Bear Clan

Bear Clan by Phillip Hoyle
Collage of monoprints

As I have worked with this image of a bear in the past year, I have always seen it as a spirit image and without thinking much assigned it to the male gender in my mind. When my daughter-in-law saw several of the prints, she saw it as a female bear. My art friend Sue saw it as a bear, not assigning any gender label.

So I wonder how others may see it. If you want to tell me, make a comment! It's a little bit difficult, but select the anonymous category. You may have to type in a code from an illustration. I would like to know. Comment below. I hope to learn something.

Oh, I entered the piece into the WOW open art show at CORE gallery. So now I wonder if its a she-bear, a he-bear, or something else AND I wonder if I'll be jury-ed in! Hope so and further hope you have a good art week. 

Denver, 2015

Inspiration

Ancient traditions of varying cultures assert that artistic gifts come from godly sources. It's in the language of inspiration, the muses, and the artist being gifted. I've thought about those symbols for my whole adult life and wondered at the history and interconnections of the metaphors. Then I finally decided not to worry myself over details and simply say I'm thankful for the gifts--large or small, real or imagined--that allow me to do art. It began with music and before too long expanded into writing, visual arts, multi-media, and so forth. I was mostly just doing a job or several jobs, ones I enjoyed and continue to enjoy every day. I'm not particularly pious, at least by some people's standards, yet I do recognize that in art something has to arise from somewhere to make possible the creation of beauty. May it be the god from within or without. I say this with a deep sense of humility and thanks.

A few days ago someone saw in my studio the crucifix pictured above. He was very enthusiastic for whatever reasons and made over what he described as the wire sculpture's beauty. I was a bit embarrassed. I made the piece decades ago in a workshop in which I also wrote a poem, probably the first one I ever wrote. Certainly it was the first sculpture I attempted. Only many years later did I work with visual artists to learn techniques and the like. I keep the spontaneous piece visible to remind me not to shut off whatever gifts or natural abilities I have in my work. And each day I do my artwork with a sense of thanksgiving.

I must add, just in case you are interested, I did not make the metal saints. They are New Mexico Hispanic pieces of Saints Maria Magdalena and Rafael.

Denver, 2015

Cosmic Views

Cosmic Wonders
Mixed media by Phillip Hoyle
after a Cherokee petroglyph from Judaculla Rock

After quite a few years of painting designs from Ute Petroglyphs, I took up some very interesting old figures from a site on the Tennessee River in western North Carolina. 

The hundreds of pictures on this ancient soap stone boulder were scratched and dug into the surface of the rock. Some of the pictured characters match old Cherokee tales of creation and life. Cherokee people of the region claim that their ancestors left these signs for them, stories as it were of mythical times in which the gods and heroes interacted directly with the tribe. 

For me the soap stone suggested grays and blues along with red accents. So a few years ago I painted several of these wonderful and challenging designs. Last week I hung another one in my display at Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown. If you're going that way, stop by. It located on 6th street next to the city building and police station, across the street from the historic hotel from the old days of silver mining. It's about 45 minutes west of Denver along Interstate 70. 

There are many other kinds of art in this co-op gallery that shows work of about sixty Colorado artists. It's worth the stop.

The "Cosmic Wonders" hangs next to "Deer on Turquoise" taken after
a Ute Petroglyph from western Colorado.
Both works by Phillp Hoyle.

Denver, 2015

Photo Realism

White is not really a color I need to remember
but sometimes intricate shapes do need
clarifying.

I have little interest in photo realism as a painting approach, but I have learned in my projects related to flowers to use the camera to record the colors of my subjects. While in Missouri last month to draw flowers I also took photographs of many of them to help me recall with some semblance of reality the color of the blossoms and sometimes the shades of green in stems and leaves. 

I had a good time drawing and then photographing flowers in four different locations even though I looked at several others. I wonder now if I didn't have my camera with me then. 

Shades of green often escape my memory.
Now I have this guide.

