The Risk Takers

"The true purpose of painting is to represent objects as they really are, that is to say differently from the way we see them. It tends always to give us their sensible essence, their presence, this is why the image it forms does not resemble their appearance..."

Jacques Riviere

1886-1925

I am familiar with excuses. I teach High School. Excuses come in all shapes and sizes. They are, of course, the stock and trade of the arsenal known as 'teenage vocabulary'; a proliferation of verbage large enough to choke every classroom in America. Sometimes the excuse frustrates me, sometimes the excuse makes me laugh, but the excuse that stops me in my tracks is the one I have heard the most often and it is this- "I can't do art!" Now that is an excuse I can deal with because I can help the student peel the untruth from the reason. Yes, art is risky business. Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz, said, "A creator takes risks, a consumer lives in safety."

Here is a selection of recent pieces from 'risk takers' who, at one time or another, said, "I can't do art!"

Chris doing research for his next print

Variation On A Theme

Serigraph

Christopher Shreve

4 Cans

Serigraph

Alli Meyer

On Time

Cyanotype

Davis Martinec

Untitled

Watercolor

Madeline Keller

Cyanotype
Madeline Keller

Encaustic Photograph
Mechal Harward

Encaustic
Shell McCain


PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Jack and the shirt he printed






Little Black Umbrella
by Claire Mintich


two little women
standing in a field
hiding from something
under a little black umbrella


a white dress
a blue sky
tall green grass
and a little black umbrella


dignified little women
a slow and steady breeze
warm and bright sunshine
with a little black umbrella


a pompous looking woman
an arrogant little frown
back straight and waist thing
holding a black umbrella


shadows move
clouds roll by
time moves slow
there's a little black umbrella


(inspired by Claude Monet's, "The Walk, Woman with a Parasol")

1875
Claude Monet


A parting thought from Johnny Cash
The young girl dancing to the latest beat

Has found new ways to move her feet

The young man speaking in the city square

Is trying to tell somebody that he cares

Yeah, the ones that you're calling wild

Are going to be the leaders in a little while

This old world's wakin' to a new born day

And I solemnly swear that it'll be their way

You better help the voice of youth find

"What is truth?"