#651 Throw on another log . . . why I'm an artist

Note:  "Throw on another log" is a commentary and opinion about art.

Last week, I was sent a questionnaire from David J. Wagner, PhD.,
a highly respected curator and tour director of art. 

His questions are for promotional purposes and
I'm posting them and my answers on this blog. 

I am happy to say that he has organized a retrospective of my work which will open on Oct. 2 at the Bonita Springs Art Center near Naples, Florida;
then travel to Brookgreen Gardens in Murrell's Inlet South Carolina
where it will open on January 23, 2016.  More venues are scheduled. 

As artists, we get many questionnaires for articles, catalogues, etc.
I love the simplicity, yet thought provoking nature of Dr. Wagner's
five questions and I've spent hours pondering, soul-searching,
and writing down my thoughts.   I found myself bouncing back
 and forth between the questions . . . in other words,
they are all interrelated.  The questions are:

                   
                          1.  Why are you an artist?

                          2.  Why do you create sculptures, etchings, and drawings?

                          3.  What goals do you set for yourself as an artist?

                          4.  How do you measure success?

                          5.  What would you like your legacy to be?

I've never really understood why I was compelled as a child to want to draw and why I was inclined toward creativity as I got older.  I only know that since I was little, I've had a never-ending energy and motivation to create . . . to be alone and to express on a deeper level, through art, what could not be said any other way.   I think everyone is born with some natural talent but it takes desire, motivation, and training to become a professional artist. . .  children typically love to draw but usually stop drawing when they're about ten years old because their drawings either don't look as good as the other kids' work or their drawing doesn't look like their subject.  As a youngster, my case was different . . . I was encouraged.

As a child, I had supportive parents and art teachers who not only encouraged my interest in art, but gave me confidence in early efforts. . .  it was not praise I was after . . . I just wanted to be by myself and draw things - mostly animals that I was used to seeing in rural Oklahoma where I grew up.  I excelled at drawing and later the high school art teacher informed my parents that a portfolio of work should be sent to the Kansas City Art Institute for admission and I was accepted.  To this day, I view the time spent there as the awakening of my senses as I absorbed the rudiments of what would become a lifelong journey in the arts.  Nothing since has equaled the enthusiasm in which I immersed myself in the study of art.  To this day, I thrive upon the confidence instilled in me by competent instructors who inspired and directed me toward achievement.

I believe sculpture, printmaking [such as etching], and drawing are skills that can be taught and learned.  

I've taught bird sculpture and anatomy workshops for almost thirty years and know this is true.   Art and the motivation 

for becoming an artist is difficult to define.  However, no amount of art education and practice can cause just anyone to develop into a creative genius.  There simply is no scientific explanation, no gene, for what causes some and not others to become a great artist capable of creating what is regarded as masterpieces and what stands the test of time.

While I was exposed to all mediums at Kansas City Art Institute, drawing and sculpture excited me most. 

Etching is simply another drawing process and was a natural technique for me to pursue.  I love the time-honored "feel" 

of intaglio and the "look" of paper pressed upon an inked plate.   After a successful printmaking [etching] venture in the 1970s with gallery representation and collector acceptance,  I found myself pulled toward sculpting and shaping clay into a three-dimensional form.  Not only do I like the permanence of bronze but as an artist whose design source is animals, I love the analytical approach and the necessity to understand anatomy and structure.  It is my belief that painters paint what they see and sculptors sculpt what they know.   In order to go beyond "specimen" work, the artist must have a developed sense of composition, balance, form, line, contour, etc. and all of those things that make up that elusive, subjective thing called "art".  Drawing remains a precursor to my sculpture and typically I work out design and anatomical solutions with a pencil on paper. I truly enjoy the process of making art. 

 I feel a desire to connect with the animal . . .  be it my dog, cat, or horse, or a subject that I've experienced in the wild.  I want to capture what I saw and felt.  I want my work to resonate with the viewer and while making art is indeed personal, the impulse to communicate continues to have profound meaning.  This causes a search for a universal statement and I tend to portray what is typical of the species as well as what I find beautiful.   