In a couple of weeks I'll start making the pieces of mixed media art for my Wildflowers of Missouri project working from my drawings. I'm not interested in providing technical, scientific drawings but rather to move toward some kind of abstraction related to the flowers. I'll follow the advice of one of my teachers suggested about plants. "Draw them over and over again until they quit being flowers and become lines." That's my goal and I'll use the photos for color references as I move into this project. Probably you will see some of them in this blog and hopefully soon.

Just this closing note: below you can see photos of my consulting companions during my treks across meadows and into the woods.

Denver, 2015

A Day Late and Quite a Few Dollars Short

I'm back from my Mid-Missouri trip during which I spent time in a semi-retreat and more time in family matters including graduations, parties, meals, seeing old friends, and much more. I drank lots and lots of coffee, so much really fine coffees and espressos I could barely stomach the breakfast coffee here at home in Denver. Oh well ... I'm back and getting back to work on my many art-related projects.

I hiked in prairies with my son and daughter-in-law one afternoon. Eventually the green grass turned into green poison ivy. Fortunately none of us got the itch. I also drew sketches of many Missouri native flowers and made a good start on a rather complex writing project about a challenging year of my life. I'm so pleased to have quite a few pages of writing and even more of drawings, both of which I will draw on in the next months.

I also found a surprise project. When stuck at a motel without my writing notebook, I grabbed a map from a display and wrote my regular pages on it. The Kansas City map led me down pathways from back in my early teen years until just two weeks ago. So with my pen I traced story after story--fourteen in all--and before I left Missouri last week I transcribed them all in a Word Processor file. I suppose they will guide me into even more stories.

In all, I had a great time with my ex-wife, son and his family, daughter and her family, and a large constellation of friends and acquaintances that surround them. And I am glad to be back in the city. After all, I have Artist Trading Cards to make and trade later this week and next week new stories to tell.

Artistically speaking, do something beautiful.

Denver, 2015

Retreat Update

The arts retreat continues. I've been drawing native plants for a couple of projects I have decided to undertake. I roamed my son's farm drawing plants from a small prairie and down by a ravine, all the time watching out for snakes and hoping I would not pick up too many ticks. I didn't see snakes out there but of course did get acquainted with ticks. I don't know if they came into the house on my clothing or in the fur of the dogs who seemed to want to be with me all the time. I drew and took photos for color references. 

I also got underway with the writing project I've been thinking about for the past twelve years. The time seems right and I have made a good start on the project. I have no idea just how long this task will take, but I suspect several years. I'm quite pleased to be writing.

I spent about a week at the farm finding there the solitude I imagined. The disadvantage was that I didn't have on-line service there. (Yes I'm outdated in the electronics end of my projects, a fact that doesn't matter to me. I recall the first writing job I took on when I first got my word processor. It was truly primitive. I recall the first bulletin board I used to visit for games, freeware, and occasional messages. The upshot is that my now rather outdated computer is ages beyond what I used to write on. Also I know that writing is not a function of the pen, typewriter, word processor, or super-up-dated computer, but rather it is a function of the writer's mind and imagination and, of course, an able editor.)

For several days I've been in Jefferson City tending to family matters, but still I've found time to write. I also have drawn on a side trip to Missouri Wildflowers, the native plants nursery where my son is the farm manager. I spent part of a day at the Runge Nature Center, a project of the Missouri Department of Conservation. There I drew and engaged in an interesting conversation with a young man who was interested in my drawings. Today in the gardens around my ex-wife's house where I am staying I discovered two native plants I have not drawn. I've been writing for about two hours and I will soon go outdoors to draw. SO I'm addressing both projects. I don't have the right connector between my camera and computer, so I won't be able to show you photos of my favorite flowers and the like. Perhaps you will be so lucky next Monday if you read blogs on National Holidays.

Keep smiling. I am.

Jefferson City, 2015

Arts Retreat

I write from Mid-Missouri, the place where my ex-wife, children, and grand children live. I’m here getting ready to begin an arts retreat at the Green Goat Farm near a tiny town named Prairie Home. It’s a rather tiny farm, too, just about 20 acres in some upland just 10 miles south of Booneville, and not far from the mighty Missouri River.

