VOL 04 ISSUE
23 
December 1, 2005
BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE
VOL 04 ISSUE
23 BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE |
| GONNA SING MY HEAD OFF:FAIRBANKS PAINTER REVISITS | ||||
 MOMMA DON"T ALLOW the
style of singing Florida painter Dale Fairbanks likes to paint. Note by note she builds
discrete elements of color into large compositions like America the Beautiful,
shown at right at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art where it will remain
during December. A cautionary disclaimer about the political nature of this piece was felt
necessary by the museum. A detail of the painting says 'SEC 8' referring
to federal code forbidding the display of the flag upside-down except as a symbol of
distress. The large and very fresh painting was finished in Florida, disassembled,
and restretched in Anchorage. It is offered for sale by (or to) the Museum for under
$27,000. |
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THE BEAR WENT OVER: NOT
ALL RETURN The images of flag draped coffins fill the left side
of the oversize canvas The Bear Went Over, seen at left. At 7 feet tall by 13
feet wide there is a lot of room for details, and Fairbanks associated her thinking
about and painting on this piece with the time when the abuses at abu Ghraib prison camp
were being revealed. Politics is not her only passion in painting, and many of the
other large works were more lyrically abstract without obvious clues like the sillouhette
of The Bear. Colors are reminiscent of Gustav Klimt's abstract fabric
patterns, with a 60's pop sensibility keeping the touches discrete. Dale Fairbanks the painter lived and worked for a time at the end of the millenium in Fairbanks, Alaska, where her work brought her the award of a solo exhibition at the Anchorage Museum of Hisory and Art, only now finally being scheduled after she had left Alaska for the extreme opposite end of the USA. "I told Dave I wanted big gallery space." All of the pieces are new work since 2000 and none are particularly Alaska regional in nature. Instead, they bear the titles of classic American popular classics. Fairbanks maintains in her statement that "I paint just like I sing: loud , obnoxious, consistently off-key and always out of tune." |
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DRAWING:AGAINST WAR, FOR PEACE Don Decker is going to be making art, sketching, assembling, painting, and crafting at any given moment of pretty much every day of his life. When he pauses from creating, he turns to working to provide others the opportunity to show art, writing critical reviews of others' art and being the devoted family man. In the photo at left he can be seen in the latter stages of a performance drawing he created recently on the auditorium stage at the Anchorage Museum. Untitled, the 4'x24' pastel on paper project seems to be going very well at this unfinished detail. Decker would not reveal a destination or further purpose for the drawing as he concentrated on working quietly listening to music while a few observers sat here and there in the darkened room. Several references in the narrative mural included figures developed from Picasso's famous Guernica which Decker's statement declared 'hopeful'. The stupendous moment in time when the second plane crashed into the second World Trade Center Tower on worldwide live TV provides the anquish that balanced Guernica's hopefulness. | |||
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ARTISTIC RESPONSE: DECKER
WORKS The blue parts and the associated figures are
references to drawings by Kaethe Kolwitz, with a gas mask and the hooded figure notorious
from abu Ghraib pornography among the readily identifiable elements of the mural. Two other things Decker might be found doing is teaching drawing, and worrying about the world situation. Like many artists, he gets his feelings out in color and line, and the influence of the mass visual culture is part of how he records his response 'to the increasing brutality and inhumanity of recent world events." His statement suggests he is sympathetic to the terrible impact of war on individuals. Decker essentially commissioned himself to produce this bravura performance and in admiration of Zen masters, at the end of five hours he re-rolled the once blank white scroll and knocked down his easel. Then he returned to his family, to whom this and every out-pouring of creativity is dedicated. |
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BOX OF LIGHT:HIRATA HARD EVIDENCE The little pebble tower at left by Goru Hirata, (cf Issue # 422) was an interesting example of the larger earthworks he prepared along the wild beaches of southeast Alaska this summer. Lit brilliantly from above on display at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art last month, the hollow sculpture with its smooth white insides appears overexposed at the hollow top, while the light introduced made the little doorway glow. The little tower is assembled on an irregular small boulder and balanced seemingly effortlessly. | |||