Over the years, my work has given consistency and meaning to my life and while the motivation has been a passion to create, art has provided a solid and stable income.  What counts is the fact that I'm happy and alive when I'm working and therefore consider myself successful.  I measure success on a daily basis.  If I wake up excited about going to the studio or if I'm on a reference gathering field trip and can't wait to experience the animals, I'm having a successful day. If things aren't going well in the studio, I'm miserable and everyone around me is miserable.  I truly think I could win the lottery and be miserable if I'm having an unsuccessful day in the studio.   Any artist will tell you that there's no greater feeling of well-being than when things are going well with a work in progress.   Everything takes a backseat to creating art and it goes without saying that I would create even if I wasn't paid for my efforts.  How do I measure success?   If all of the shadows fall in the right place.   

It is my hope that my work will give insight into the animals that inhabit this earth and will be an artistic record and legacy of the creatures who coexist with us in a chaotic world. 

"We need another and a wiser, and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals . . .

They are not brethren, they are not underdogs, they are other nations,

caught with ourselves in the net of life and time,

fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth"

                                                                                                                - Henry Beston

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Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott

#613 Throw on another log . . . Assyrian and Babylonian art

Throughout history, sculpture has been the silent expression of civilization.  It is the language of humanity that
has survived the millenniums.  It is through sculpture and architecture that we learned the history of mankind.

As an artist, I've come to know the value of getting the "big picture" . . . knowing what came before and knowing
what led to the art that is being created today.  The important movements in Western art history are as follows:  
                                     
                                         1.  Prehistoric Art - Caveman, Lascaux
                                         2.  Mesopotamia -  Includes Persia, Sumer, Assyria, and Babylon
                                         3.  Ancient Egypt
                                         4.  The Greeks
                                         5.  The Romans
                                         6.  Byzantium
                                         7.  Early Middle Ages
                                         8.  Late Middle Ages - Gothic
                                         9.  The Renaissance
                                         10. The Baroque
                                         11. The Rococo
                                         12. Neoclassicism
                                         13. Romanticism and Realism
                                         14. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
                                         15. The Moderns - Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism,
                                                                        Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, and more.

The focus of this blog is Assyrian and Babylonian art.
For more info, go to:   http://Art_of_Mesopotamia
Time-Life Books, Great Ages of Man - Cradle of Civilization
Duncan Baird Publishers,  Ancient Civilizations

The ancient kingdoms of Assyria, Babylon, and Sumer (6500  B.C.) were located in the valley of the
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now Iraq.   Some believe the Garden of Eden was located there.
A series of excavations in the early 19th century shed light on the great cultural center.
Western and Middle Eastern scholars widely agree that these were the earliest known non-nomadic agrarian societies.

Mesopotamia means, "the land between the rivers" and the area is regarded as the "cradle of civilization."

Map of ancient Mesopotamia and Persia . . . present day Iraq (Assyria) and Iran (Persia).
Saudi Arabia is to the South; Turkey to the north; Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east; and Syria to the west.

Farming got underway in the fertile area, the wheel was invented, writing (cuneiform} was invented,
the world's earliest codes of law were formed, the arts and sciences flourished, and civilization was created.
City status occurred in Uruk around 4000 B.C.  Art always advances during periods of prosperity.
More than a thousand years before the Iliad and the Odyssey, Mesopotamia was thriving culturally.

The Assyrians quarried limestone and alabaster in slabs, and therefore most of their work is relief but some
approaches sculpture in the round.  In true reliefs, there is as much drawing as there is modeling.    

Their winged beasts stood at entrances of palaces and temples and all through Assyrian sculpture, 

wings are used to differentiate gods from mortals.  Their imagery had human heads - typically with a beard of

 alternate rows of horizontal and vertical curls - and bodies of animals such as lions and bulls.

Since the dawn of history, lions had been a constant menace in the marshes of Mesopotamia.
It was the purpose of the sculptor to make an image of a protecting or guardian deity.

Stone relief from a palace at Nimrod - present day Mosul, Iraq - excavated in 1840.

Relief at Nimrod with descriptive material written across the surface.

There are fine examples of early and later Assyrian and Babylonian sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 

in New York.  Later work of approximately the Eighth Century B.C. show a great advance in sculpture and reached
new heights in realism and sense of motion.  Some of the finest reliefs came from the palace of
Ashur-nasir-apal II in Nimrod (present day Mosul) and almost all of the scenes represent him hunting.

Seventh Century B.C. Assyrian relief from a palace in the present day Mosul area.

