Catchy title, huh? A little explanation is in order then I will launch into my thoughts. I know most people won't take the time to read all of this, we live in a quick sound bite society and want immediate satisfaction (they will just look at the pictures and won't know why I put them here). But for those who do stick it out I hope it gets more interesting as you read farther along.
'Evocation' is usually defined as having to do with demons and conjuring but I'm not interested in the devil or magic but find this is the word that best fits an aspect of my work, that is the work least associated with being someone who makes furniture or works with wood. I'm using this word loosely to draw forth an attitude, gesture, personality, a sense of an event in motion, with a spirit that might even include laughing out loud. The Abstract Expressionist painters did a lot of evoking with their work attempting to 'express' their intended emotions and hoping to get a rise out of the viewers. I'm using traditional materials and media (furniture) to describe my ideas, bring something to you the viewer beyond the expected functional expectations.
I'm aware that if you were to take the nonfunctional work in my portfolio at face value that it is difficult to find a thread of understanding as to what I was intending to accomplish with these pieces. So, I'm using this blog as an opportunity for you to learn a little about my creative meanderings when I'm doing this kind of work as opposed to designing a pretty piece of furniture. There is a thread, an ongoing dialog in my mind that brings up ideas for the next one in the continuation of my thinking. You may notice I'm avoiding the use of the word ART, it's one of those bastardized monikers attached to furniture in recent years that is so burdened and crusty that it makes me gag - Art Furniture - there I said it, never again if I can help it, you can find that stuff in any gift shop in any town in the US...For the sake of a more clear explanation I'm probably closer to being an artist or a sculptor, sort of, in my intention than a woodworker. But in my mind I most certainly make a distinction between this kind of work and being an Artist, I believe they are different but I can't clearly define that. I just feel it because I am also an Artist of the other type when I paint or make sculpture, and it feels different. Messy, enough said.
The Queen Anne chair. You've all seen it, it's in every furniture store, but it has an interesting history that has really been percolating below the surface for me for many years. For years I felt there was something else going on with this beautiful but overused design than just being a classy traditional chair design. I was commissioned to do a contemporary Queen Anne dining set, a version of this classic look a number of years ago (see my website under Portfolio/ Commissions/ Queen Anne Commission * http://www.terrybostwickstudio.com/), and as I worked through the weeks it became more apparent the connection between this chair design and the human body. You can track that 'cabriole leg' style back to the tombs of Egypt where it was used as either animal or human form; and find it cropping up over and over through the centuries in various versions.
This became the beginnings of a thread, the first pieces I did were the two 'Ladies" you see at the top of this post, and you can find out more about this if you watch the TV segment done on me (OPBTV Oregon ArtBeat copy and paste the url: http://www.opb.org/education/atschool/video_stream_h.php?rowid=20). This was a collaboration I did with some other very talented makers. But there was more to my thinking than just these two pieces. So I've included some other pics of idea sketches and a finished drawing ("Tanktop Queen") of various versions of this take on Queen Anne 'personalities'.
The full 'realization' of each of these became out of my reach as actually making these is a very serious investment of time and money. So I had to settle with making a couple to get the idea across and hopefully spark some interest in having more pieces commissioned to continue the thought. I have since sold both finished 'Ladies' and would love to make more but for now I'll try to fill out my thinking here with the blog. As I worked through the different personalities in my sketches something new began to evolve, it became a little more of an 'event' or an action than just a single finished piece, needing more than an attitude, more of a story line. Being a story teller with my work I just couldn't contain myself, it got out of control. But that's where the fun started for me. In spite of my concerted efforts these 'chairs' just wouldn't be content without going off and having experiences. Isn't it enough to just sit there and look pretty?
I went to visit a potential clients' house and walked into one of those magnificent foyers with two flights of sweeping stairs on both sides of an entry the size of my house taking you up to what most assuredly became one of MGM's sets for a movie in the 40's (at least in my fantasy) - you know, "Gone With The Wind" sort of thing? And lo and behold there was one of my chairs at the top of the stairs in utter distress, wringing with sweat, tears flowing, with no alternative to life and it's disasters but to fling itself down the stairs for one final violent end to it all (you know, goodbye cruel world?, didn't my first wife threaten me with that at the top of the stairs leading to my shop one night?). So here I am with my film crew directing this scenario, with Marcel Duchamp whispering advice in my ear, as the 'chair' tumbled and smashed it's way over and over down the stairs, and I saw her screaming, splintering into pieces until finally she rested a smashed pile of wood and mangled upholstery at the foot of the landing. Crushed, destroyed, unrecognizable, but no longer forced to face tomorrow, or having to make another meat loaf casarole with a ketchup glaze in time for him to get home from work. The pain I felt, the relief for her, as I realized her deliverance from that distress became palpable beyond description. Not exactly "Nude Descending The Staircase", but with digital overlays as she tumbled, you might get the idea.
Needless to say I was distracted and didn't get the job with my client (sure could have used the money).
Or.... I'm hurriedly rushing to an appointment in downtown Portland when I cross the street to find 'her' sitting there in her beautiful burgundy skin self on the sidewalk, all alone, waiting. Waiting for a gentleman to come to her assistance. Her handkerchief has fallen to the sidewalk, there it lay unnoticed by all those uncaring passersby. Self possessed, locked in each their own mind concerned only with their selfish needs. I mean can't ANYONE see, what's wrong with you people? How could a chair possibly retrieve her own handkerchief without the valiant assistance of a kind passerby? We live in such an insulated and selfish society, unaware of the individual needs of those around us in distress, in need of just a moments' attention, someone to care enough pick up a handkerchief for a chair in need...what's the world come to?
You may be thinking I'm on a crusade to change the selfish society we live in. Yeah, I suppose.... But I'd rather you enjoy my personal irony - I mean why does a chair need a handkerchief anyway?
Then there's the 'chair' who decides to go back to his roots and parks himself in a row next to his fellow trees at the christmas tree farm down the road from me. Feeling a little too conspicuous in his current form so dons a watch cap, a red flannel shirt, and muddy boots realizing he might not pass for a tree, because of the stain and lacquer, and instead might pass for a lumberjack (it's Oregon you know)....but I'll save that story for another day.
You never realized a chair could be so enslaved by angst, huh? I bet you won't take yours for granted ever again!
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