I begin my retreat on Tuesday morning, a retreat that will feature two main parts. I’m going to spend many hours drawing native Missouri plants for a project I am planning. I plan to fill quite a few tablets with drawings of vines, grasses, flowers, bushes, and trees. I do hope to avoid poison ivy itch and chigger bites. Of course one can never be sure just what may take place.

The other part of my retreat is to write. I have a plan to start a new story of a past relationship that meant a lot to me. I have no good idea of just how this will develop but I’m planning to fill a 400 page notebook of my scratching, type it all into my word processor, and get somewhere beyond a rough draft. Who knows?

I’m looking forward to being in my son and daughter-in-law’s house where arts rule. Music, writing, and dancing are just a few of the things that occur there regularly. Perhaps I’ll add dancing to my repertoire. Who knows? I just hope the animals that live there are nice to me. I think they don’t have any goats right now, but there are chickens (which means roosters) and ducks and cats and dogs and cows and horses. But I’m not there to draw animals, just the flora.

I’ll be back to my regular Denver schedule late in the month.

Missouri! 2015

Stilll Printing

Block print by Phillip Hoyle

For quite a few years I've been printing some artwork. i began by making Christmas cards with simple relief prints of words and designs. Then the designs got more complicated with several punk rock angels. Last season I made a print of pine branches and needles in Craftsman style. The other day I finished my most complicated piece yet, one with aspen trees in winter in Chiaroscuro style.

The piece required two block cuts--one for brown, the other for black. I can't say I'm completely satisfied. About half way through the designing and cutting I realized I'd made a very intricate design, too ambitious for a first try! But I stayed with it. And I did learn a lot in the process. I hope to learn even more from the ideas that came from this project.

Long live art and the making of art!

Denver, 2015

Storytellers and Story Telling

On the vernal equinox Utes performed the Bear dance.
Bears came out of hibernation and Utes moved to their
spring camps where they danced.
The bear climbing up a tree is still used in that dance.
Surely the bear stories are told during that time.
The story was told in another art on a cliff in Shavano
Valley where petroglyphs capture the traditional lore.
One Ute shaman interprets the image above as the
bear coming from its lair.
Acrylic washes on paper by Phillp Hoyle

There were stories in my childhood told me by my parents. Mom told many of family, neighbors, marriages, births, and the places she lived. To these Dad added bible stories and some his dad’s colorful stories and sayings. Grandma Pink told of tales family and neighbors, Grandpa, of neighbors, snakes, and the farm—its history and its requirements.

I also heard stories from preachers. These stories served a different kind of function from my parents’ stories. Wilford F. Lown, Charles Cook, and some others used their stories to illustrate their meanings hoping thereby to actually communicate the values they held important to all members of our congregation. Jack McInnis years later told stories in his sermons as the content itself. Those I liked even more because they weren’t moralizing.

I heard stories from professors, most notably from James VanBuren who made the world of literature come alive like no other storyteller I had ever met. He dramatized texts in his reading of poetry or the Bible and brought life in so doing. Eventually I came to realize that telling stories was a skill! Of course, given who I am, I started reading about storytelling and finally also understood the use of "storyteller" as applied in criticism to writers of novels. (I’m a slow if thorough learner.) I practiced my approach mostly on children knowing that in such sessions what I said was also being heard by adults. I memorized stories, recalled old stories and retold them, and quite often made up new ones on the spot. Eventually I realized that all my answers to questions were turning into stories! Watch out if you ever engage me in conversation.

