Postcards from the Creative Journey

A Tradition in Painting

Every Authentic Western Saloon has one

One of the grand traditions of the American West is a painting of a nude woman over the back bar in a saloon. The saloon at the Cerro Gordo ghost town is no exception. The owners of the Cerro Gordo saloon found the painting at auction. It was rumored the painting came from a brothel and the woman pictured was the madam of that establishment. In order to maintain a proper sense of decorum for families and tourists, the fully nude figure was modestly covered with a painted diaphanous gown. The lady still looks longingly at a horny toad in the palm of her hand. **

**And like most stories told in the Old West, if this story is not completely true, it should be. (And I now wish my photograph was as good as the story.)

Technology Leaps Backward

Young Couple at a Wedding

I had a great time photographing at American Civil War reenactments for a few years, but gave it up when the demands of technology became too much to overcome. Photographic technology among reenactors was becoming more authentic (read primitive) with each passing year. I knew I was finished when I came upon a photographer with a darkroom tent set up next to a studio camera with a shiny brass barrel lens sitting atop a cast iron tripod. Did I mention he brought all this equipment with him in a horse drawn wagon? Not only was the equipment vintage, he hand coated ambrotypes in his darkroom tent and developed the plates in oak buckets. (That would be hand-made oak buckets, thank you very much.)

In just about any endeavor, there comes a time when you have to make a decision on what you are trying to accomplish. Unconditional authenticity seemed to be the goal. I decided not to join them on the journey to that destination, but to forge ahead into the twentieth century.

The Undertaker, Bennett Place

The Undertaker, Bennett Place

One of my rare interactions with the formal world of Art was earning an Emerging Artist Grant from the City of Raleigh in 1990. My grant money was used to purchase equipment to make platinum palladium prints. Part of the agreement was to create a body of work and make the effort to secure its exhibition.

In search of subject matter I attended a Civil War reenactment with my 5x7 view camera. I was immediately drawn to the subject matter because of one simple fact. Walking around with a large wooden camera on a heavy wooden tripod was not considered the least bit odd at a Civil War reenactment. Once I obtained the appropriate clothing, I was considered to be an essential part of the proceedings. I created a fairly large body of portraits of reenactors and was able to exhibit the photographs.

One of the less appealing roles in a reenactment is the Undertaker. Returning fallen soldiers to their families was important to both Union and Confederate Commanders. There is usually one undertaker at each reenactment. They usually walk around the perimeter of the camp. No soldier ever wants to talk to the Undertaker - even if it only a reenactment.

Writing on the Walls

More Verisimilitude. 

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to the North Carolina Museum of Art’s exhibition of prints by M.C. Escher. The huge (130 prints!) show traced the development of Escher’s life work from his early landscape and still life prints to his most famous improbable landscapes. It was interesting to see how his work evolved from the literal to the surreal.

In one of the rooms devoted to his “extraordinary invented places” this wonderful quote is written on the wall above some of his most famous prints:

“If you want to focus the attention on something non-existent then you have to try to fool first yourself and then your audience by presenting your story in such a way that the element of impossibility is veiled so that a casual user doesn’t even notice. There has to be a certain enigma in it which does not immediately catch the eye.”

It’s odd how I found the word verisimilitude and then a few weeks later I attend the Escher exhibit and find this quote. (Maybe the art muses are telling me something.) What I do know is Escher clearly and succinctly described the basis for creating what I called the “believably unbelievable.”