This was the first time I have not shown my work in the Chicago "Around the Coyote Arts Festival" since I began showing my work there five years ago, and it turned out to be a real pleasure. Instead of being a virtual prisoner at my own exhibition, I was free to really see all the other artists' exhibits, at all of the many various locations, instead of just being able to see the ones who were geographically close to my own exhibit. While a part of me missed not showing my work, and was disappointed in not being invited to show, I had a good time seeing the show, and took my faithful digital camera with me, so I am able to share some of my favourite images from the show with you, my readers.
The very first painting that caught my eye was one executed by Sharon Pena, author of the oil on canvas religious image on the right. Being a realist painter myself, and also a serious student of the human form and figure, it immediately appealed to me as the work of someone who had done their homework. It seems to be a blend of realism, expressionism and symbolism, and it appeals to me because of its great ambition, in attempting to do so many things in one image, even if the results are, to my eye, a little awkward. Sharon Pena's work was not selected for a 'Curator's Choice' position, but I rank her as one of the top figurative - portrait painter's in the show.
Some observations I had on the show, overall, this year, was that there were a lot fewer participants than in years past, due to the shrinking amount of available space as the neighborhood becomes increasingly more gentrified, and that there seemed to be a slightly greater proportion of competent practitioners, at least among the painters. This show has never been, to my knowledge, the kind of show that generates many sales to speak of. Very inexpensive items will sell, but the better quality and hence more expensive items rarely sell at the Coyote show. It is also in my experience, not a show much frequented by fine art dealers, looking for new talent, but I suspect that this is a function of the ennui of the fine art dealers and not of the show itself. I did not notice whether the practice of applying little red dot stickers to the wall next to very expensive paintings, indicating them as sold when they are in fact not, was as much in vogue this year as in previous years. People who do this should make sure that they do not bring the same painting along the following year, and offer it for sale again.
I was very impressed with this drawing by Julie Sulzen, and confess being a little envious of her skill, which is the highest compliment I can give to another practitioner in my field. She was not selected for a 'Curator's Choice' position, either, which, given some of the people who were selected for 'Curator's Choice' positions, begins to make the entire process seem suspect. She lists Grace Cole ( Cole Studio Fine Portraits, Painting, and Art ) as one of her influences, and any realist who has seen Grace Cole's work will probably list her as some sort of an influence from that day forward.
*the text in strike-out above is a correction. It was brought to my attention on 1/11/01 by Olga Stefan of Around the Coyote that Julie was, in fact, selected for a 'Curator's Choice' position.
This very simple drawing of a middle aged man at the table with his papers, addresses the human condition on two levels, simultaneously, with a minimal amount of fanfare. First, the man, the table, the papers, work clothes, muscled hands and forearms....the emotional content of a solitary moment in the day in the life of an everyday person. Second, there is the unseen hand of the artist, that executed this object in black and white, in such a manner that the blacks make the whites whiter, and the whites make the blacks blacker. There is the unseen intellect behind the hand, that chose a simple subject to say something too complex for words, and then kept at it until it was as near finished as possible, without going over that invisible line, that unspoken line, that every artist knows must only be approached, and never actually apprehended. This is not the work of an hour, this simple drawing.
Finally, then, there appears the resonance between intellect and emotion, that is art, and not merely painting or drawing, and that all of the five I have selected here possess.
There was a lot of really dreadfully incompetent work on display in this show, but that is neither shocking, nor unusual. A show like the Around the Coyote festival is dedicated to emerging artists, and some of it is bound to be both dreadful and/or incompetent. Along with the excellent work, there was also a lot of really dreadfully incompetent work on display among the 'Curator's Choice' selections as well, and that was not unusual, either. I cannot imagine how some of the choices are made. As per usual, the panel who made the selections all had impressive sounding titles. I would enjoy engaging them in discussion in an open forum such as 'About.com,' as to the criteria they employ in making their choices. Perhaps I am simply ignorant about what constitutes art, and what does not, and they can educate me.
Diana Stezalski was another painter who elevates painting into the realm of fine art who was overlooked by the 'Curator's Choice panel. The oil painting to the right is simple, well composed, and to the point, addressing a moment in human emotion best described, in muted tones. It is an excellent portrait, not so much of an individual, but of humanity, and of all self conscious life, wherever it extends, turning inward, introspective.
Those who forego the discipline of learning how to paint the human face and figure, deny themselves vast areas of expression, for there are many things that can be said with the human face and form, than cannot be addressed in the more abstract realms, at least not with any degree of specificity. Although many abstract artists are fully capable of executing any type of scene with precision, there are many who cannot. Somewhere along the line in the twentieth century, it became a popular concept that learning and practicing the disciplines necessary to execute precise representational work was somehow deleterious to the development of creativity. If a half-century of giving this notion free reign has underscored anything, it is that creativity is no slave to technique, either way.