Five years ago this month I began attending a storytelling group. Now I lead that group, a gathering of elder storytellers who tell their own stories. The program is SAGE Telling Your Story at The GLBT Center of Colorado. AND you can read many of the stories told there by checking out our blog at sageoftherockies.blogspot.com

Denver, 2015

It's a Frame Up

"Petroglyph on Turquoise" by Phillip Hoyle
Acrylic washes on paper

When I was in high school I went shopping at Mrs. Steadman's antique shop. Much of what she offered was not antique but many items were. In her disorderly yet intriguing store I found myself drawn to frames, so I bought some, cleaned them up, and started searching for prints to put in them. Mom abided my taste and let me hang them in my room and eventually in the living room and other places in the house. Since I now produce my own artwork painting and printing them on paper, I have the need for frames and still experience joy as I clean up old and new frames, wash glass, cut mats, and place my art in frames.

These days I'm specializing in very small frames, mostly purchased at a second-hand store, in which I display the very small prints I have been making. I contrast this work with very large frames, ones that can display pieces 30x22". I've painted quite a few such pieces over the years, most of which have waited patiently in folders and boxes for what I am now doing! Just this past week I hung one such piece in my display at Colorado Mountain Art Gallery. I'm pleased with the effect it has on my whole show there. (Sorry I didn't get a picture; I forgot to take my camera.)

Enjoy the photo of the artwork (above) though. Imagine it in a black frame with a narrow white mat. AND if you get a chance, stop by the gallery where I have it and lots of other-sized pieces of artwork on display--large, medium, and small. 

Denver, 2015

Petroglyph Conundrum

ATC Ute Rider
by Phillip Hoyle

I've worked with many petroglyph designs over the past eleven years. I've sold quite a few paintings and a number of prints inspired by them: deer and bears, dancing shamans and mountain sheep, monsters and gods, dogs and cats (actually mountain lions), and abstracts beyond description. I've made many, many pieces of art related to these figures.

Early on in my fascination I made a number of collages and paintings from horse petroglyphs. They have been among my favorites. BUT I have never sold a single one of either a horse or a horse and rider. I was sure that out here in the west where people actually ride horses, there would be someone who couldn't resist owning one of these old designs.

The author back in 1981 with a favorite horse design.

This past week I made a small block cut of one of the most interesting horses, one with a rider. This one is located on the escarpment of Spring Mesa near the Ute Trail (as it has been called for well over 100 years) and near another petroglyph of a bear up a tree with a clear track of paw prints from a crack in the cliff wall to the tree. In the olden days the Ute bear dance was held on the vernal equinox announcing springtime's arrival and with it the emergence of bears from their winter slumber. Bear taught the Ute people to do the dance; that's what the old stories told.

Bear Dance
Acrylic washes on paper by Phillip Hoyle

On the cliff not far from the bear petroglyph is the horse. Beneath the horse and rider is a similar trail of hoof marks? That's how I see them. The bear dance was ancient. Horses didn't arrive in Ute country until the 17th century. All I really have are questions and suspect ideas related to the proximity of the two figures.  Still I like the relative positions of the two figures. And I really like the figure of the horse and rider.

On the Trail
Mixed media by Phillip Hoyle

I made my miniature ATC prints to offer for trade at the next swap I attend. Of course, maybe no one will want one just like no one has ever wanted to buy one of my horse paintings. Oh well. Perhaps I need to make up a story like how Utes were changing due to the first fast tracks made possible by their new transportation. Some folks were worried that the old ways might be forgotten. One of the concerned artists related the traditional bear dance to the new ways with these hoof prints that seemed to echo the nearby bear paw prints. Keep the old and new together, you know.

Well such a story would take lots of expansion and polishing. OR I could promise if you trade for one of these cards, I'll not tell you a story about them.


Denver, 2015

Updating a Show

When I worked at the Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown last week, I removed some paintings and prints from the display and added a couple of new paintings. I'm pleased with the show especially because it looks less cluttered and presents a painting I made several years ago but had never shown. 

