbell, but Acuff-Rose appealed the decision, and the appeals court reversed the lower court's decision, ruling in favor of the publisher because 2 Live Crew had used the copyrighted material for their own commercial gain, even though they credited the original songwriters and publisher. The case went to the Supreme Court, who ruled in favor of Luther Campbell.
Justice David Souter delivered the opinion of the court. He emphasized that every fair use case must be decided on a case-by-case basis, after looking carefully at all four factors described by the Federal Copyright Act. He wrote that a new work of parody must present "something new, with a further purpose or different character, alternating the first with new expression, meaning, or message." The justices unanimously ruled that "Pretty Woman" met that standard. Souter wrote: "2 Live Crew juxtaposes the romantic musings of a man whose fantasy comes true, with degrading taunts, a bawdy demand for sex, and a sigh of relief from paternal responsibility. The later words can be taken as a comment on the naiveté of the original of an earlier day, as a rejection of its sentiment that ignores the ugliness of street life and the debasement that it signifies."
Since 1994, the case has had huge implications for the internet. Without the Supreme Court's ruling, search engines would be unable to display copyright-protected material in their search results. Parents would not be able to upload videos of their kids dancing to copyright-protected songs. And as a direct result of this ruling, Google even won the right to digitally scan entire books without the copyright holders' permission - millions of books - for an online database in 2013.”
Where are you on this issue?
Posted on 3/7/2017
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
Representational painting does not so much rely on suspension of disbelief like theater does, but it is built on how the medium, which is paint, in a sense disappears into the image and what is left is a convincing likeness that the viewer full well knows is not real, is not the thing itself, but its semblance is so convincing that other qualities may be suggested along with the image: aliveness, psychological depth, various emotions, personality, strength, vulnerability – the list could go on here for these are all human traits that may be represented along with the visage. What a viewer sees largely relies on the skill of the artist rather than the imagination of the viewer (as might be the case with abstract painting).
During the High Renaissance, painters achieved great adeptness in representing the human figure and creating expressive portraits. Titian, Leonardo, Holbein, Durer, and later Rubens, Vermeer, Rembrandt all created powerful portraits in their characteristic styles. With some examples (Leonardo and Vermeer), we find that the painted surface essentially disappears. Brushwork is so refined that it becomes invisible. Rubens and Rembrandt give us robust painting styles that use physical texture of the paint to add a different level of understanding to what a painting is. We get the same kind of convincing realism or naturalism in representing individuals, but added to that is a manner of handling paint that makes the paint itself like a character in the artistic experience.
How does Rembrandt, for example, create such realism while also emphasizing the independent textural quality of the paint? The paint stands on its own while also serving the vitality of the portraiture. We see this much later in landscape with the Impressionists and their precursors like Courbet or Corot (or slightly later with Constable or Turner in England), but it almost seems easier with landscape and still life since many different textures can be explored. Many Golden Age Dutch painters did this but did so utilizing smooth blending techniques that simulated or created illusionistic texture – what I would call visual texture. The image portrays the texture of fabric or the skin of an orange peel while the paint remains relatively smoothly blended. Rembrandt might use heavily textured paint in a portrait, for example, but the texture of which has nothing to do with the texture of the skin that is represented. Color and value and appropriate transitions of each are handled with great skill, but the paint almost belies that with unique texture except that texture does not feel intrusive or inappropriate. That is a remarkable feat.
In the early twentieth century, many more painters began to explore the physical qualities of paint which led to wide ranging experimentation with imagery as well as texture. Many of the experiments became solely about the experimentation – that was the subject of the art and it had little or nothing to do with something outside itself. This brought charges of elitism, removal from the real world, art for art’s sake, and subverting meaningful content for process. In truth, artists were asking other kinds of visual questions and exploring possibility not directly tied to observable objects or events. As always, though, the viewer ultimately gets to decide what is meaningful and time becomes the arbiter of what will have lasting effect.
Posted on 3/6/2017 5:14:17 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
The first public one-person exhibit I had was in a bank in Chapel Hill, N.C. I showed a set of twelve or fifteen watercolor drawings that were of children playing on different toys and rides like swings and merry-go-rounds and such, some of which were based on studies done at the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh in the late sixties. All the works were matted but not framed. None of those works survive today. That is the unfortunate (or fortunate) case with many early art works of mine including many from my years in graduate school.
For quite a few years, my record keeping was pretty lousy, and I either lost or lost track of work that had gone different directions spanning the range from realism to abstraction. Gradually I learned the importance of making a written record of nearly everything, and today focus on digital records for all paintings and drawings and other significant work. Before those days, there were several unfortunate incidents where good paintings were lost or stolen, and now no record exists of them except in memory. One painting was stolen from the classroom of a friend who had borrowed the work to teach lessons in observation. It was stolen one weekend during an open house. It depicted a section of the backyard at the house I lived in during my years in graduate school in Greensboro.
