This series is an homage to the artists in all fields of endeavor whose work has touched me in my journey through life. The works are not intended to provide or use direct artistic 'quotes' from those other artists, nor even to portray who the artist is as subject.
The works use my personal iconographic understandings to show what bits of those artist's imaginary gardens might contain in a metaphorical sense. The compositional relationships of material, form, and effect in the pieces combine to evoke my very personal take on their work, their character, and their life.
Most of these works are done on a very modest scale, and in the form of wall sculptures. This scale, this format allows a certain intimacy with the subjects, and removes the works from the realm of monuments — which they most certainly are not intended to be.
The pieces are suggestions of intimate glimpses of close friends and companions whose company I enjoy sharing, snippets of conversations overheard, and dialogs offered.
Thorne Smith
(1892–1934)
American author
of madcap comic fiction, perhaps best
known for his novel "Topper" which was
later made into both movie and TV series.
Good, but read the books . . . <grin>
The work on each piece in the series is not begun with a particular individual in mind, rather, as the piece develops the character or personality of the work comes to suggest the artist to whose garden the piece will become.
This intuitive way of working means that there is no particular order or significance to the gardens presented, other than simply that I enjoy their work. In fact, there are many others who as yet have not had their garden explored in the series, even though their work may have played a bigger part in my life than some of the ones already presented.
About the materials:
Many — though not all — of the pieces in this series are done using black slate as the primary background material. Even though slate has a distinctive texture when cleft, it is generally homogenous enough that it provides a relatively understated presence in which the other materials and forms can take center-stage.
The materials employed in this series are perhaps more mixed than in many of my other works, and this variety allows a certain complexity in relational qualities that is better suited to the metaphorical themes of the pieces. Rather than distilling the essence of the subjects through form as a singular media might require, in these pieces the mixed-media helps to suggest a complex vignette through which the essence can perhaps better be inferred by the viewer.
And perhaps as a last word, this entire series could be considered an homage to the iconoclastic artist Joseph Cornell (1903–1972), whose sublime perceptions on the nature of the found combined with his sense of balanced juxtaposition to create a uniquely haunting body of work that I never tire of experiencing.
Vonnegut's Garden (Budn, Budn)
A Dance In Bradbury's Garden
Jon's Garden: Shadowland RWB
You Can't Tickle Yourself: Ripples In Bessie's Garden
Trois Gymnopedies (Dance Satie)
Home On The Range: A Twang In The Wills' Garden
Whistle While You Work: Red's Garden Notes
Here's Looking At You (Deadwood Garden)
The Other Angle: Iconoclasts' Garden Party (RS-SR-TW)