Assyrian relief showing Assyrian army routing the Arabians mounted on camels in 651 B.C.

The art of Mesopotamia (10th millennium B.C.) includes Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Sumer.  The Assyrian style is distinct from the Babylonia art and was dominant in contemporary Mesopotamia around 1500 B.C. and lasted until the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C.  Assyrian art influenced Ancient Greek art including the Pegasus motif.  The famous Ishtar Gate in the British Museum is an example of Neo-Babylonian period (575 B.C.) and was the main entrance to Babylon . . .
it was built when Nebuchadadnezzar came into power and the art center moved to Babylon

Glazed enameled  brick at Susa (modern Iran) made by Babylonian craftsmen.

A relief of Persian King Darius I found at Persepolis . . . present day Iran.

 Sadly, as this is being written antiquities are being sold and rare ancient masterpieces such as the
Assyrian winged bull in the Mosul Museum are being destroyed as the world watches.

Fortunately, great museums around the world like the Met in New York, the Louvre, and the British Museum
have examples of Mesopotamia Art:  Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian in their antiquities collections.
 These works will forever guide us and educate us as to the derivative and history of Western art, culture, and civilization.

www.fox/antiquities

www.cnnantiquities

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Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#600: Throw on another log . . . the influence of Bugatti, con't

Throw on another log is a commentary and opinion about art
and this blog is a continuation of the previous post . . . 

Please scroll back to blog # 599,  posted Jan. 11, 2015.

I welcome your comments and observations.

Since the last post,  I've received several comments and inquiries from
former students and others about the influence of Bugatti regarding my
 work.  Years ago, I purchased the big Bugatti book - cover shown at right -
and while it had a definite presence in the studio, it was not a
"go-to" source of reference during the early, formative years . . .

 There's no clay on the pages which attests to the fact.

 The trip to Paris last month has directed my attention to this incomparable sculptor of animals.  I was mesmerized by his plasters at the Musee d'Orsay,  (shown in the previous post),  and spent hours in the Petit Palais,
(also shown),  with his sculptures . . . captivated and influenced.

Bugatti died young - he committed suicide at age 31 - and during his short life he created over 300 sculptures. 

 He explored many different methods and styles while creating a multitude of masterpieces . . . each one a classic observation of the animal . . . in gesture and in spirit.  Every sculptor would be well-served to study his work.   

While I can't say my work has been grounded and influenced by Bugatti over the years, since returning from Paris,

 I'm haunted by the memory of experiencing his sculpture in the museums.  This morning, I created a study of a walking panther - shown below -  that would not have been on my radar to do without being under his spell.  

Every artist is the sum total of their interests, experience, knowledge, and feelings.

Artists and their styles evolve naturally while searching various possibilities of design.

Style, like feelings, cannot be forced.

Shown below, are images of Bugatti's cats.  Note the various surface treatments and styles.

I'm concluding each art blog about our trip to Paris last month with a glimpse of life in the beautiful city.

Below, the morning sun streams through the window of the upper level cafe as Trish and i enjoy coffee,
a baguette, and cheese at the Musee d'Orsay . . . an enlightening day, experiencing Bugatti.

Also shown is the incredible Sorolla painting that is close to the cafe.

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information. 

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#599: Throw on another log . . . the influence of Bugatti

Throw on another log is a commentary and opinion about art.
It is directed toward students, artists, collectors, galleries,

museums, and those interested in the visual arts.

I welcome your comments on this blog and on Facebook.

I've learned through my association with painters over the years and by engaging in social media such as Facebook and artist's blogs that without a doubt, the two non-living painters who have had the greatest influence on representational painters are
John Singer Sargent and Joquim Sorolla.  Among the living painters, the most influential is certainly, Richard Schmid.

Among anamaliers - or sculptors of animals - one name prevails:  Rembrandt Bugatti (1884 - 1916).  

He was Italian, came from the famous Bugatti family, designers of art nouveau furniture and automobiles, 

and lived and worked in Paris and Antwerp.  He worked from zoo animals.

 Bugatti has, by far, had the most influence on today's animal sculptors . . . even more than Barye.

Bugatti was fairly obscure when I directed my attention toward sculpture in the late 1970s'

 and early 1980s'.  I had seen and remembered his work from an early trip to Paris but it 

was my friend and fellow sculptor, Ken Bunn who turned me on to his incredible work early on.  