Another painting disappeared from a show at the Jewish Community Center. I was saddened by that since Clement Greenberg had been the juror and had made nice comments about the small abstract landscape painting I had submitted. This one was painted on paper and framed under glass, but it was small enough that anyone could easily have tucked it under a jacket and walked out with it, which is what likely happened. I do not have images of either of these works. At least the smaller painting was paid for by the Center as though it had been sold. Still, I fully expect someday to walk into a house or office and see either of them hanging on the wall. I will then be most interested to learn how the present owner came to acquire it.
Maintaining accurate records is important for numerous reasons from tracking creative development to detailing chronological business dealings. Works may have a life of their own after leaving the studio, but those lives may need to be reincorporated into the creative narrative at some later point in time. Knowing where to find them will make that an easier task.
Posted on 3/5/2017 3:54:50 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
The idea that art imitates life has been around for thousands of years though it was first defined by Aristotle. Some of the oldest works of art including cave paintings and portable sculptures like the Venus of Willendorf illustrate natural forms as the basis of art, and it can easily be demonstrated that the great ancient civilizations made life (nature) the primary subject of their artistic expressions. The concept of life imitating art (anti-mimesis) is a much more recent inversion of the former idea and is suggestive of art being imaginative and therefore not strictly bound by the rules of nature, and it, art, can be hyperbolic, fantastical, or surreal. The extremely bizarre occurrences in life, the aberrations, perversities, or the highly unusual seem to mimic artistic hyperbole rather than the other way around.
The impulse to create art, to express visionary attitudes and beliefs or to recreate aspects of nature and human experience of nature, is a powerful force that has manifested in an array of expression that ranges from fidelity in reproduction to idealization of natural forms to symbolic representation and to utilization of natural processes in order to create forms not recognizably natural but expressing an idealized (romanticized) nature nonetheless. The latter could include all manner of abstract expression that builds on perception, light, color, texture, mathematics, and whatever may be intuited from being so indelibly part of nature, that is, being human.
Posted on 3/4/2017 8:25:00 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
When I was in graduate school – I’ll just say I graduated in 1975 – I knew an older gentleman who as a research scientist had taken a sabbatical in Japan and collected some contemporary art work while there. One of the pieces, an abstract oil and wax painting in dark reds and blacks was damaged when shipped to the U.S. My friend contacted the Japanese artist and requested a painting to replace the damaged one (it was not the artist’s fault and insurance would cover the cost of the replacement). The artist agreed but protested that he could not duplicate the damaged painting since he worked intuitively. He would create a new painting in similar style, theme, and tonality, but he wanted my friend to understand that the replacement would be a completely new work. I saw both paintings, the damaged one before it was returned to Japan and the new one sent a few months later. The paintings were the same size and tonality, had a similar appearance and abstract landscape quality, but were also significantly different in texture and feel. My friend was pleased although saddened a bit to lose the original one that had been damaged.
There have been numerous times through the years when I have either made a painting similar to one sold that someone else admired and wanted the same image or made a series of variations on a particular subject that I wanted to explore further. I have done this with both representational and abstract imagery. I fully understood that Japanese artist’s desire to be truthful about not making a duplicate picture. Even when paid to do so, many artists do not simply want to copy themselves for that is a plodding, uninspired task that feels a bit like prostitution of one’s articulate self at the expense of one’s expressive self- at least to me, and I expect to others.
Repainting a painting can take an artist many directions. New ideas come to mind as a work progresses that readily take the subject in alternate directions. This is why so many artists work in series because they are excited by the new thoughts and feelings that will take them this way or that. It’s a little bit like walking into the same landscape each day and noting that what is seen today is not quite the same as yesterday. Things are noticed that were not seen before or the light is different or the point of view has varied from the previous day or dozens of other subtleties take one’s thoughts to places not visited before. There is excitement in discovering something new within the familiar. Memory can tell us one thing and will likely influence the new visit, but memory is the background music against which new harmonies, new lyrics, and new progressions create a new chorus of voices singing to the symphonic evolution that is the new work.
If artists revisit old ideas, it is for the purpose of finding something new. Critics may say that an artist is simply repeating him or herself, but I would suggest that the artist is looking for something. That something may or may not be found, but I seriously doubt that the artist is simply being redundant. How artists work and why is, of course, one of the central questions on the mind of artist and audience as well as whether there is success in achieving what is pursued. The complexities of choice and action are what make art so intriguing for the pursuer and enlightening for those who choose to follow. A series of works can be stepping stones on a remarkable journey.
