These four photos arrived on my table out of the blue, accompanied by a request that I scan them. These are not photos taken from my life, but I do know these people, had met each person during middle and high school years, and most have popped up in my life a few times after that. While searching these young faces I marveled at realizing that each person has had a meaningful impact upon my life. The point I'm getting at is that value can come from every person who passes our way, no matter how slightly we interact with them.Bill
The kid with the tennis racket years later became my "ride home" from college during quarter breaks. I didn't know him personally, except that he had been a friendly acquaintance at my high school. On the drives home he'd stick me in the attached camper compartment walled off above his head, instead of next to him on the seat in the truck. Communication during the 3-hour drive was out of the question and yet I felt quite close to this boy turning into a man as we careened forward into our separate-yet-together futures. A sense of together/apart duality began to appear in my art around this time.
Tony
The smaller person in the boat photo, lower left, taught me that being small in physique had nothing to do with relationship to size of intellect. I remember thinking during high school, when I slightly knew this kid, that he was on a brainy technical plain (plane?) soaring in a hemisphere way out of my reach. I also remember thinking, am I on my own plain (plane) soaring in a hemisphere out of his reach? The question continues: when I create art that is so accurate to my experience am I creating art that might in definition then be unknowable by others? Is there value in communicating that which is incomprehensible to others? The deeper question is, can one get down to relevant truths that are universal, and still hold on to one's individuality of unique thought, and make sense?
That tiny person in the boat photo grew up to be a very big person in relationship to affecting the minds/lives of others, as everyone who knew him expected to happen. He's now soaring around on a plain (plane) at the top of his department at the top of the highest peaked university pile at the top of the mathematical world. What does this now mature man think when he encounters the minds of people who think dissimilarly to himself? Fog and thunderclouds look very different from one another, yet they are both moisture in the air. Can they exist in tandem? Yes. Can one make a relevant piece of art encompassing both realities? Did Turner think of such things? How much humanity goes into the art of an experienced landscape artist? Is it all form and light and color, or is there something more, hidden quietly underneath the clarity, something illusory but that beats with a quiet resonance of universal human awareness? How is it that one painting of a storm can feel superficial and another can stop us short with a tiny gasp of profound recognition?
Dave
Then there's the kid waving his hand. How has this boy influenced my life? I knew him slightly in high school but got to know him fairly well after college. See that smile? It's still there. He taught me that a jolly attitude can entice one's own saddest tear to wiggle out onto the dance floor of clownish humor. Water drop symbols have pervaded my art for decades, but what do they symbolize? Tears of sadness? Tears of joy? Sweat? Energy? Time movement? The beginnings of a humorous thought? The kid in the photo, now in the shape of the man, is still the kid in the photo, turning thought, questions, and sorrowful experiences upside down in a revel of Foolish wit that makes one grin. I am grinning back.
Jeff
There are two taller boys in the top right photo. How have these two influenced me? The one on the right, in the white shirt, has no idea that he symbolizes for me the ecstasy of friendship. I was lucky enough to see this man embrace a boyhood friend in the most heartfelt squeeze of noisy bliss that I have ever seen publicly displayed. It is this type of abandoning oneself to inner bliss that I reach for when meditating down into "the zone" that produces the best of my work.
Bill
The kid in the sweater, sitting next to the squeezer's right, and grinning at the world, is still doing just that, grinning at the world. He does it with complete awareness, too. This boy turned man feels to me to be a bridge between the planes(!) that I sent soaring around this blog space a few paragraphs earlier. He is able to check in on one plain, move to another, observe and get information, and then move onto yet another plain. He does not abscond with all of the data, but instead takes what is relevant and then jets away to drop in... pollenate?... at another location. Ultimately he will fly to his own planet and build from his collections a civilization that is greater in scope than any of us can ever imagine. Watching the positive buzz of this energetic mind (and accompanied balancing companion mind, not in photos) encourages me towards thinking outside my own box. I am encouraged to speak up with my questions, to look for more data, to open my eyes to different ways of seeing, and to trust that I can create civilizations of my own that might have depth and consequence. I am also being taught by this boy turned man that we can be startled by life, and that we do have limitations on what we can safely take in. In order to soar to great plains, one must keep one's ship in fuel, check the spark plugs, and don't poor sugar into the gas tank!
Francis
The last boy in the photos, the small one in the upper left, reaching for food, is my greatest inspiration. He symbolizes that rare audience that appreciates the innermost light of the artist. One might say he embodies the art of living soulfully, with a good ear, a good mind, and a brave and willing heart. In my opinion the best art encompasses a blending of the feminine and the masculine. I have had many people view my art and it is clearly the people who are comfortable with both energies that benefit the most from seeing what I do. This man is one of those lucky people who gets charged up by the complete picture. The excitement of completely open conversation over the experience of what the art is about creates an energy that generates even more energy, leading to more creative thought and in the long run, a productive future.
When I go out into the world to see the work of other artists I try to get into this space of being open to seeing and taking in what the artist has to offer. It is remarkable what we can learn when we do this. I just gave you a synopsis of a group of boys who have influenced my life. Only one of them knows they have an integral part of my way of thinking. Compile these and other boy/men with so many girl/women that have traveled through my world and you will see the way that an alert mind picks up art data at almost every turn of life's experience. There is value everywhere. The landscape artist can make almost any landscape relevant, if they put their minds to it. Artists such as me can make any person relevant, if I put my mind to it. This is what my art is about: the art of being human, on all levels, no matter who you are, no matter where you are, no matter what your experience. There is something of value in every human hole we are conscious enough to stick our Foolish heads into.
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