New Year, New Post

FIRST POST OF THE NEW YEAR

This post has nothing to do with art.

It’s been a very long time since I wrote any kind of post but one of my desires with this new year was to get some thoughts on paper again. Often, for me, it’s deciding what I want to say. I am best, I think, at writing in a stream of consciousness manner, so here goes!

Much has been written about 2019. We all know what a difficult year it was for the city of Dayton and its surrounding suburbs, as well as for places farther afield. We all hope that 2020 brings better, more hopeful events. That said, I experienced a strong feeling that I was unaware of until we were visited by undesirable organizations, weather events, and the actions of a mentally unstable individual.

That feeling was love. Love for my city. Love for my fellow citizens. Love for the response of so many who jumped into action to assist those who were hurt. I have lived in Dayton for almost 35 years. I grew up in the Miami Valley but not in Dayton. I lived in some other really wonderful places. Dayton, in my eyes, did not have the same cache as those other cities. We moved here to be closer to family, not because it was a “cool place” to be.

It took the events of 2019 for me to realize that I love this city. I am proud of this city. Nice people live here. Interesting people live here. Talented people live here. Caring people live here.

I am proud to live here. It’s home.

A MEDLEY OF THOUGHTS

The last few weeks I have started and discarded a number of topics for this blog. My thoughts have been scattered in so many directions: the current status of the public arts, the classes I am teaching, the collages I have been working on, new artists discovered and old favorites revealed to new viewers. It’s been a matter of which topic to address and when? What will my readers find most interesting?

So, I have decided to feed you a smorgasbord of thoughts going into this week, accompanied by some images.

FIRST, THE LIFE OF THE IMAGINATION

Recently I showed a work of art that I particularly enjoy to my art history classes at Wright State. The Garden of Earthly Delights (1515) by the Dutch artist Hieronymous Bosch is a singularly unique piece of work for that time period. It’s not singular to Bosch’s personal style, but when one first sees this remarkable triptych (a triptych is a three-part hinged altarpiece) it’s easy to think that the artist who made it must surely have been a contemporary of Salvador Dali. It looks so surrealistic. 2016 was the 500^th year anniversary of Bosch’s death and celebrations and exhibits and special events took place in his hometown of den Bosch, Netherlands, and at the Prado Museum in Madrid, which is home to The Garden of Earthly Delights. 

My students were really intrigued by the strange imagery in the triptych, the interpretation of much of it, the unknown meaning of other parts, and the visual imagery of one’s journey from Adam and Eve’s paradise through a life lived without thought to moral character, and the hellish aftermath of living such a life. If you have never viewed The Garden of Earthly Delights, it’s worth your time. Check the following websites: https://www.bosch500.nl/en; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zC3UuGxitU; www.npr.org/.../hieronymus-bosch-died-500-years-ago-but-his-art-will-still-creep-you-...

SECONDLY, WHAT WE STAND TO LOSE

The very soul of our cultural lives is threatened these days. I try to concentrate on art in these posts, and stay non-political. However, these are puzzling and frightening times for the arts and I am worried. Worried. Worried. Worried. It’s not just the arts that concern me, however, it’s a plethora of quality of life issues that affect our country. The list is long, so let’s approach it in alphabetical order. From the Washington Post, the LA Times and others, here is the list as I know it currently:  

African Development Foundation

Appalachian Regional Commission

Chemical Safety Board

Corporation for National and Community Service

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Delta Regional Authority

Denali Commission

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Inter-American Foundation

U.S. Trade and Development Agency

Legal Services Corporation

National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Humanities

Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation

Northern Border Regional Commission

Overseas Private Investment Corporation

United States Institute of Peace

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ironically, I visited the LBJ Library and Museum this weekend in Austin. Guess who spearheaded many of these agencies and signed them into life? That’s right, Lyndon B. Johnson. Below is a photo I took of a Johnson quote:

I would note that today the first sentence may also apply to the scientists. They are in danger of losing the penthouse. We all may be headed for the basement. I hope not.  

A NEW ARTIST DISCOVERED

Lastly, and on a more upbeat note, I discovered a new artist this week: Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (1928-2000), an Austrian born artist and architect who moved to New Zealand.  Take a look at his work!

Have a great week.

Necessary Essential Arts ...

First, a drawing a day for a year: I am sticking to the resolution. I continue to draw, every day. Like breathing, I draw. That’s as it should be.

Next: the NEA. National Endowment for the Arts. Necessary essential arts. Never enough art. Not eliminating arts (funding). All of that. Why am I writing about the NEA, again? It has to do with Wright State University and the re-installation of a great work of art, originally created in 1981, removed some years later, and now recreated, permanently, in the Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries at Wright State.

That work is a piece by the conceptual artist Sol Lewitt, and it was originally funded by a grant from the NEA. Students helped with its creation in 1981, and now in 2017, students and patrons get to enjoy it again. Were it not for the NEA grant, we would not have this very important work available to us. That’s what those grants are for, to allow artists the means and the time and the space and the place to create work, and to allow the public the time, the space, the place, and the opportunity to experience the work.

I am worried about the future of the NEA. It’s funding is always tenuous; it has often been a target of federal budget cutters who want to appear cost conscious. However, the NEA is a tiny, tiny part of the federal budget, and eliminating its funding would have little to no impact on the budget. And it is necessary for our government to support the arts; they should be leading the way.