Many sculptors were certainly aware of Bugatti's work back then and were influenced by his loose, 

juicy, thumby, and impressionistic surfaces coupled with his heightened sense of form and structure.  

The enormous amount of time he spent at the zoo facilitated his understanding of the animals he modeled

 and his great ability to find the pose and gesture, captured his subject's essence.   

Below, are images of Bugatti's sculpture.

Today, every sculptor I know is aware of Rembrandt Bugatti.  Books have been written about him and his works 

are coveted by museums and sell in the millions.  He produced over 300 works in his short life,

 before committing suicide at age 31.  Much more can be learned about him online.  

To me,  Bugatti is style, simplicity, and elegance . . . the subject, beautifully observed.

I read that he would tear down and start over if he could not complete a study in a day at the zoo.

Incredibly, some of Bugatti's works are mannered, tight, and art nouveau in concept and execution.  

His work is usually based on a perfectly flat plate like the zoo cage surfaces he knew so well.

Below, are images of Bugatti's plasters in the Musee d'Orsay.  Note the careful modeling of the lion.
Bugatti's "Pelicans" are located in the Petit Palais Museum.

   The good sculptors, like Bunn and others, developed their own statements under Bugatti's influence. 

Sadly, there are those who continue to misunderstand anatomy and structure and misinterpret what they
 are seeing when they look at spontaneous, active surfaces such as Bugattis' or Rodins' for that matter.

 Misunderstood form and sloppy, meaningless surface continues to be put out there in the name of "loose".

Below, is an image of Ken Bunn's "Drinking Lion" and "Jackie" by Richard Schmid 

from my collection.

I'm concluding each art blog about our trip to Paris last month with a glimpse of life in the beautiful city.

Below, crepes are being made in a little open- air kitchen in Montmartre.  The batter is ladled onto the
hot cooking surface and after the crepe is cooked, it is fill with Nutella, or the sweet filling of your choice.
We stayed in Monmartre and I eventually had to avoid this place.  As I emerged from the metro, the aroma filled the air . . .  they're too good and eating one meant no supper for me.
The skinny guy cooking them obviously doesn't eat them.

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information. 

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

    

#543 Throw on another log . . . in the gallery

The juried and invitational museum shows and exhibitions are an important way for artists to introduce new works and meet and intermingle with collectors, art lovers, museum and gallery folks, and peers.  Collectors enjoy the excitement and opportunity of the one-night only art sale and meeting the artists.  Sculptors who work in bronze and therefore offer multiple castings of an individual sculpture, do best when, like the painters,  introduce new work at museum shows.   Paintings, being one-of-a-kind, sell better at the one-night sale as savvy collectors know the sculpture edition will still be available in the galleries when the exhibition ends.    

 The museum shows are prestigious and exciting and most galleries want
their stable of artists to be invited.   I place equal importance however, on
gallery representation.  Whether I'm in the studio, paddling a canoe in Alaska,
or photographing wildlife in Africa, the galleries are in the trenches day in and
day out representing me.  Also, a collector can be more objective without the
artist at hand and the prospective buyer can express themselves more
freely about an individual artist's work.
I rely on my galleries and listen to them for 
they are the voice of the collector.                                                                   

I don't compete with my galleries by listing a personal or studio email address or telephone number on my website, 

on my blog, or advertisements . . . if an artist does this, it's logical that inquiries would go directly to the artist.  

I do not use the internet for sales although there is definitely a place regarding sales for the internet to work 

for professional artists with gallery representation.   The key is communication and disclosure . . .
in other words, no surprises between gallery and artist.  For instance, an ad is currently in an
art magazine for the National Sculpture Society that lists contact numbers for the studio . . .
this was my mistake as I did not review the ad when it was sent to the studio before publication.  

My home state gallery, Wilcox Gallery in Jackson recently sold the first of five castings of "Requiem for the Fallen" 

as a result of an ad in the May/June issue of "Art of the West" magazine shown below.

The ad was paid for by eight of my galleries and announced the new Prix de West sculpture. . . 

a win, win, win situation for Prix de West, the galleries, and the artist!

While most artists follow their personal interests and desires during the creative process,

 I continue to understand and appreciate the relevance of gallery representation.

I'm currently working on a small sculpture of a moose that was requested by Wilcox Gallery.

