Blog: Diaries for a Generation
April 2, 2020 - Joy Reed Belt
Artists, the most creative and perceptive among us, will record and interpret the devastating effects of the current pandemic for future generations. It will not be a collective image or an assortment of illustrations, but rather an outpouring of personal reflections and interpretations.
History is presented through art. We only have to look back to the Renaissance to know that four of the prominent painters from that era: Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Hieronymus Bosch recorded what they saw, felt, and thought for future generations.
It was in my first gallery on Paseo Drive, in 2000, that an Interior Designer introduced me to John Wolfe, a multi media artist, who at that time, in addition to creating, was teaching art to junior high school students. John’s work demonstrated superior technical ability in all media ranging from paintings and ceramics to large steel sculptures. But what I admired the most about John’s work was his point of view.
In the intervening 20 years, every piece of art John has brought to the gallery has been in response to life as he experiences it. John tends to work in series. His latest being wonderful: 20 to 30” tall, male, acrylic sculptures mounted on wooden blocks and uniquely personalized with interesting and meaningful found objects. Each figure is assigned a character trait such as: “Honor”, “Integrity”, “Trust”, and “Understanding.” All traits that John feels are missing in Washington politics. The trait and its definition are written on the back of each sculpture.
In an addition to being historians, artists are also harbingers of the future. I asked John how the pandemic was affecting his work. He responded by saying that he is not working, but is absorbing new information daily. After he has had time to process that information, he will start creating a new body of work.
In 2006, I first met Denise Duong when she and her then partner, Matt Seikel, approached me about showing their collaborative work of ceramic vessels. Matt threw and/or hand coiled the pots which were then painted by Denise. Their work was magical. Denise’s narrative paintings, limited, to finite surfaces, told the universal stories of love, adventure, hardship, and happiness, as well as sadness, all in her unique style. For an exhibition in 2010, Denise created paintings based on the novella of F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Diamond As Big As The Ritz,” which Fitzgerald had written as a commentary of his time.
As fodder for her creative process, Denise is constantly recording her impressions, thoughts, and ideas by sketching and writing furiously in her journal. Today I called Denise and asked how she thought the current global health crises would effect her future artwork. In response, she sent me some of her recent journal entries, entitled “Pandemic Thoughts.” In her stream of consciousness narrative, she remarked that for the first time in her lifetime everybody in the world was experiencing something they could not control at the same time.
She observed that her friend in India was confined to her home just as she is in Oklahoma City. Denise noted that if anyone needed proof that all humans were created equal they should consider “that this invisible enemy spares no particular race or gender and affects the rich and the poor; the powerful and the powerless.” She asserted her belief that the reason we a suffering is because “Mother Nature is fed up with our abuse.” She commented that “air pollution is down for the first time in a long time.” Denise told me that she doesn’t think her style of painting will change because of the pandemic, but that her messaging will get stronger. “I just want people to wake up, get off their cell phones and see what is important.... experience all those little moments that are the real part of living, appreciate the ones they love, and live a life of needing less.” Will those messages when presented as paintings become a diary for her generation?” You bet they will.
Images:
Denise Duong, "Something About the Darkness People are Scared Of," Mixed Media, 36 x 48 in., $3,400
Denise Duong, "Janus," Mixed Media, 48 x 36 in., Sold
Denise Duong, "The Attack Upon Paradise," Mixed Media, 48 x 48 in., Sold
John Wolfe, "Understanding," Mixed Media, 26 x 11 x 5 in., Sold
John Wolfe, “Trust,” Mixed Media, 26 x 11 x 5 in., Sold
Denise Duong, "Round and Round Upside Down," Mixed Media on Canvas, 36 x 48 in., $3,400
Denise Duong, " Don't Wait for Me to Get Up," Mixed Media,
48 x 36 in., $3,000
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