Have you ever studied life under totalitarian regimes? Those worlds are, almost literally, gray. People dress in subdued clothing, work in drab buildings, stand in line for low quality goods. Art adds color and shape and texture and breath to the world. We need that. We need the NEA. 

  Students working on the original Sol Lewitt wall drawing, 1981.

Support your local arts…

With all the uncertainty surrounding the futures of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), I have been thinking quite a bit about support for the arts. (It should be noted that the NEA and NEH combined are only about 0.003 percent of the federal budget; each received $148 million last year which is not very much.) In fact, according to news sources I consulted, it’s kind of like this: if you make $50, 000 a year, spending the equivalent of what our government spends on the NEA, the NEH, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting combined, it would be like spending less than $10. Holy cow, you say, our federal government spends that little on the arts? Yep.

So, that aside, let’s think locally. I have been thinking locally because I am involved with both the Dayton Visual Arts Center and the Dayton Society of Artists (as well as a few others …). I want both these organizations to be not only useful to artists and art lovers, but vibrant and growing. They serve different and very necessary purposes for the arts in our community.

Currently I have been working on growing sponsorships and memberships for Dayton Society of Artists. This art organization is entering its 79^th year and the last few years have seen new growth with an infusion of younger artists and consequently new ideas. However, it is a non-profit and non-profits can be a little financially tenuous. Thus, we are always seeking additional support.  

New members bring in new members and new ideas and new art and new life. So, those of you – including me of course – who are already DSA members need to seek out other artists who could benefit from our great programs and opportunities to exhibit, in addition to the creative comradery.

For those of you who love the arts and understand how a vibrant bevy of creatives contributes to lively communities, think about becoming a Friend of the Gallery or sponsoring an exhibition award. I am including in this post the information you need if you wish to befriend our gallery at 48 High Street in the St. Anne Historic district. Isn’t it beautiful?

SICK LEAVE AND WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS?

I didn’t post last week because I was slammed with the gastro illness everyone I know has had. I was too sick to write. Totally recovered now I am ready with some musings on a question I am often asked, and was most recently asked, today.

“Why are you making that? Who is it for?” In my experience it seems many non-artists assume artists only make work when there is a commission. Otherwise, why else would you do it? It is outside their experience to create simply because one is compelled to do so.

Creating is what artists do. Creators is what we are. Making art is so identified with self that we “make” no matter what. Maybe we have a commission, maybe we don’t. We still create. And we will always create, just as long as it is physically possible. 

Have to add one last thing: these images of a bikepath created by Dutch artist Dan Roosegaarde. Located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Van Gogh's birthplace, 600 meters of LED lights allude to his most famous painting, Starry Night. Can you see something like this in Dayton? 

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/11/17/364136732/in-a-dutch-town-a-glowing-bike-path-inspired-by-van-gogh

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING THERE…

Watching and reading the news these days I see large numbers of people coming together to express concern about immigration, ACA, climate change and the arts. If something is to change or grow, it’s important to show up. There is significance in participating. It’s important to “be there”.

That’s my thought for this week: being there. And this “being there” is local, it’s not controversial, and it takes us back to the topic of supporting, creating and participating in the arts.

I am a board member of the Dayton Society of Artists, formerly known as the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors. This group was founded by artists who realized the need for a supportive artistic community. It’s Dayton’s oldest art organization at 75+ years.

I joined the organization when I first moved to Dayton more than 30 years ago. As I moved away from painting to collage and mixed media I felt the group was no longer relevant for me. I dropped my membership.

During the 75^th anniversary celebration of the society, I rejoined. Not only that, I became a member of its board. Why, after all this time, did I reconsider?

The world has changed. The art world has changed. The boundaries between media are less strict and there is more crossover from one type of media to the next. Therefore, it no longer made sense for this particular organization to restrict its membership to painters and sculptors only. This is also the reason for the name change to Dayton Society of Artists.  

By inviting artists who work in all media we are also inviting fresh ideas, the possibility of collaboration, and contributing to a renewed excitement in the organization. If you have not experienced Dayton Society of Artists, you should, and I am extending that invitation. Join us. The more members of DSA the more good things, and if you are not already a member you should be!

COME TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD OF THE ARTS IN DAYTON. JOIN DSA.

FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: http://daytondsps.org/ or visit us on Facebook. 

AN EXERCISE IN HOPE … AND DETERMINATION

Well, it’s been quite the week. We ushered in a new administration on Friday, we rallied for rights on Saturday, and we prayed for friendship on Sunday. I admit I am concerned about our country’s future. Public discourse is worrisome, facts appear to be on the endangered list, and arts and culture support is being threatened. Unlike the line from Hamilton, there seems to be   “one MORE thing to worry about”.

Friendship and faith were Sunday’s topics, and in my mind, they are arts. So today I want to talk less about visual art and more about the arts of friendship and compassion, the art of faith, and the art of taking action. I want to encourage my readers to practice friendship and compassion to others, especially to those who may not be easy to treat in a caring manner. The last few months have been replete with frightening rhetoric, uncaring remarks, and truly disturbing language.

I know from my own experience how damaging words can be; I understand that cruel talk can lead to cruel actions. It is absolutely NOT TRUE that words don’t hurt. They do. And this is why I am pleading to all creative people to practice the behavioral arts of friendship, kindness, compassion and understanding. Let it seep into your art, your words, your actions. We need these behavioral arts desperately. Be creative in showing the platinum content of your character in the face of negativity.

These are exercises in hope and determination.