I had been trying to figure out what changes to make that would make the display more attractive and believe I made good choices. I added an elk anthropomorphic painting next to another shaman dancer piece. The two paintings were made at the same time and match in size, colors, and frames. The horizontal painting with two petroglyphs on a mainly brown background surprised me! I had painted it to add colorful marks of the culture that made it. So a border that looks a bit like quill or beadwork suggests that not everything in western Colorado back in those old, old days was drab. As I moved the painting to the wall to measure for where to pound in the nail, I discovered that I had not installed any way to hang it.  Fortunately another painting I was removing had a long enough wire and strong enough eyelets to hang the new one. Anyway I'm pleased with the changes and am pleased to present new paintings to folk who stop by the gallery. 

Mixed media art by Phillip Hoyle

Things in Georgetown are pretty quiet these days. Gallery hours are shortened lasting from 11 to 4 daily. Still, with the mild days the trip up I-70 is pleasant, the food up there good, and wandering around an old silver mining town always a delight. Come on up and see the works. Besides mine, there are new displays from long-time members of the co-op and work from new members--pottery, photography, and paintings.

January 2015

Christmas Present

My Christmas card a few years ago when I was
into Punk Rock Angels.
Block print by Phillip Hoyle

For the next few days I’ll be looking at and working on designs, simplifications, and abstract of things seen and felt this year in order to get my next year's Christmas card underway. I want to do this while the spirit of Christmas is still strong in me. Actually the sentiment of Peace on Earth is at the core of the Christmas vision. It works all year long. for me, the spirit of Christmas is the festive feeling fostered by all the decorations, brisk winter air, seasonal music, parties, and so forth. Oh, I didn’t mean to leave out shopping for gifts.

I’m hoping in the next three days to make something of that! I think I’ll experiment with my designs by making Artist Trading Cards that I will make today and tomorrow and trade on Tuesday night. Of course, I’ll make copies of them for reference! Guess I’ll also post them next Monday—on the fifth day of Christmas as in the old liturgical calendar and the current Christmas popular song.

We’re keeping the tree and decorations up a few extra days due to out-of-town visitors and the Denver tradition to keep holiday lights burning through the National Western Stock Show. Maybe I’ll get these things done after all. It’s my hope but certainly not an old year’s resolution.

Hope your holiday is bright and artful.

Denver, 2014

The Art Museum

The Coyote has got my attention as in this piece after a Ute
petroglyph. Acrylic washes on paper by Phillip Hoyle.
Native American art still influences the way I see things.

The first art museum I visited in my early teens (early 1960s) was the Denver Art Museum, the American Indian displays that back then were housed in an old mansion, the Chappell House, located along Grant Avenue on Denver’s Capitol Hill. I viewed the place as an Indian Culture museum since it seemed similar to the pieces I knew from the Kansas State Historical Museum. I also realized it was called an art museum and knew there was much more art elsewhere (but didn’t see the other displays for many years. In Denver I also visited the Denver Natural History museum and really liked its Native American collection. All these American Indian things seemed like art to me, beautiful hand-made items that I might easily desire to hang on the walls of my room, yet ones I’d never be able to have due to their rarity. I liked that I could view them free or for a modest fee. And I determined to make similar items of such rare beauty.

Finally as a young adult I visited the Wichita Art Museum with curiosity. I enjoyed my visit but recall that I couldn’t fathom why people acted so excited by it. I had read somewhere back then that the art museum had replaced the cathedral as a place of worship, but perhaps because I was not Catholic, I didn’t relate to the writer’s evaluation. For me, the museum didn’t compare with the art galleries at Wichita State University. I wondered why. Was I just undereducated? Would such places grow on me as I matured? I had no real idea. Still, at the Wichita museum I realized the museum was more than simply its displays. It was also a membership organization.

Over the years I added more art museums to my experience. For instance, while attending graduate seminary at TCU in Fort Worth, TX, I often visited the Kimbel Art Museum (a collection of European and Asian art), the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (meaning largely cowboys and Indians), and occasionally the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum (post WWII art). In these places I saw paintings and sculptures that sometimes connected with my personal interests and that often pushed me to look more deeply at the pieces themselves in search for understanding or simply to see. An offshoot of this activity was that I began going into commercial art galleries as well. The world of fine art was expanding for me.

