The Art of Replenishment
For my first paper I chose to go to the Foundry Art Center with my life partner Greg Schuknecht. The outside of this museum had the look of a 1930 colonial building like in the movie the Quick and the Dead. Yet upon entering you are instantly transported to a classy European-esque museum. The lady who greeted us was a very well put together forty year old who new all the finer things about life. We asked her where all the paintings were and she motioned us to the left with her eloquent, veiny hand. I did not enter the room that was full of paintings (two of which would end up being translated into word form in my paper) before looking at the rest of the pulchritudinous building. It was very open and off white, it reminded me of the hall for the steward of Gondor in the Lord of the Rings movie The Return of the King. I felt the creative nature that this place held, every brick every corner filled with the artistic being. My handsome friend pulled my arm with his strong manly hands, this jerked my body and my head twisted we locked eye to eye, these fine words came out of his thin-lipped mouth “Chris we have to hurry you have class at four and it is one o’clock” which I responded and said “okay”. We entered the room and my eyes locked onto the first painting that I would write about. It was entitled “untitled” by the artist John Baker, the material was oils and paper and it cost five hundred dollars it was made in the year two thousand and nine. The painting was of a man; at least I think it was of a man. The lines in the painting were not very straight; they were rather abstract and undefined. The colors were exceedingly muted and depressing, I felt as if I were in a morgue. I digress, back to the man, which is the subject matter of this morbid, dismal, bleak, dreary piece. His eyes were staring off into the unpainted distance; on both sides of his heads were clamps of some sort, not of this world, but from the world of the artist mind’s eye. I believe the artist was trying to communicate the inner turmoil we all deal with having feelings for others that we aren’t supposed to have. The elements were dark and forthcoming amazingly stitched together. I loved this piece; it was profound and untainted by the brainwashing we find in our right winged culture. It made me sympathize with the man; I felt his pain, his anguish. I liked it.
After viewing this piece, taking all the proper notes and such, we started to move down the hall. Getting to the end we turned around to go over the room yet again. This venture, however, would be far more profitable then the first. We stumbled upon the greatest piece of work in the whole museum. It was called “Mindfield” by Ian shelly it was not a painting it was a sculpture made from terra cotta, wood, steel, canvas, graphite, conte’, acrylic, pastel and enamel. The price was one thousand dollars and the date of its creation, unknown. This work won the “Going Solo” award. The lines in this piece were defined and each purposeful to the fullness of that words meaning. The colors were dim and concrete like, yet the orange that was in it stuck out and would catch any meaningful persons light receptors. The elements of the piece were stark but you must look for them and analyze them much like a scientist looks for the elements of a compound substance through a microscope. However we do not have a microscope of a mechanical matter attached to our being, but one of mind matter in our inner core that we must tap into. The artist was trying to show the workings of our mind and the battle we have between a structured thought process and a free thinking one full of commitment to its fullest, the word love best conveys this idea. This piece is beautiful and whatever is beautiful must have truth in it and this truth is full of the good that we all seek.
These two pieces both full of Truth and Good, yet they show two different manifestations of the same problem. The first is the outward appearance of the social control displayed in the form of a painting, and the second is the mind dealing with this very same problem put forth in the manner of a sculpture. I have learned so much about the modern day mind through these new fresh paintings. I am so proud to have taking part in this quest. I have absorbed so much about creativity and the inner workings of my inner being and have gotten even closer to Truth itself.
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