Portland Glass

roots

I ran into an old friend this weekend at a crafters show (she's a beader) at the convention center. I came away from the show with a few different veins of thought - one of them being gratitude toward a few creative folks who encouraged me to pursue glasswork. Three of them come to mind:

my dad, who suggested I try glass working - he had taken a class in stained glass, and didn't really feel it was his gig - so he showed me what he'd learned, handed me the tools, and off I went. Loved it. It made sense to me.

Cheryl Cook - at the time, she was a therapist in a mental health clubhouse, I was a volunteer for Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC). She saw me stressing out, and kept encouraging me to dig into my creative side - I hadn't done any glasswork for a year or two. Eventually, I finished my year with JVC, and moved into a house where I could lay claim to a shed for doing some stained glass. Now Cheryl is beading, and selling her necklaces and earrings in a handful of shops Portland, Eugene and Astoria. http://www.cherylcookjewelrydesign.com/about_me

David Schlicker - Shortly after I got my shed, my brother-in-law suggested I talk with David Schlicker about the possibility of apprenticing with him. He agreed and took me on. Taught me some crucial (and basic) skills - notably, how to repair stained glass. I appreciated his generosity. http://www.davidschlicker.com/

 

 

Fiction and Solomon

King Solomon is attributed with having said "there is nothing new under the sun."

What if he's right?

In the final chapter of Cities of the Plain (Cormac McCarthy, 1998), One of McCarthy's characters (Billy) has a dream. Another character then talks about how when someone exists in a dream, they weren't just created at that moment, but they existed before that. In fact, it's quite egotistical to think that we could actually create a person just like that, just for that moment, for our own purposes. He proceeded to describe how that dream person must have existed before that dream, in other dreams perhaps, and went on to walk through other dreamers' dreams as well.

Jung, on the other hand, simply described these characters and events as aspects of our interior life. Again, no creation there, just what's inside us taking on various forms.

How about fiction? or art? innovation?

Previously existing elements placed together in ways and relationships they've never been in before? What about those ways and relationships? aren't they new? Did they exist somewhere before? I've got a handful of windows which are original work. That is, no one's done it exactly like I did it. But maybe the only difference is in the details. Are those inconsequential? ... I prattle.

I'm a reductionist. In that sense. I am compelled to agree with Solomon (and Plato?). There's only one story. There's only one work of art. There's only one anything - and we're just working to try to get as close to re-creating that "anything" as we can. And hopefully having fun doing it.

Highland Cattle

Yesterday, I was able to enjoy the hospitality of Ford Farms on Sauvie Island, owned by a friend of a friend. Ford farms keeps a herd of Highland Cattle - very sweet, curious and docile animals. Here's a few photos of the beasts. The reason for the visit is to gather images to develop a few windows for a scottish fellow building a yurt out in Pacific City.

Media Drink

Here's a link to an exciting design agency / ad business (Media Drink) - and the fun thing is they're sporting a new window which I built. Pretty cool!

 

Consumerism, a dishevelled diatribe

A friend of mine recently spoke to me contrasting consumerism and creativity.

My wife is often complaining that our system of capitalism is so degrading for so many - skills are usually undervalued. And couldn't we use an economics system that was far more valuing? My answer to her is that capitalism is a least common denominator. Being tied to greed, which is pretty much just human nature.

As such, consumerism would be tied just as readily to greed or human nature. It's a common language - everyone speaks it - so it's quite easy to build a world market based on it. Socialists, Communists, Democrats and Republicans can all appreciate it. Someone else penned - the love of money is the root of all evil. It makes sense.

On the contrary, we have creativity. Where consumerism is the landing place for the entropy of society, creativity is that force that counters it. Building where consumerism destroys. Creativity, tied with paradigms of abundance, integrates where consumerism disintegrates.

Another interesting discussion is one that happened on NPR earlier today regarding "happiness." After listening to the program for some time, I found that there are millions of folks selling happiness - religious, communist, even just your neighbor. Happiness - to me is another thing we sell. Just another facet of consumerism. The mystics worked towards contentment, possibly, and certainly acceptance. Happiness wasn't really ever a requirement or goal. And we find happiness is a cheap sell for us. Buy your happy meal, get happiness in a bottle, a can, an account, whatever - but what about contentment? What about acceptance? Do we become consumers of contentment? purveyors of acceptance? or creativity?

creativity - fact? or fiction?

Here's a little story stolen from taoist traditions and retold in my own errant fashion...

There was a wood carver, well reputed. As such, the king requested him to make a bell stand for a sacred bell, to be paid well if the work was good, but to be paid out with a beheading if the work lacked.

The wood carver started his work with fasting. After three days of fasting he began, first selecting and felling the tree, then fashioning the bell stand. When he delivered his work people were awestruck and claimed that it was the work of spirits - it was so beautifully carved. When asked, the wood carver simply responded: "I started by fasting. After 3 days, I had forgotten the gold, then the prestige, and lastly, my own body. It was then that I walked in the woods, and came upon this particular tree that was perfect for the bell stand. I only used my skill to uncover the tree's potential. If that tree hadn't been there, I could have never made this stand. What you call the work of the spirits was simply the interaction of myself, unfettered, the gift of this tree, and my skills as a wood carver."

