01/20/2010

Chapter Two, Mad Synchronicity

It’s the early 90s. I’ve decided to be an artist, not a commercial one. So what kind of art do I want to make?

Sounds like an unnecessary question, but I was seriously muddled on this point. In college, while I was doing misty brown portraits, everyone else seemed to be doing huge abstract paintings that I did not understand. My art was “slick” (not good) and “pretty” (really not good.) But the stuff I generally had to do as a commercial artist was cheesy and soulless. One time I got lucky: they let me illustrate a golf brochure my  way…

I really like the old poster styles, but that’s for commercial art only, right? So what kind of art do I want to make, that people would want to buy? Help, universe!

And then comes the help…

Sarah, an art pottery-collector friend (and angel helper), happens to mention a really cool Arts & Crafts Conference in North Carolina that she’s attending. I join her there. The styles of things and the philosophy of the movement really resonate. This stuff is kind of like my golf brochure! I fantasize about one day being a part of this conference. But what kind of work would I exhibit?

While goofing off in the home decorating section of a bookstore, some little prints hanging in a photo of someone’s dining room catch my eye. The caption identifies them as William Nicholson prints. I go to a library and find a book of his work.

I love these bold, contrasty, simple images. I’d love to do something like this, only they are block prints, which I’ve never done.

Then I am commissioned to do a painting that will be a gift for the art pottery-collecting friend Sarah. Paint something that she would like. What to paint, universe?

A new exhibition has just opened at the art museum, called “Head, Heart and Hand: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters.” Arts and Crafts again! And with real live Roycroft Renaissance Artisans doing demos. Could I do Nicholson-esque pictures of these people at work, to celebrate the whole “made by hand” philosophy?

 I meet a Roycroft Renaissance potter, Janice McDuffie, and she allows me to photograph her at work. I paint a gouache (opaque watercolor) portrait of her in that vintage postery style. Inspired by Nicholson (angel helper from the other side), I title it “The Potter.”

The Potter, Janice McDuffie, (angel helper #3) sees my painting, and urges me to apply to become a Roycroft Renaissance Artisan. Me?? Holy cow. Must come up with some works for the jury…

Again inspired by Nicholson’s work, I take a block printing course at a local college. At first the professor thinks my designs are stolen from works of the period! I take this as a good sign. The professor (angel helper #4) is a great teacher, and becomes a great supporter. In the class, after much sweat, and many many mistakes, I create my first four block prints: The Potter, The Bookbinder, The Cabinetmaker, The Silversmith, all portraits of RR artisans.

                                
I submit my new block prints to the RR jury, and am granted RR artisan status! I am home at last, doing block prints in the Arts & Crafts revival.

Thank you, universe and helpers!