a chronology of my 37 year career; This is a lecture designed for general population undergrad students and has presented at The University of Minnesota and 13 other colleges and art centers
1. LINKS IN A CHAIN The search for significance in the contemporary art landscape As an American Artist trained in the mid 1970’s I have searched for a sense of meaning, lets call it significance, in the practice of the visual arts. This is a short story of what that journey has meant to me.
2. THE BEGINING The Stevens Gallery co-op Gallery, Minneapolis Minnesota 1975 Conceptual Art, Earth Art, Kinetic Art, Performance Art, Feminist Art, Pluralism, These are some of the key concepts that swirled about within the dialog of Contemporary Art And as a young art student I understood and became well versed within these various idioms. But I felt lost I felt that I needed more I needed to feel connected to art history and at the same time I needed to own my personal voice. To find my unique self.
3. ARCHITECTURE I grew up in Chicago When I was Student at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design I asked my college professor ,AribertMunzner, how to reconcile my feelings of disconnected disinterest in contemporay art dialog with my desire to be a part of the larger art dialog. He asked me what I did when I was 4 years old. Well I grew up in Chicago and so of course as little kid I used to make cities, and buildings. I drew them, I molded them in clay, I built little skyscrapers with sticks, that’s what I did, I played city. All the time, and I was happy.
4. EREHWON 1975-76 Minneapolis College of Art and Design Munzner suggested that the key to finding my place within the contemporary art world would not be found in pursuite of the multiple isms and art paths I studied within my formal art training but rather the key was hidden deep within my own personal history. It was hidden within the things I made when I was 4 years old. He told me to go to my studio and make one building. I went back and I made a single small scale wax building and I returned a week latter. Professor Munzner smiled and instructed me, “ now go make 10. “ I did. The next week he uped the count to 100 and as time went by I ended up creating a huge imaginary city that I called Erehwon. It was 30 feet long and 15 feet wide and it held thousands of structures each with its own story.
5. ErEhwon 33 feet long 12 feet wide 1975-76 wax When it was complete it had become a legendary piece of art and It was well loved across the spectrum of the art community centered around the College as well within the wider community. I had created a work of art which had no pretension no desire to fit into the dialog all around but which represented my personal vision. Add on
28. Gloria civita 200 CE The history of rome created and destroyed and created again on a 12 x 12 foot base involving performances and thousands of buildings 1985-1991
33. The Water Front Ceramic 1990 1 foot long designed to be displayed on a wall
34. Roccastrada One of 9 scultpures created on my return from study in Italy 1992 about 3 feet long
35. This River This Place The lobby of the Ninth Federal Reserve District, Minneapolis ,Minnesota 1997 35 feet long
36. This River This Place Some of the 270 unfired 20 inch long and 20 inch deep blocks used in its creation
37. The Edmund Fitzgerald This River This Place each block tells a unique story from thr 9th federal district
38. The Twin Cities Collection Lindquist and Vennum PA, Minneapolis Minnesota 1995 About 12 feet long ceramic
39. NityGrity City Collection Merchant and Gould Pa, Minneapolis Minnesota 1996 Concrete about 8 feet long One of 36 corporate commissions
40. The Original Garden Lights Towers are about 2 feet tall and they light up These were created in editions of 45 multiples of 12 styles They are garden sculptures created between 1991 and 2001
46. Mill City Dance Designed for the cedar riverside LRT station and installed as a 150 foot long public art work each tower about 10 feet tall 2002 steel
49. Babylon in the Sumerian era Babylon like Gloria Civita was an extended performance and narrative sculpture creating and destroying and re-creating a history of Mesopotamia present day Iraq It was a war protest
50. Babylon in its studio The project had a dedicated studio between 2002 and 2008
51. Babylon Akkad the 4th city layer upon layer of history the piece is documented in numerous news items videos pictures and a narative
52. Babylon Each phase of the project was based in the history of the region of present day Iraq it’s a long story 12000 years at least
53. babylon Yes I really did destroy all I had made and every year I rebuilt on the ruins of my previous work Just like reality
54. babylon After the destruction there were 5 ceremonial destructions of 5 key empires the war is unending and the US invasion was only one of many attempts to subdue the region.
57. babylon The map shows the area occupied by Babylon its 20 feet long
58. Babylon in its last incarnation The central tower is 7 feet tall Babylon will reappear in July 2010 at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design Gallery as part of the McKnight fellowship Exhibition
59. babylon The thesis is that the war in Iraq was only the most recent assault on this mother root culture
60. babylon The destruction events were very elaborate more than 10,000 people visited Babylon in its life span
74. Foshay Sunday morning I love to draw in the early morning light and on Sunday morning the cities are empty
75. Foshay color study The Sunday drawings lead to many spinoffs and I can play with form and color
76. italianate I am constantly creating new designs This one is part of an edition of multiples Its about 16 inches tall
77. Three tier I am learning to get very tall this one is 6 feet tall and the collector who owns it put it in a skyscraper apartment in Chicago I feel like I am coming home
78. wilshire After I closed the gallery and studio I left Minneapolis to wander other cities
79. Red I am always learning and I simply follow my art
80. Blue Los Angeles I find kilns in cities I visit and I am free to create It’s a blast
81. The wigley building As in drawing I study real structures but I will never get it straight I am in the same place I was back in 1974 maybe even 1964
82. MASTeRY With technical, conceptual and intellectual mastery One can extend the lessons learned in life or the arts
83. Teaching teachers When artists are teachers and teachers are students the chain is formed linking us to a past extending back 12000 years and if one student or one artist is influenced by our actions then we become significant as a link in the chain of continuity.
84. 100 teachers “CIVITAS URBANUS” My next massive work will teach 100 teachers who will each instruct 100 students in so doing they will produce 10,000 iconic metaphorical representations of people as architectural representations. “civitas” the city of living people” forming a city of artistic evidence “urbanus, the city of brick” a city of content and meaning linked to the ancient past and pointing into a distant future.
85. But that’ okay Because I know I am one of a million not one in a million and that defines significance.