LIVING WITH ART BLOG

Remember the Ed Sullivan Show? It was the longest running television variety show in history. Broadcasting for 23 consecutive years, it is credited with helping launch the careers of both Elvis Presley and the Beatles. The sheer number and diversity of performers featured on the show was extraordinary. They included the Supremes, Maria Callas, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Barbara Streisand, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Janice Joplin, Isak Perlman, Pearl Bailey, Johnny Mathis, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Marian Anderson, Della Reese, Lena Horne, Mahalia Jackson, Eartha Kitt, and Leontyne Price...

School was a big deal at my house when I was growing up. Our annual household calendar was organized around the opening and closing of school and all its related events. Every August my Mother took me shopping for new clothes including, one year, a coveted "poodle" skirt. I remember how special our annual "ladies’ lunch" of avocado stuffed with chicken salad made me feel. But most of all I remember our conversations...

In 1974, Betty Price and I started working for the Oklahoma State Arts Council on the same day. She was hired as the Director of Public Information and I as the Program Development Director. Both Betty and I were expected to assist and promote activities related to the state’s Bicentennial celebration. Also, we were involved in organizing arts related programming for David Boren’s inauguration as Governor for the State of Oklahoma. While I only worked at the Council for two years before leaving to complete my Ph.D., Betty spent the rest of her career there and ultimately became its Executive Director. Her accomplishments are legendary...

 Last week we repainted four rooms of the Gallery in vibrant colors and I was reminded of when I first became aware of color as its own “thing.” Of course, I had been taught to recognize colors as a child and long since claimed “blue” and “yellow” as my personal favorites, but color designations seemed almost utilitarian to me, as used in stoplights and temperatures. In 1999, John Belt gave me a “Gift Certificate for Eight Painting Lessons” with Kay Orr in The Paseo. When he presented the certificate, John told me that he hoped learning how to paint would give me an easily accessible way to relax. I tried to bargain with him for two weeks stay at Canyon Ranch instead, but he insisted that I should take painting lessons and “see what happens.” Well, what happened was that those eight lessons changed my life. 

One of the great pleasures of my life with John Belt was watching him orchestrate the development of The Paseo Arts District. That idea was not fully formed when he initially purchased Hirams and some adjoining buildings along Paseo Drive. But it did not take him long to seize on the concept. He reasoned that Paseo was only two miles from downtown, where there was a high concentration of “art patrons.” The curvilinear and somewhat narrow Paseo Drive created a contained and walkable area. The human scale of the decorative buildings was well suited for galleries, artists’ studios and other compatible businesses.

Driving through The Paseo last evening after closing the Gallery, I was reminded that communities, as well as people, must be resilient to survive. The Spanish Village, Oklahoma City's first suburban shopping district, which we now know as The Paseo, was built in the late 1920’s by one of City’s pioneering developers, G.A. Nichols, the same man who developed Nichols Hills. To support his two-block curved street commercial district on what he dubbed Paseo Drive, Nichols also built twelve of Oklahoma City’s “best apartment buildings." This residential development was carved out of an area platted as Guernsey Park Place because it once had been dotted with small dairy farms. Since Nichols’ architectural muse was his cousin, who built The Plaza Shopping Center in Kansas City, the buildings in Paseo are primarily a miniaturized version of Spanish Revival Architecture. Dr. Fred and Nan Sheets had already built their resident Art Studio and Gallery, The Elms, on nearby Walker Avenue in the Spanish Mission architectural style, so the area enjoyed and continues to enjoy a somewhat interesting and artsy ambiance.

The first time I remember thinking about the word "Crucible" was when Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible" was assigned reading in a Dramatic Literature class in college. The play was written about the Salem Witch Trials. The drama was not intended as an historical piece of literature, but was written as an allegory of the McCarthyism that was sweeping through our country at that time. Although I knew I had enrolled in a course of Dramatic Literature, I was astonished and a little put out at being asked by my Professor to get my brain around two very serious subjects with so many human and political ramifications. After all, I had been attracted to Drama, as a course of study, because it was entertaining and fun. I researched the word "Crucible" hoping it would provide the key to enough knowledge to pass the exam. Then, as now, when one looks up the word "Crucible," there are two primary definitions: A.) A ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to a very high temperature;" or definition B.) A situation or severe trial, or, in which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new." At that point I kicked myself for not enrolling in a “History of Musicals” class that met earlier in the morning.

When an electronic device stalls or otherwise fails to work properly, we all know to unplug the device and wait a few minutes before reconnecting it. I was incredulous when I first heard about this “fix” from a trusted repair person. He strongly recommended I try it before calling him in a state of panic or before dialing a 1-800 number and becoming increasingly irritated when I was put on terminal hold.

It was hard for me to accept that the simple act of resetting could be a solution. Eventually I did take his advice. But old habits die hard. Even now, when one of my devices quits working properly my heart stops, I will call out to a colleague or even a casual passerby while automatically reaching for my list of people to call when things go wrong. Then I remember, “Joy, unplug or disconnect, take deep breaths and wait for a few minutes while everything resets. “The very act of being able to make an inanimate object reset is empowering."

When I was born my father was completing his doctorate at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Family lore has it that he was totally besotted with his new daughter and took me everywhere, even pushing my carriage around Churchill Downs while memorizing Greek and Hebrew. My mother told me that I never cried when I was with my father, not even as an infant. While reflecting on Dad this past Father’s Day weekend, I was struck by the enormous influence he and his memory have been throughout my life.