I think that the twenty-first century will see a resurgence in the learning of skills, and classical technique, in the fine arts. One reason for this is that after fifty years of having center stage, abstraction and most of its various offshoots have failed to win over the public. The gallery and curatorial institutions that have largely proclaimed the 'new art' as king, have failed to impress the unwashed masses, ie., the vast majority of humanity, of the wisdom of their ways. Now, artists who wish to pursue the older and more representational forms of two-dimensional arts are defecting from the gallery scene to the relative independence of the World Wide Web, and reaching the public directly, in ever increasing numbers. Without having to pay fifty percent of each sale to the gallery in commissions, painters are able to sell to a broad cross section of the public who were hitherto priced out of the fine art market.
I suspect that even those artists who continue to pursue areas of painting that are less skill intensive, like Abstract Expressionism, are going to be expected to prove themselves in more than one technique. The last two decades of the twentieth century saw such wholesale abuse of the public trust where what constitutes fine art is concerned, that the buying public is bound to take a much harder look at what they are buying, who they are buying it from, and a much more jaundiced view of what once trusted dealers told them in the past. I think the field of fine arts is long overdue for a little "I'm from Missouri" and 'Show Me' mentality. In 1700, a medical doctor was by today's standards a butcher, and an artist, even one who was not destined to take the world by storm, was by necessity a highly skilled draughtsman. Either art merits a place of significance equal to science in the human endeavour, or it does not. While draughtsmanship does not equal artistic skill per se, it is prerequisite to the development of hand-eye coordination, and the other sensory and tactile skills that are necessary for painting.
With Byron Gin, I depart from realism, into expressionism. One of those chosen for the 'Curator's Choice' group, he definitely deserves the praise. He uses a very simple layout in this painting, to great effect. I doubt whether any of his simplifications or exaggerations are a function of inability. This person certainly demonstrates the skills to execute anything he wishes, in any manner he chooses. (within reason, of course) The human emotion is all the more clear in this painting for its utter simplicity of means. The paint itself is a subject in the painting as well, which is a tricky thing to do in an image that retains the depth and descriptiveness of the picture space as well. The cropping works well, the right arm, that is both there, and not there at the same time works well, it all works well.
Although I have no desire to paint like Byron Gin, having once seen this painting, it is surely strong enough, so that it will influence my work in some way. "If one must steal, then steal only from masters." Although Byron Gin is probably not to be considered a master at this time, I feel comfortable in 'stealing' from him, and admitting it publicly, in advance of any such future recognition.
The Around the Coyote show does certainly perform a great service to the emerging artists in the Chicago area, and at the same time to the people of the Chicago area who view the festival. In spite of my criticisms, I do recognize that there is tremendous value in such a festival, and I want to publicly thank all of the volunteers and professionals who make such a huge event possible, from the festival coordinators, to the area residents and business owners who provide space to the artists, to the construction crews who set up and break down all those display walls, and the volunteers who help paint them. and everyone in between, even the curators whom I have castigated in this article. Many thanks, to you all.
My last pick for this article is Steve Skinner, and his image here is of the underside of a bridge somewhere, which is one of Steve's favourite subjects. ( Original Watercolors of Chicago- Steve Skinner )
I got to know Steve and his work last winter, at the Around the Coyote Millennium Show, where I was showing my work in the same hallway as him, and I got to study his precise, demanding watercolour style up close and in depth for an entire weekend. He was chosen as one of the 'Curator's Choice' group, and certainly deserves the recognition. Since I do a lot of precise watercolor work myself, I am aware of the medium, what it can and cannot do, and how unforgiving it can be for anyone demanding near perfection.
Personally, I think that for myself, one such complex geometric structure would be enough, but then, my kind of realism is something quite different than what Skinner is after in his work, which is at once both abstract, and representational.
I hope that this festival is able to continue, in spite of the fact that the recent rise in property values is driving the artists who once inhabited this formerly seedy and dangerous area, out.
Let us never forget, that once, in a place called Wicker Park, among the broken pavements and bottles, under the roar of the 'L' trains, behind the sleazy cut rate bargain stores, up three flights of steep narrow hall stairs in the dark, where rats the size of cats walked with no fear of man......a seed was planted, and grew up, and put down roots, and was a weed, no pretty flower, too strong to die, too tough to kill, in paint and oil, in dirt and grease, in song and dance, in words and pause.....in words and pause.....in words and....pause.