A Subtle Re-alignment Necessary...

The new piece "Project Angel" revealed...

I’m still chewing on my presentation last Tuesday night.

I have a certain “default” in my brain. From day one my talks have, and I think I can say “all”, have all been faith based in orientation, one way or anther. It’s those “Homiletic” classes that have done that to me!

In my art talk I again used faith as my baseline of thought. Now, please hear me, there is nothing wrong with faith being involved in my or any talk, but as an artist doing an “art talk” it would be important to have one’s art history and experience as the backbone of the presentation. If I was speaking from the church pulpit, that would be different. But if I’m at an art gallery, sharing an art talk, I’m thinking “art” should be the baseline. Duh!

OK, so then, I could speak of the “influences” on my art along that basic art time-line history. Here are the things like my Mennonite background, and the murder of our daughter to mention two things suppressed my art and in various ways. How did I overcome these? Here are the things, people and events that encouraged my art, here are the different influences that affected my art and how they affected it. This would include teachers, other artists, family and events. Plus then also how my faith affected my art. And so on.

So, since Tuesday night, I have been working out a detailed history of my art experience and journey. This has been very revealing, realising how I’ve evolved artistically. For example my cartoon projects and strips are a great help in explaining how it is that my work has an unmistakable cartoony influence. How, later seeing a gallery showing of Jordan Van Sewall’s art which then gave me permission to use the cartoon style in my sculptures. All of that then helping to explain why my sculptures look the way they do.

Anyways, this has been great for me to mull over and work out. This first art talk was a great learning experience and the next one will be much different. So, if you were there this past Tuesday, know that the next time I do an art talk it will have a new orientation. It will have been re-aliened.

“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

James 1:23-24.