Since those years I’ve visited many other art museums and have come to feel a special relationship with them, now as a working artist. My appreciation has grown, my insight amplified by education and experience and the insights of friends with whom I visit these places that sometimes thrill, cause me to laugh, or open my eyes to another person’s vision of the world. Maybe that’s why they serve a kind of religious visionary role. I stand in awe before some of the most beautiful or most horrifying. I now understand why one influential scholar created a methodology in which he claimed the Arts raise the questions that philosophy and theology seek to answer. That’s the large picture. For me, the painters, sculptors, and others ask me to think anew about my own work and my life. I go to art museums with regularity and need, something indeed akin to religion.

Denver, 2014

Go Primal

I have long been interested in primal images of life, especially those related to several tribes of Native Americans. I read stories, made costumes, learned tribal and inter-tribal dances, and attended powwows. In short, I spent a great deal of my childhood pursuing such images. As a teen and adult I collected artifacts and bought Indian-made jewelry, dream catchers, and paintings. I still follow some Native American writers and usually scan the daily paper for any articles of American Indian news. 

ATCs with a few primal designs by Phillip Hoyle

The topic for this week's Artist Trading Cards swap and make is "Go Primal." I am delighted with the topic, one I may have submitted sometime back, and have collected idea after idea. Here at the first of the week I have made only five cards. Guess I'd better get into my studio and make some more. Over several years I've already made quite a few such ATCs: cards related to tribal masks from Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and others related to American Indian petroglyphs and pottery designs. Of course now I'm looking for something that contrasts with those things.

A few days ago I decided I needed to get out some materials. I chose leather, feathers, fur, rafia, sand, dirt, and so forth. I hope to use them in mixed media collages that could invoke a primal feel. Now for the feeling part of the assignment. 

Cutouts of some Ute bighorn sheep cutting up. My three new cards.
ATC by Phillip Hoyle. Acrylic washes on paper.

Since I have so few new ones done, I've added some from the past and in so doing hope to find the inspiration for a new batch! I have until Tuesday--that's tomorrow--to complete several new ones. I'm hoping for the best, new images to post next Monday. And I hope to surprise myself and any readers who open these pages!

Go primal. Remember that a lot of European painters of the early 20th century were inspired primal designs. Those images can still stretch an artist's imagination.

Denver 2014

Art Dreams

A group of Artist Trading Cards I made at an
evening meeting of artists in a local studio.
My friend Sue and I go to ATC events together.

These days I have a friend Sue who loves to drive around town and suggest how a certain house could be just right for her. Once I said one of her houses would be too much for me. “But you’d need a room for a studio, one for writing, one for living in, and on for sleep,” she insisted, “and maybe a second bedroom for company.” 

“No. That would be more than I’d ever want to clean,” I responded.

“But when I fantasize,” she rebutted, “I always assume a large house comes complete with a staff: a person to clean, one to cook, one to take care of the lawn and grounds, and one to drive me around.”

“Oh. I just don’t have those kinds of fantasies.”

“Well maybe you need some,” she retorted. 

I suppose her challenge to me is to dream bigger in order to clarify just what I want and need. We are different, my friend and I. We talk together a lot and although we differ on our housing fantasies, we do sometimes dream together of having a large studio together where, away from the phone, our families, and other interruptions, we could spend serious time painting, art printing, making collages, creating mixed media works, and probably talking until our throats were raw. Actually we may end up tiring our voices over this fantasy because already we’re clarifying just what we want to do, what kinds of equipment we need, and the like. We haven’t yet let anyone else know we have these dreams. We still seem insecure about where the visions will lead us.

I am reminded of my childhood friend Keith with whom I would fantasize about many things. We’d lie on the twin beds in his room and talk and talk about all the things we would do in a kind of duet daydream. The big project we undertook in this fantasy world was to dig out his family’s basement so we could build a rifle range. We actually did remove a few wheelbarrows full of dirt before we gave up on the idea. I guess we grew out of that kind of communal fantasy when our lives started becoming too different, our interests diverging—his into hunting, woodworking, and messing with large machines; mine into making music and studying language. Those kinds of changes happen to seventh graders.