Posted on 3/3/2017 7:17:00 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
Yayoi Kusama exhibited two of her infinity rooms and select paintings last year at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Currently there is a major exhibit at the Hirshorn Museum in Washington, D.C. that includes six infinity rooms. These are enclosed environmental pieces that create visually and spatially an experience of endless space that also is endlessly filled with art objects, color, and light. The following link says and shows more about Kusama and her artistic vision, which is a truly unique glimpse into alternate realities.
Kusama Infinity Room at MFAH, 2016
Posted on 3/2/2017 5:18:57 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
Anything can be a trigger for a visual idea that a painter may incorporate into or use to make a painting. It can come from a glint of light reflected off a surface, from the meeting of two shapes like overlapping pieces of paper tossed idly upon a desk, from a shadow cast beside a bush, or from a fallen limb resting against a stone. Contrast of size or shape or color or light against dark can suggest a thought, elicit an emotion, or jog a memory from the distant past. Or, the experience may be about none of these associations; it may simply be noted for the beauty or intrigue of the moment in that particular visual circumstance. A painter could begin to apply colors to a canvas much like a writer might begin jotting words onto paper. The form, function, and content emerge from the action of doing rather than from preconceived notion or preplanned steps to execution. There is no one way for a work of art to begin or to end.
Many artists do develop a working method suited to personal temperament and bent of mind. Most likely this evolves over a period of time that involves much trial and error. There likely also is an intersection of life experience from which that urge to create comes that includes an inner vision of the world, of life, and of questions about being and meaning. For myself, and for artists I personally know, the living of life and the making of art are essentially one and the same. All perception is some form of artistic experience from the mundane to the most sublime. The inner world and the outer world bleed into each other for the artist is the eyes of nature observing itself and the mind of nature contemplating and commenting on its existence.
In the world of nature a flower may express itself to its fullest but has no awareness of its impact on its environment. The artist is the instrument through which the flower is seen, recognized, appreciated, and related to everything else as a flower, but also as one of myriad expressions of life energy, a part of the whole and simultaneously representative of the whole. That flower may be seen by others and appreciated for its beauty, but through art the flower becomes a mirror, a door, a pathway into all that is alive, continuous, and renewable as is the process of life. Art is about that process on some level no matter how it manifests in concrete form. The artist expresses that with endless variety and ceaseless curiosity.
Posted on 3/1/2017 4:42:06 PM
By Donald Fox
Comment on this
There are a great many things I remember experiencing in my lifetime. I promise, though, that this is not one of those ‘you never had it so good’ lectures that some of us have heard in the past. I’m more interested in considering changes that have occurred that have impacted my expressive work.
As a boy I was ignorant of many things in the world and learned of others decades after they had occurred. The Second World War, for example, was something my parents had lived through, and I learned much about it in the school and public libraries I had access to as a young student. Among friends we told each other stories of what we knew about our fathers and their war experiences. Back issues of Life and Look magazines helped me piece together those war years along with books, especially books of photographs, that showed me the brutality of war that didn’t quite fit with the films of the forties that glorified and romanticized the American war effort. These were my first experiences with propaganda.
During the fifties there was the cold war, atom bomb tests shown on TV, advertisements for bomb shelters, the silly and useless air raid exercises we did at school, the air raid siren that announced the noon hour, emergency broadcast tests on television when the abstract test patterns would interrupt regularly scheduled programs, the popular TV series I Led Three Lives where Richard Carlson played a double agent to infiltrate communist groups, the McCarthy hearings and some of my folk music heroes who testified (or refused to testify) before HUAC, and all this coincided with my initiation into racism and segregation, civil rights, activism on the part of the local Klan, the horrors of Viet Nam, Buddhist monks self-immolating, strung-out soldiers committing atrocities, government corruption and misinformation, and my ultimately becoming a conscientious objector.
The space race, Sputnik, cosmonauts, the birth of NASA, landing on the moon, assassinations and a world turned upside down, idealism and cynicism, early computers, Pac Man, cpu’s and rapidly expanding chips, the internet, global community, faster and faster processors, Earth Day, Silent Spring, pesticides, mutually assured destruction, red tides, satellites in space, Voyager, the Space Shuttle, more assassinations, Cambodia, Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, riots in the streets, gas shortages – and so much more… all the while art was undergoing its own transformation from naturalism to impressionism to cubism to social realism to Pop to Abstract Expressionism, cool and hot, performance art, environmental sculpture, happenings, combines, multi-media, drug-induced fantasies and anger-fomented protests, the Great Society, corporate greed, religious fundamentalism, suicide bombers, Scud missiles, cultic fantasies, and terrorism. All of this on that blue marble spinning continuously, no borders, no boundaries, but so many degrees of separation, one eye to the distant quasars and one eye to the nano-sphere, no time it seems for self-reflection in spite of multiple genuflections. Concrete, arcane, mysterious, ambiguous, and ambivalent.
