While I was stuck in Crawl Space Gallery, I read this book "Daniel Boone: An American Life" by Michael A. Lofaro. My main objective was to get into pioneer character while I was holed away as a metaphorical frontiersman making a home for my family. These ideas stuck with me for sure:
*Kentucky was the promised land! In it were bear, elk, moose, and loads of bison.
*Boone was INSANELY courageous. Imagine leaving your family for months on end with a lightly packed horse or 2 and a couple pals to go into uncharted land where people lived who would mercilessly kill you because you were on 'their property'. All the while surviving the cold of winter in make-shift cabin or lean-to so you could hunt hundreds of big game animals for pelts. Can you smell the dirt, blood, and guts?
* We have a violent and bloody history (we know this but isn't the reminder important?). Both in interaction with American Indians and with 'the resources' of our land 2oo years ago, namely big game animals.
*Boone was captured by Indians a number of times - once he was adopted and lived happily with the tribe so long people thought we was a traitor.
* While living in Kentucky Daniel Boone wanted to move to Missouri (new promised land) so he fell a poplar tree and made a 60 feet x 5 feet canoe to export all of his family in. That's really big!
* The Boy Scout's were modeled in spirit after Daniel Boone by its founder Dan Beard who regarded Boone "the greatest of all Scouts".
*The council my Boy Scout troop was in was called Buffalo Trace as it was in the northern portion of that migratory trail that Daniel Boone so blissfully hunted in Kentucky.
At the close of the book the author hits a few points regarding Boone's conflicted motivations as he was at once a true man of nature and a hunter, but as well a diplomatic civilian who help to establish many frontier towns that would become cities.
"Boone also mirrored one very central American concern- the conflict of civilization and the wilderness. Which was the ideal state?....These contradictory impulses are still with us. Farms and forests, factories and parks, energy economics and ecology- all are pairs of opposites that are integral though unreconciled parts of the American self-image that Boone represents."
It is fascinating to me that the life Boone lived a few hundred years ago was at once vastly different than ours yet in so many ways an extension of America's current psychological and intellectual make-up
The last few months were blurry and bleary-eyed. Not much energy at the end of the day for 'notices' or 'announcements', so this blog feels like a dry and desolate land. But alas, here is a recap of some art and life haps.
1. My thesis exhibit (a group show of all MFA candidates) was a great finality. My concluding work was a sideswipe, much different than I had anticipated upon entering graduate school, yet spot on. One phrase artist statement: Highly contrived performative, and mythical photographs of my family engaged in play and ritual.
2. The show was bashed by a local critic - headline - "BRAND NEW AND TIRED ALREADY". Ouch! A photo of my work was included in massacre....is that a good thing?
3. I offically graduated college for the 3rd time - Master of Fine Arts - University of Washington. Thesis is available for the scholarly interested...ha!
4. I missed commencement to live in this Crawl Space Gallery for a week. It was a 24 hour lock-in. All materials and survival stuff had to come with me on day one. No works in process were permitted. It was like camping in a basement. Alone with raw materials and powertools = bliss.
5. My family- Gala, Ezra, and Solomon- joined me midweek. Ezra turned 3 while in the hole.
6. We made a covered wagon thing and slept in it and acted the part modern pioneers. Lots of quick videos. Super tight timeline - one week of work and install the next day for the opening that night!!
7. Better luck in the papers this time: Seattle PI and The Stranger. I was particularly stoked by Regina Hackett's description of our images - "He and his family seem barely anchored to the Earth. On some fine day when the sun is shining, they'll sail away." This is my forever art/life objective!
8. Shows come down and Gala and I crawl to Mexico for our first vacation from the kiddos in a loooong time. Lots of siestas and cervezas.