The work will be introduced and available at the gallery in September during the annual 

celebration of the arts in Jackson Hole and at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.  

Below, are images of the new moose in progress.  Jackson, Wyoming is moose country!

Wilcox Moose Study (working title)
10"H 10"W

Wilcox Moose Study (working title)
10"H 10"W

Below are images of the moose sculpture in progress after one hour's work.  A quickly executed
block-in can have life and spontaneity.  The artist must understand the subject's anatomy and
structure in order to create correct proportion with large shapes and masses.

A complete list of the galleries that represent my work can be seen at the beginning of this blog.



To learn more about the subjects go to the links below.

For a complete list of the blog index go to the Index Page and
type the subject in the Search This Blog link on the right.

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#536 Throw on another log: Style, loose, technique - CUSS your work!

Throw on another log is a commentary and opinion about art.
It is directed toward students, artists, collectors, 

galleries, museums, and those interested in the arts.
I welcome your comments on this blog or on Facebook.

I have taught workshops for over 25 years and am routinely
informed by workshop participants that they are taking the workshop
because they want to loosen up their style and technique.

Regarding style:  Artists develop individual ways of seeing their subject.
The imprint of the artist's personality -  the manner in which their subject is presented - is the artist's style.  Furthermore, style manifests itself as the individual artist discovers what interests them most about their subject.

"Loose" technique is the ability to give an accurate impression in clay (or paint) without precise attention to detail.

What the artist may perceive as a "loose" technique can actually be sloppy work that is not understood.
Figurative work - both animals and the human figure - require an understanding of the subject's anatomy.
A passage applied to the canvas or sculpture armature in a spontaneous manner must have understood meaning.
The precursor to figurative art is understood anatomy, proportion, drawing, organization, and waypoints.

Painters paint what they see and sculptors sculpt what they know.
The more that is known, the more the artist can edit and eliminate.
In other words . . . CUSS your work . . . an acronym for:  
Clarify, Unify,  Solidify,  Simplify!  

To learn more about the subjects in this blog go to the links below.

For a complete list of  the blog subjects go to the Index Page and
type the subject in the Search This Blog link on right.

#520 Throw on another log . . . making it in the art world

Recently, a gallery owner told me that a collector had walked in with a group of paintings purchased at the gallery and wanted to return them . . . explaining that the paintings were impossible to live with after reading a political rant on social media by the artist who had created them . . . sadly, I knew the artist.

We all know the benefits of social media . . .  

we not only promote and reveal our work but communicate with fellow artists and friends, express our  conservation concerns and enjoy input and feedback. The flip side to this is the people out there who are interested in our art, who routinely monitor, see, and read our posts but can truly be offended by politically charged,  controversial, non-art issues.                                                                                                                 

When I started out - over 40 years ago - computers were in the distant future and artists interfaced with collectors, galleries, museums, trade magazines, other artists  [excluding friends],  and the press; we socialized on a

different level and one topic was taboo:  politics.  It still should be.

To learn more about the subjects in this blog go to the links below.  

For a complete list of the blog index go to the Index Page and 

type the subject in the Search This Blog link on the right.

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#515 Throw on another log: Touch

The imprint of an artist's touch cast in bronze on the surface of a sculpture has a living presence, as fingerprints and tool marks are a source of fascination for the viewer.  Run your hands over the surface of a
beautifully modeled sculpture feel the form, see with your hands.

Walk around the sculpture and use your hands and eyes to feel
your way in and out of the shapes.  New forms appear at every
angle - smooth, curved shapes, vigorously modeled passages,
hard edges . . . a source of endless discovery as the sculptor leads
you throughout space, giving you an experience inspired by nature.

One Saturday afternoon at an art show I watched a father take the little hands of his blind daughter and run 

them over the surface of "Charger". . . the sculpture below.  The young girl was touching and seeing the 

animal with her hands as her father guided her.  I watched as the girl focused on what 

she was feeling and realized that she was seeing a horse for the first time.

 Charger

26"H 25"W 9"D

 Nipper

19"H 18"W 12"D

 Standing Horse

12"H 11"W 6"D

Equus Found in clay

Stars

16"H 15"W 6"D

To learn more about the subjects in this blog go to the links below.  
For a complete list of the blog index go to the Index Page and 
type the subject in the Search This Blog link on the right.

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish