Shadow Focal Length

I don’t remember consciously noticing that shadows have what you might call a “focal length,” until a few years ago.

This 18th-century Epergne by Thomas Pitts I is in the
Folgers Collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

I was enjoying a long, detailed look at the intricate baskets and trays of the amazing 18^th-century Thomas Pitts I Epergne at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, when I became fascinated by its shadows.

Some of the shadows, cast by lower parts (closer to the surface on which it stood), were dark, sharp-edged shapes. These shadows clearly showed the multitude of intricate openings (they appear to have been blurred and softened in the official photo published online).

The taller parts, however, cast paler, fuzzier shadows. I never realized shadows had depth of field, I thought. The piece is a beautiful and amazing tour de force in its own right, but that day I was even more entranced by the shadows.

Leaves from different levels on the tree cast sharper or
blurrier shadows depending on their distance from the street.

I’ve since had an opportunity to notice this effect in other places, most notably in the shadows of trees in my neighborhood when I walk my dogs.

It’s been so hot lately that I’ve taken to walking after dark, when it’s cooler. The streetlights on the leaves create a very similar effect to the one I remember observing at the Nelson-Atkins, and I managed to get some photos.

PHOTO CREDITS: The image of the Thomas Pitts I Epergne is courtesy of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO. The photo of the leaf shadows is by Jan S. Gephardt, taken in June 2012 in Westwood, KS, and may be distributed online under a Creative Commons license, providing it is not altered and credit (preferably with a link back) is given. 

Nudity and Public Art

Yu Chang's sculpture recently
caused a furor in Kansas City (Photo by
Fred Blocher, for the KC Star).

“Being unclothed is not the equivalent of lewdness,” I wrote in a Letter to the Editor recently, but unfortunately many people persist in seeing it that way—and it has an impact on artists.

In Kansas City recently, we've been wading through yet another controversy about nudity in public art. As readers from outside KC may be aware, and as my home-turf readers can readily testify, both Kansas and Missouri are very socially conservative states.

This is not to say that people around here cannot be well educated or sophisticated. But the echoes of the 19th-century Holiness movement, with its cultural wariness about anything “worldly,” still reverberate loudly around here.

The focus in Kansas City at this moment is a sculpture in the Overland Park Arboretum. Chinese artist Yu Chang’s sculpture, Choice: Accept or Reject would not at first seem much of a candidate for a charge of immorality: the poor woman has lost her head, and is coming all to pieces over taking a photo of herself.

The work strikes me as being rather far from sexy or sensual. I think it would be more appropriate to see the nudity as expressing vulnerability to self-esteem issues.

The message of Pray Standing by Arden Ellen Nixon
has little to do with sexuality!

This episode has brought to mind another recent experience. I am the Art Show Director for the annual ConQuesT Art Show, held in Kansas City each Memorial Day Weekend.

One of our exhibitors, Arden Ellen Nixon, is unfortunately all too familiar with the heavy-handed censorship that can come from a misunderstanding of nudity in art. She queried me beforehand, about the acceptability of some of her images for the show. “Do I need to engineer some painter's tape pasties, or are [these] pieces acceptable as is?” she asked.

The pieces in question needed no “pasties,” as far as we were concerned. She sent them, we exhibited (and sold some of) them, and not a single word of complaint came to anyone on the Art Show staff. Compliments, yes—complaints, no.

To me, her work makes expressive use of nudity as a metaphor for spiritual concepts, as in Pray Standing, the work she gave me permission to share here. I really love this piece. It speaks to me of standing in complete openness before the Creator—a powerful message that we could not receive without the nudity of the central figure.

To get into a dither over exposed “boobies” is something most adults should hope to have moved beyond when they made it to high school . . . and yet, the petition to remove the sculpture still gathers signatures. 

How much better to simply confront the artwork, and let it speak to you with its own visual vocabulary!

IMAGE CREDITS: The photo of Yu Chang’s sculpture is by Fred Blocher, and was published through the Kansas City Star’s “Johnson County 913” magazine. Pray Standing is shown here courtesy of the artist, Arden Ellen Nixon. See more of her work on her website. 

Pieces of Art

Here's a Glimpse of Two Projects-in-Progress
I have been exploring new ways to make paper sculpture this year. I am coming up with some things that look cool to me . . . but so far I'm having difficulty completing a full composition. Here are the pieces I've made:


"Black-Headed Heron"
While doing research for a piece I am making for a private client, I discovered these wonderful, utterly gorgeous birds!

I had a lot of fun making this Black-headed Heron! But how to handle his background?

Black-headed Herons are indigenous to Africa, and live alongside hippos, alligators, anhingas, and many other species that inhabit riverbank habitats. I found some excellent resource photos on the Internet, and from them I developed a prototype drawing from which I could create "pattern pieces" for this assemblage.

This heron is made up of about 18-20 different pieces of paper. I think he turned out looking pretty decent, but all of the backgrounds I've tried to make so far look--pardon the expression--crappy.

"Horsefeathers"
Yeah, yeah, it's not very original, but it'll do for a working title.

This one originated with the wing. You might note the similarity to the Heron's wing, above. I used the same pattern, then added another row of feathers, to make it look more in proportion to the horse.

I was thinking about the heavy hair on some horses' feet, also called "feathers," and my fantasy artist side just couldn't resist playing with the obvious next thought.

So far, none of my backgrounds "work" for him, any better than the would-be backgrounds for my Heron.

Unfortunately, all of my attempts to give this guy a background that "works" for him also have been epic fails. 

The horse, by the way, is a somewhat simpler piece than the heron, though created via the same basic approach. There are only about 16 pieces to him.

The Reality-to-Unreality Balance
It is proving very difficult to come up with a background that can be executed with exactly the same balance of realism-to-unrealism as that of the "central figure." If the balance is off, the composition has no unity, and the whole illusion falls apart.

Part of the time I think the work I've done possibly could stand on its own as "complete," with just a solid-color, neutral background. Part of the time I don't think that would be enough.

Suggestions, anyone?

IMAGE CREDITS: Both images are photos I took of my own artwork. Both may be used on blog posts as long as they are not altered, and full credit with a link back to this post are given. Otherwise, all rights are reserved by Jan Sherrell Gephardt, (c) 2012.

Creative Uses for Quilts!

     My sister, Gigi Sherrell Norwood, is an amazing quilter (perhaps I can do a spotlight on her work in this space sometime), and I have loved and admired quilts all my life. Their normal uses are wonderful enough, as sort of the first wave in on-site recycling--not to mention treasure-repositories of memories, and beautiful, warm bedding.

Hausa horse armor--photo from the Smithsonian Archives.

     But quilts also have been used in a variety of other ways. There apparently is a tradition in the African-American cultures of designing them to help with healing or ward off evil.  
     I was fascinated with the "code" in quilts that was supposed to have been used by travelers on the Underground Railroad (I believe that idea has been questioned by other historians, but it's still a way-cool idea).
     Some of the most unusual quilting projects I've ever seen are their uses as what I can only categorize as "vehicle coverings."
     Let's start with traditional Hausa horse armor. I had seen a photo of a man on his horse, years ago in a textbook, and only recently re-encountered images on the "Diamonds and Wood" blog, published there courtesy of the Smithsonian Archives. 

More Hausa horse armor--and no heat stroke!

     The Smithsonian material says, in part: "Heavy garments of quilted cotton cloth stuffed with capok were widely used as armour for horse and man in central and eastern Sudanic Africa. In the Sokoto caliphate of northern Nigeria, heavily armed horsemen in quilted armour were known as Yan Lifida. They often acted as the bodyguards of an Emir on the field." 

     One would think both horses and riders might get too hot--but I suppose it's better to be very warm than dead from enemy arrows. 
     And they really do look splendid. I can't help being struck with the similarities between the patterns in the armor the horses are wearing, and the patterns of some of the quilts I've slept under!

This quilted cover for a VW Beetle was made for a quilt sho
by the Northwest Quilters of Portland Oregon. 

     So far, all of the uses for quilts that I've mentioned have been practical (to one extent or another). I'm not sure you could say that of these next ones! Fun? Definitely. Practical? Not so much.
     The first is a "Quilted Car"--actually a custom quilted cover for a Volkswagen Beetle. It was made by Northwest Quilters in Portland, OR, for a quilt show in 2010. I found a photo of it on the Flikr Photostream of "Quiltinkimmie," a.k.a. Kim Burley. 

The "Quilted Golf Cart" of the Palmetto Quilt Guild
of Hilton Head, SC.

     The second is one it took me a while to track down. I originally saw the "Quilted Golf Cart" in a quilting magazine, the Quilter's Newsletter, in 2005. After some online investigating and several emails between myself and Linda Solis, the president of the Palmetto Quilt Guild of Hilton Head, SC, and was sent some good pictures of it, taken by Doo Weidman of the Guild.
     I've included the better of them here. What impresses me most about the golf cart is that it not only has an astonishing array of different quilt block patterns (as does the VW above it), but they even created a quilted cover for the steering wheel shaft! I thought the fringe was a nice touch, too. It sort of evokes the "surrey with the fringe on top" from the musical Oklahoma!
     I think if I can draw any generalizations from this post and its eclectic collection of patchwork permutations, it is that quilters are very creative folk.
     And always have been!


PHOTO CREDITS: As noted, the images of the Hausa horse armor came from the Smithsonian Archives via the "Diamonds and Wood" blog, the "Quilted VW" from Quiltinkimmie, and the "Quilted Golf Cart" from Doo Weidman of the Palmetto Quilt Guild, with the gracious help of Linda Solis. Many, many thanks to all!