---

There's a myth that adversity/poverty/depression gives the artist his/her edge. Mind you, I'm new enough to the artistic field - only a dozen years or so. To me, this taoist story speaks quite strongly against the myth of the angst-ridden artist, as well as the muse myth (that is, the need for a muse to rouse passion, and thus imbue the artist with creativity).

Of course, adversity, poverty, depression, mania and passion all tend to push one outside one's own head and into the mindset of having less control of your universe. As such, I think they become crutches to artists. I know I've used them. And most certainly we have many examples of manic depressive artists who have incredible work (often "discovered" after their demise).

To me, creativity and art come from a few different places, but the story is best told through the wood carver.
He had honed his skill and was incredible at what he did. That takes talent, years of practice, discipline, a good teacher...
He prepared himself for the work he was to do - by fasting, and removing the pressures of money, fame, and life itself. (the taoists love "detachment")
He interacted with the world around him, was he lead to that tree? He understood there was something acting on his life and the world around him that was bigger / more powerful, and he accepted it and interacted with that something as he could. In fact, he threw himself on its mercy, or so it appears.
Then he went to his work - he did his best with what he had.
Lastly, he was obedient - both to his maker and to the king.

As such, he made a thing of incredible beauty, on demand.

To me, this is where solid creativity (and passion) comes from - discipline, skill, detachment, dependence on your maker, openness to the world around you, talent, obedience, practice, trust, and a reason.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Though there's much more to the architect than I have read - and I haven't studied him laboriously, I've been nonchalantly interested in FLW for quite some time. Though his style interests me, and even draws me just a little, it's certainly a sidestep from the directions I have yet gone with my own art.

And not only his art is of some interest, but his life finds it's place alongside other artists - with misplaced passions, blood, and wealthy patrons. Most notably in my mind are two things:

1. FLW didn't seem to be able to stay married for much time at all. His pattern seemed to be: get married, start an affair, get divorced, move, marry the woman of the affair...

2. Something got into a servant's head regarding him and his family while he was married to Mamah Borthwick-Cheney. One night while Frank was gone (mind you, he was in the middle of an affair with another woman by this point), a servant barricaded the doors to FLW's house, with Mamah and her children inside. The servant then set fire to the house, and stood outside the one remaining exit bearing an axe - cutting down each person as they ran out. Cruel and bloody as it is, it is quite comparable to certain events in many other renowned artists' lives. FLW of course, rebuilt and remarried, apparently not missing a step.

Blood and mislaid passion certainly isn't a prerequisite for artistic fame, but it certainly seems to show up often in the annals. I keep wondering why so many artists bring such destruction down on their own heads in the form of anger or unfaithfulness...

Welcome back

There we have it - so much for new year resolutions...

Perhaps I could have guessed that once again life would catch me up and not let me touch down for another few months...

My family has grown - you can see the evidence in the photo to the right - we are 4 now - with Brendan as our new addition, now at almost 4 months old.

No wise ruminations on fatherhood from me though - I hardly have any time to sleep much less think great thoughts. My life is quite grounded in one sense (it's all butts and noses for a while now) - and yet it is rather ungrounded as well (no time to catch my breath, to breathe).

How has that impacted my art? I hadn't thought about that until I just typed that question - but if you look at a few photos of recent work - you'll see that my focus has changed a bit. My most recent work - one is a cockfight that is in process (about 1/5 done); and some trinkets for selling at the Portland Saturday Market, First Thursday, Etsy and others. Through working on these I have started to become far more efficient in motion - quite possibly a product of not having near so much time or energy to do the work. I'm also settling into a style - something which flows through most my work - you can see it easiest in the way the lines lay. Take a look through some of the pieces - see how it strikes you.

New Year Resolution, 2/20/07

2/20/2007

Perhaps 2/20 is a new year for me - I feel the strength of some resolutions coming on - like writing in my blog at least monthly; and transitioning our cat into being an indoor/outdoor cat.

As I was waking today, I thought of the images we are barraged with - billboards, tv, internet - 98% of which can be considered advertising of some sort. This is in contrast with the rest of the imagery we come in contact with daily - nature, family, friends, and artifacts (a lumping of all man-made stuff - clothes, watches, art, houses, etc.). And all of these come in gradations of quality.

My thoughts on advertising are these:
All advertising attempts to attach two things, some product (e.g., cocacola) to some abstraction inside you of varying strength (e.g., feeling good, or laughter, or home). No advertising attempts to create in you a stronger feeling of (fill in the blank), simply to attach a product to that feeling - so you may feel that feeling when you think about purchasing or subscribing to that product.
That's a little abstract.
Enough to say that advertising has no interest in your well-being, and though it doesn't have to, it often will be focused on exploiting you in a way that you are not whole.