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GUARDIAN:RICKER REVELATIONS Dedicated to the memory of Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos by Donald R Ricker has for a subject the Annunciation to Joseph, the Guardian of the Redeemer. The Annunciation to Mary, whose virgin status redeemed the legendary original sins of Adam and Eve, is also depicted. Paintings including Mary and Archangel Gabriel have been commissioned repeatedly over the years, but research reveals far fewer examples about Gabriel and Joseph. Accepted as fact in several modern religions, this fantastic and scandalous story illuminates a broad range of human behavior. In the detail at left, the distraught widower Joseph lies dozing, unable to eat and sleep, when he is visited by the angel. The bloodline from King David sits like a ghost in the corner, and Joseph's dream self, younger, reaches out to Mary across the canvas. | |||
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REDEEMER:HUMAN
FOIBLES In the detail shown at left, the angel shows the scroll
to an awake, already pregnant Mary, while the inexplicable cababilities of God
overwhelm her dream self on the bed, under the gaze of Elisabeth. The bouquet is
made up of flowers dedicated to the Virgin, and the three cords symbolize the Catholic
misericord. The dove Mary holds traditionally represents the Holy Spirit. Redemptoris Custos will be on display at the Fifth Edition of the Intternational Biennial for Contemporary Art at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence Italy December 3-11th. Ricker is attending as an invited guest of the organizers and with the support of the Alaska State Council on the Art and many other generous sponsors. Gunther Bach of Anchorage will also participate in FBV. If Redemptoris Custos arrives back from Italy in time, it will join the other paintings of the NUDE EXCUSE Series scheduled for the month of January into February of 2006 at the Out North Gallery on deBarr Road in Anchorage. The epic paintings of Donald R Ricker's Nude Excuse Series celebrate the heroes of art
and love, rewriting history with narrative paintings featuring the human figure. As
feature writer John Spike said in the March 2005 issue of Art&Antiques magazine,
"Ricker's ... all wrong, but that doesn't mean it isn't true." |
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- ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES-
1/30/06 deadline DENALI NATIONAL PARK ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE program offers use of cabin in park, wants a work of art and a lecture, and pays no stipend.details online. 1/9/06 deadline AMHA CHILDREN'S ART GALLERY seeks submissions for year long show on subject of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Transportation and Travel in Art". contact Julie Decker P.O. Box 100239, Anchorage, AK 99510.
NEXT: NIGHT STRETCH SHORTCUTS: Aggravated again?! Ecstatic?! Let us know you love us or hate us. Help correct attribution errors that you suspect. Tell us about your upcoming event or artist opportunity. Let us know about your website. Form makes it easy to try your hand at pumping or dumping. cf also ART IN ALASKA |
ARTSSCENE:GREAT IDEAS RARE
 It is said that
Imitation is the most sincere form of Flattery, and ADN weekly supplement editor
Scott Johnson and the arts editor Mark Baechtel liked the somehow familiar sight and sound
of ArtSceneAK enough to name a portion of their recently revamped publication artsscene ,
as shown at right. Now why would that bother me? They're not exactly the same,
are they? Johnson is gone from the job (almost immediately) and Baechtel
did not respond to a polite request to rename the problematic page. Those without an
excuse are often better off saying nothing. ArtSceneAK's publisher hopes Santa
brings ithe Amcjprage Dao;u Mews publisher a small chunk of flaky coal for
Christmas. Beachcomb for earth resources in the BACK ISSUE Index.
Thank You to everyone for their support and good wishes as ArtSceneAK publisher Donald R Ricker heads to Florende to exhibit Redemptoris Custos at the fifth edition of the International Biennial of Contemporary Art, held December 3-11, 2005 in Italy. Special thanks to the organizing ArteStudio and organizers Pasquale Celona and Piero Celona for their hospitality, and to Director John Spike and his wife Michèle for insisting that I was 'indispensable'. Locally, thank you to Sven Haakonson and Sandy Gillespie and the rest of the board of the Alaska State Council on the Arts for their assistance and to the Loose Affiliation of Local Artists for their collective support in Spenard. Specifically among them I would like to thank Bruce Farnsworth, Sheila Wyne, Marcello Munoz, and all of the modest folks who didn't want to be listed, I know who you are. I will spill a glass of red wine on an attractive Italian in honor of all of you. Grazie mille.. .
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text & photos © 2005 Donald R Ricker; artist's works pictured ©2005 to artists credited.
ArtSceneAK is published by Donald R Ricker and sponsored by
BETTER LETTERS, PO Box 103554, Anchorage AK 99510-3554
, a partial listing of links to Museums,
Galleries, and individual Artists around the state.
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