Dream Show

Specialty Rolled Metals
becomes an impromptu
gallery, May 5, 2011
Photo taken with permission.

I recently had a dream that I was in a vast maze of art galleries filled with people. We wandered wide-eyed past an array of paintings, sculptures, fiber pieces, drawings, pots, and other artworks in many different media.

When we looked at them, some of them would suddenly grow larger, or become more brilliantly colorful, or they would begin to glow.

Sometimes they came off the wall or down from the pedestal, to mingle and interact with us, to the delight of all.

Looking in the window of the
Arts Incubator from 18th Street in
the Kansas City Crossroads,
March 3, 2006.

Thinking about it afterward, it seemed to me that this dream offered an apt metaphor for the way I sometimes feel about viewing an interesting art exhibition.

One piece of art alone may “speak” to a person—but a whole, coordinated gallery full of artworks, curated around a theme, can sing in a wonderful chorus to an attuned viewer.

Make it a point to go look at some art soon: maybe you’ll find such a “chorus.”

PHOTOS: I took both of these photos during different First Fridays in the Kansas City Crossroads (see dates). They are available for use under a Creative Commons license, which specifies they should not be altered, and should be published with credit given to me as the photographer. 

Writing an Artist's Statement

Sunset Oak was accepted for the Arti Gras show! 

I recently learned that I must write an Artist's Statement.

It had been on my to-do list for a long time, but suddenly when my paper sculpture Sunset Oak was accepted into the Leawood Foundation's Arti Gras Juried Show, it was required!

The first thing I had to do, to seriously write an Artist's Statement, was get over some "attitude."

Whenever an Artist's Statement is offered at a show or on a website, I nearly always read it--or try to. Unfortunately, all too often I wade in and struggle until I start drowning in amorphous polysyllabics about the sources of the artist's vision, or his/her philosophy and/or aesthetic approach.

That didn't seem a very attractive or helpful thing to emulate. As I often do, when seeking guidance on the professional side of being a fine artist, I turned to a handy book by local gallery owner Paul Dorrell (coincidentally, he also was the highly tasteful juror who gave the nod to my artwork!).

A handy resource!

Living the Artist's Life, Dorrell's book, addresses Artist's Statements on pp. 60-61. From reading it, I am guessing that Mr. Dorrell has waded through more than his share of amorphous polysyllabics, too, and is even less a fan of them than I am.

Keep it short, he advised: "keep it to one page, and don't over-explain the subtleties of your work. . . Factual biographical information is always more important than fluff."

I certainly could get behind that! So I gave it a shot, then cut the first draft by two-thirds, futzed and polished, and ended up with the Artist's Statement reproduced on one of the secondary pages of this blog (see the tabs at the top). I'll let you decide if I've written a good one (advice is welcome).

And meanwhile, if you're in Kansas City the weekend of February 24-26, please come by and see the Arti Gras Show in the heart of the Leawood Arts District, Leawood Community Center, City Hall, 4800 Town Center Drive, Leawood, KS 66211

Since the Gala on Friday, Feb. 24 is a fundraiser for a good cause, please also check out the Arti Gras Gala page and consider making a reservation.

IMAGE CREDITS: The photo of Sunset Oak is by me, and may be used in a limited manner under a Creative Commons license, as long as they give me credit and do not alter the image. The cover photo for Living the Artist's Life is courtesy of Rainy Day Books. I hope you'll recognize the Arti Gras logo from the City of Leawood website. 

Do YOU know the Warning Signs of Art?

I couldn't resist sharing this on my blog . . . 

This poster from the College for Creative Studies has been making the
rounds on Facebook, recently.

A delightful poster has been circulating on Facebook, and I am proud to share it here.

It is the brainchild of the slightly twisted minds at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI, but the primary distributor seems to have been someone at the Philbrook Museum of Art, in Tulsa, OK. One of the places they posted it was the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) Facebook page.

Of course, those of us who persist in making and/or teaching art also wince a bit, at the parallel drawn between what we do and illegal drugs.

Unfortunately, in my experience, there are people who actually feel approximately this negative, when they think of a young person in their life who might be "turning to a life of art."

The myth of the "starving artist" (popularized famously by the opera La Boheme, and still ruggedly persistent to this day) clouds people's minds.

True, a career in the arts is often difficult and challenging. Sometimes things actually don't work out.

But parents who try to "shield" their kids from dreams of working in the arts do them a massive disservice. I know many successful artists who work in a variety of art forms, and to be successful every one of them had to have talent, opportunity/luck--and a solid knowledge background.

You can't function as a high-performing professional if you don't know what you're doing. Parents and other well-meaning advisers who guide gifted students away from art are keeping them from learning the skills they need, to make their dreams become reality.  In their effort to save their kids the pain of failure, they actually doom those kids to a lifetime of regret that they never had a real chance to reach for their dreams.

So, while I can laugh at the thought of doodling as a "gateway to illustration" . . . as with most humor, it's pain that makes it funny.