But my friend Sue and I as adults continue driving around Denver talking, wondering if we will ever get to work in the same art studio. The dream seems possible when we work together in another artist’s studio we make Artist Trading Cards. Working alongside other artists stokes one’s enthusiasm and encourages creativity. Having such a studio is a dream I’d like to pursue, so I guess I’d better start dreaming about how to get the money to do it! Sue’s already watching for vacancy signs. I’m still dreaming. Maybe I’ll go out and buy a shovel. Who knows where this dream could lead.

Denver, 2014

A Gathering of Bears

I’ve long been fascinated by bears, those large lunky denizens of zoos I used to watch with admiration and fear. I bought a figurine of one in Estes Park as a child, a figure I kept with me into my adulthood. Then I discovered bear paw prints and bears in a panel of petroglyphs on the south-facing escarpment of Spring Mesa west of Montrose, Colorado. They thrilled me. The panel has been dubbed The Three Bears since three carvings of bears climbing trees appear there. The symbol is still current in the traditional bear dance of the Utes who used to spend time each year in the valley. Perhaps they held their annual vernal equinox dance there. 

Recently another Ute bear petroglyph image has captured my imagination, one from the Gunnison River some miles north east of the three bears. This bear looks ferocious to me. I painted it several times and have now used it in a lino-block for printing. This past week I printed. My artist friend Sue suggested I try printing on different kinds of art papers to see what would happen. So I printed on roadmaps, hand made papers, papers with seeds or leaves or strings embedded in them. I hd fun with my brayer, baren and tiny Speedball press. And I’m pleased with the results.

Some of these prints will be shown at the Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown. Going on a color drive into the mountains soon? Stop by the gallery and see all the additional colors there as well. Oh, the food’s good up there, too.

Denver, 2014

Opening My Eyes

“Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.”

John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Penguin Books (New York, 1972).

Nice outing on Saturday to see the Tom Wesselmann display “Beyond Pop Art” at the Denver Art Museum. It was my second gander at it, this one with my friend Deanna and the former one with my friend Diana. Although their names are almost the same, their interests and insights are extremely different. The contrast reminded me of John Berger’s book Ways of Seeing , a book I read many years ago when learning how to see objects and their surroundings in drawing. Berger asserted, “Today we see the art of the past as nobody saw it before. We actually perceive it in a different way” (p. 16). That is even true in the time between my two trips to the museum. The context in which I viewed it changed.

Two weeks ago while seeing the show with Dianne, I found my attention going to the large picture of what was there to be seen. Dianne had received her art education by living in Paris with artists and eventually working in a gallery there hanging art shows. While her education was not formal, it was intense, and she has a remarkable eye and memory. The immersion method prepared her to make design and historic connections with other artists—especially impressionists and pop artists. She opened my eyes to perspectives I’d surely have missed had I viewed the show alone. Having been a clothing model, she also was very interested in Wesselmann’s treatment of the female form. We talked a lot about all these ideas and insights.

Yesterday with Deanna, I took quite a different look at the retrospective, one related to her interests. Her technical questions informed by studio training pushed me to look at how the artist attached his canvasses to his frames, how he approached gluing on his collage (for instance, did he first paint and then glue? she asked), and the relationship between his drawn and constructed studies with the eventual finished artworks. Reviewing the display from these differing points of view opened my eyes and left me with a flood of new images and ideas, and a deeper appreciation at what the artist had accomplished.

But don’t take my word for it. Get to the display before it closes September 14. See it for yourself.

Today I thank John Berger, Dianne, and Deanna for my continuing perception of the world of art and the world as art and art subject. Thanks, thanks, thanks. Thanks to DAM, too.

Denver, 2014

Kiddos

Artist Trading Cards, the latest ones, inspired by
circles and triangles and that turned into birds!
Phillip Hoyle

I noticed the boy peeking in the door off the patio between the gallery and a restaurant. His family was next door eating, but he just couldn’t keep still. He stepped into the gallery to see if there were toys he’d want to shop for, but saw only artwork. He left and apparently didn’t encourage his parents to take him to our displays.

