Tonight I'm going to a private reception at the Portland Art Museum, to stand in front of my little painting and introduce it officially to the Northwest Art Council. I don't really know what I'm going to say yet. Hopefully something interesting and maybe a bit amusing. And please let me be graceful and gracious, and keep my wretched tendency for (sometimes awkward) frankness in check.
The painting has been on exhibition for a few months now, but just last week it was added to the museum's database. And so was I. My name, date of birth, and the descriptive "American". Of course it shouldn't suprise me to be referred to as an American but, honestly, it did. I rarely think of my self in those terms. I guess I'm not very nationalistic. Really, not much at all; I have a more "what have you done for me lately" kind of allegiance to things. But mostly, at least when we're speaking of my art, my influences are anything but American. My aesthetic is almost entirely European. Rather obviously. But everyone is a product of their environment, to some degree at least. Even if they're running in the opposite direction. So I wonder what there might be about my work that could show out my origins. If one were to show someone a selection of my work, but with but no attribution, would they somehow know I was a product of the United States?
Yes I would say a European sensibility but isn't the underlying 'cleanliness' (for lack of a better word) somehow American? Congratulations and good luck tonight!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Stefan. Not - entirely - sure what you mean with the "cleanliness" reference, but it makes me think of how in Brideshead Revisited, Charles says that his wife, Celia, has such a freshness of dress, is so energetic, that Europeans often took her for an American. Is it something like that? There certainly is a clarity - or lack of atmosphere, moodiness - a "tidiness" about my work that would go along with that; the world I make in my paintings doesn't look very "lived in", if I haven't totally overworked my metaphors by now. ; )
DeleteHmmm, I think of a "what have you done for me lately" to be a pretty American ethic. Just ask Janet Jackson ("Miss. Jackson, if you're nasty").
ReplyDeleteI guess so. : )
DeleteI think of your work as what American artists "should" aspire to. But then, I'm a first gen Austrian immigrant, so I've got that prejudice.
ReplyDeleteYou will do your city, state and country proud. Such brilliant work.
Break a leg?
-Suzy
Thanks so much, Suzy - I really appreciate it! : )
DeleteClarity and Tidy are the 2 words exactly i was going for. I think thats how non-Americans look at our style. It's how we think and how we act. What exactly is 'american art' is a whole other topic but yours definitely fits!
ReplyDelete