On the contrary, the rest of these images (nature, family,...) don't necessarily need to attach to any abstraction inside you. Most of the time, they have nothing to sell.

If you were to quit reading right now, a simple responsive action would be to look for ways to reduce your intake of advertising, and increase your intake of all these other images. Shut off your tv, your internet, your car. Walk more, meet your neighbors, spend time with your family...

Of course that's a little simplistic - yet effective, I think.

But to go further...

I want to create a dichotomy. I want to call these first images "advertising", which I've already done. But I want to call these second images "art" in a very loose interpretation of the word. And so, create a dichotomy of ads and art.

The Dichotomy:

• Things that fall in the category of ads:
  news, yahoo homepage, mtv, tv, superbowl, billboards, radio, newspaper, ads...
  (not without exceptions)
• Things that fall in the category of art:
  people, the natural world, relationships, artifacts (yet another odd category)
  (and also, not without exceptions)

Damaging advertising:

In my opinion, ads may or may not be damaging if they simply attach a product to that internal abstraction. But ads are definitely damaging if they attach a product to an abstraction which is the result of internal damage in a person or community.
e.g., Budweiser - has often used ads playing on a certain image of woman - an image that is born out of a damaged part of both men and women (see recent studies re: young women). This damaged area is responsible for very strong feelings and impulses (and compulsions) in men and women, and advertising that attempts to use this strong response, in turn exacerbates the damage.

Quality in advertising:

Advertising (as all things) comes in varying qualities. Many folks watch the superbowl simply to see what heights we can reach in quality. Many of the ads are disappointing, but there are those few that seem to soar - and people talk about them for a few weeks afterwards (e.g., the budweiser (again) frogs several years ago, remains a high point in ads in many people's memory). Ads that play to the damaged parts of us have little need for quality (e.g., godaddy).

Another dichotomy:

Damaging v. Quality

Really, I would call this a spectrum with to poles: Damaging v. Quality. Advertising and art both have many examples which fall into all areas of this spectrum.

A difference between art and advertising:

• advertising never brings healing, only consumerism (purchases), damage, or nothing.
• art runs the whole gamut - fostering healing, damage, or nothing. But art rarely, if ever fosters consumerism (I'm walking a fine line with that statement).

A step forward:

I would put forward then, that advertising has no good use for us as individuals or as a community, and reducing it in all aspects will not only not hurt us, but will more than likely help us.

On the contrary, the increase of art in our lives will not necessarily bring good. It is more to the point that the increase of quality art in our lives can bring healing and good.

Finally:

Along with my new years resolution, I have decided to begin this monologue on "quality" art. Monthly, if not more often, I will upload images of such art with commentary.

----------------------

For the first installment: Andy Warhol, Frank Lloyd Wright, and my wine.

Andy: (Campbells Soup Can) I have nothing much to say other than one thing this man attempted to do was integrate art and advertising - bringing some advertising (e.g., campbells) over into the realm of art - and all that comes with it. For better or for worse.

Frank Lloyd Wright: (Richard Lloyd Jones' house, Tulsa OK) Wright, though much of his work is rather blocky, was one of the first modern architects to attempt to bring us back into connection with the natural world. His house layouts were often very open, using large windows, and often moveable screens between sections of the house - creating spaces that were very changeable. He also often designed a green space in the middle of the home - creating connection to nature in as many ways as possible. Even his tiling or other patterns showed this connection - often using simple repetitions referencing an organic form (e.g., wysteria).

My wine: I am growing my own grapes (a very small vineyard of 3 vines) and this is the first attempt at wine which has actually made it so far to taste like wine. I have 3 gallons of Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2 of Niagara. We will bottle it soon and let it sit for a while longer before enjoying the first bottle. I have watched it change from a mound of grapes on our table to a bubbling mass of grapes in a bucket to an ever clearer and tastier jug of wine. The color it has changed to in comparison to its beginning is quite amazing. And to transform from grapes to juice to wine is miraculous. I spend some time, not often, working with the vines - pruning, picking, thinning... and the whole process connects me with the natural world. Though this is my first year at a successfull bottle of wine (which means it's more of a "by the numbers" wine), it's still a work of art simply for the fact that the yeast and other factors most certainly know what they're doing and do it well.

Getting back in

Finally, I'm able to breathe again. I've just dispatched my last bit of repair work and am now focusing on a handful of new pieces. The first is for a chiropractic office. The glass is cut and ready to lead. I've included a photo of the work in progress in my NEW WORKS folder. Also, I've gotten a few moments to peruse the news. Here's a few articles that picqued my interest.

The first two are about using art for physical healing (especially notable: concerning brain injuries).

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=121172

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-art20mar20,0,604786.story?coll=la-home-health

And then, it looks like the Arts and Healing Network (www.artheals.org) is getting a little press. Here's an article in the Contra Costa times. It's not the New Yorker, and it's strictly informative, but good press is good press.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/14111946.htm

I hope the tax season is treating you well.

-Tom