I was keeping shop at Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown, Colorado, the co-op gallery where I show some of my paintings and once a month keep shop. I wondered if the boy would bring his parents. He didn’t, but others did! They, children with an interest in art, make the time I spend there seem even more interesting than the occasional sale of paintings, jewelry, or other artworks. That day last week, three other kids did bring in the adults they were accompanying. 

The first was a ten-year-old girl who brought her grandmother. Her eye swept the first gallery, a display of single pieces of artwork from almost all the artists who show there. She seemed interested and her eye fell on a wooden game with marbles made by one of the artists who makes interesting furniture from old skis, snowboards, snow shoes, and other mountain cabin items. She wondered how to play it and when I demonstrated talked her grandmother to play it with her. Grandma won! 

Then she saw the jewelry and wanted to try on some. Both of the pieces she most liked, due to their cost, seemed more like Christmas presents than souvenirs from a summer trip. Her grandmother must have agreed since there was no move to purchase either item. Still the girl liked the artwork and showed me a couple of pieces she especially appreciated. Grandpa came in when they were ready to leave and seemed happy they hadn't done any Christmas shopping.

The second child was a very young boy who was looking wide-eyed at photographs and paintings. I said, “My name is Phillip; what’s yours.” He hesitated and then told me his name. I said I was pleased he was looking at the art and asked if he did artwork himself. He nodded yes and then added, “I’m four,” holding up his fingers to show me. I smiled at his mother and encouraged the family to take their time. Then I asked him what kinds of art he most enjoyed making. His mom said he seemed to like everything he tried. I encouraged him to keep up the good work!

The third child that day was an eleven-year-old boy who entered the gallery with confidence and darting eyes as if he were trying to take in everything there all at once. When I asked him about his art, he said he liked to draw. His mom told me he draws constantly and really likes to make cartoon characters. He agreed and told me of his favorites. His mom added that he also did other artwork in an art class he attends in addition to school. I told him he reminded me of my son and one of my grandsons, both of whom are artists.

Other people enriched my day, but my tiny investment with these three children made the day seem most important. I love that in the gallery I get to foster young artists with my attention and conversation. It feels like an extension of all the work I did in arts programming for youngsters. Their interest inspires me and urges my continuing adventures in an art world full of designs, products, procedures, experiments, and artists, young and old.

Denver, 2014

Going to the Fair

Denverites for the fourth consecutive year can go to the County Fair. I went a day early riding on the 0 and 48 busses to the National Stock Show Complex to set up an interactive Artist Trading Cards booth, a place where folk of all ages can sit for a spell and make their own miniature art pieces. The booth was located in the Fine Arts section along with its Blue Ribbon Art Show, an annual feature of the Fair, and about twenty booths of artists and art cooperatives. And the ATC booth sits next to a candy vendor and close to a stage where movies are shown, a spelling bee is held, and contests like texting for speed is held. Hard to beat that for a place to be inspired.

And the fair has many marks of the rural county fairs common to American tradition. Folk bring homemade crafts, cooking and canning, produce from their gardens, small animals and much more for judging. Ribbons are awarded the best, and I wonder if there are gardeners, cooks, and bakers who have won blue ribbons all four years. 

On Thursday I also helped hang the ATC submissions in the art show. It looked good. Hope you got to see it.

Anyway I went back to the fair the next day with friends to experience it in a different way, to look at booths, to spin wheels hoping for a prize, to study arts and crafts, to watch dogs run their courses. The feelings were good. I felt quite happy to be there with a long-time friend, her artist sister, her sister’s son, and their mother and grandmother. 

I was planning to make ATC cards with my friends but we ran out of time probably due to extra stops to watch the flea circus, listen to singers, watch a video, talk with artists, and otherwise enjoy the event! Plan to go there next summer!

Fun, fun at the fair!

Denver, 2014