Traditions: Ohio Heritage Fellows; 102; Judy Sacks interview with Doug Unger, part 3 of 3

Restating: Doug is somebody who values uh, you using your imagination and he’s a romantic. What that means is that Doug likes a little bit of mystery in his art. He, himself, is enthralled by the history of old time music and old time musicians. There’s a certain powerful beauty when you don’t totally understand everything and uh, although his is, himself, as a creative artist, a problem solver. He is very content for you as the owner of a banjo or a mandolin to have your own relationship with that instrument. And yes, you know it was made by somebody but, he’d just as soon, I think, have someone who has his instrument become the person in relationship with it. So, his modesty comes through when he doesn’t want to say I’m the person that made that. It’s part of his modesty but part of his romantic streak that wants you to tell your own story about that instrument.

Q: In the mandolin/banjo world, do people... can they walk up and say, that’s a Doug Unger neck banjo, mandolin or is it to that extent ‘cause I’m not in that world. I mean do people, can they recognize and say that’s a Doug Unger banjo?

JUDY: Doug has a couple of different goals when he works on his instruments. One of the goals he... he sometimes has is to essentially reproduce as if it was right out of the shop, a banjo from 19-X... the old days, so that if you had an authentic antique banjo over here and it was from 1920 and you had one that Doug made, there could be times when you couldn’t distinguish them. Um, but that’s only one of the missions of what he does. He’s also an innovator and that’s a very important part of who Doug Unger is. He is deeply inspired by the traditions and the visual images of early banjos and mandolins, but he also takes it in directions that he wants to see what’ll happen. So, a unique instrument could be right out of his shop, every bit as well as one that looks an awful lot like one from the past. And this is a very significant point when you’re trying to look at Doug’s work. Part of the mission could be to just slip under the beam and to be, oh that beautiful instrument from 1920 where it really isn’t. It’s really a Doug work. So, it’s not branded the way, you know, certain brands are... this is a blah, blah guitar. Uh, Doug works in a more subtle way and so it’s not always possible to immediately recognize it, except if you look at the pearl work. If you look at that pearl inlay and you see a Griffin that is convoluted and it’s more... more importantly so beautiful in the choice of the abalone that he uses for the inlay, ‘cause he uses both abalone and pearl, and the level of craftsmanship in the drawing of it and the making of it, that is really the best key to what a Doug piece is.

Q: What should I have asked you that I didn’t?

JUDY: Doug really achieved something um, unique as an Ohio traditional craft master. And what he did was he has helped people see that fine craft has every bit as much merit and should be recognized as such as fine art. And how he did that... that impresses me, maybe the most is, he worked it out with the institution that he used to teach at, which is Kent State University. He’s now an emeritus professor, but he made it so that he could teach classes on instrument making and have them as valued in the curriculum as if he were teaching his fine painting classes. Now that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is ‘cause it in a way is helping an institution of the stature of Kent State to give as much credit to craft. So I consider Doug um, a unique contributor in changing people’s point of view about the relationship between craft and art.

Q: Why is there such a divide between traditional artists and others?

JUDY: There’s an old-fashioned idea that things that have utility are not as really artful as things that are made for admiring in the way you would a bronze sculpture or a wall painting. There’s a hierarchy of arts that has persisted for centuries. And actually, it’s inherited from Europeans point of view about the arts. So, that means that even though the fine woodworker can make the most exquisite box, chair, however the item is, the valuing of it, and this is not only cultural but actually economic, um, has always been... it’s not on the same par as the fine artists work. It goes with an idea that there’s a different kind of inspiration to make a painting. But for Doug, the inspiration to make a marvelous mandolin is every bit as fully artistic in every dimension as if you were producing a landscape painting.

Q: What has... or what would, let’s say, if Doug has not done what he’s done... what would Ohio, what would the craftsperson... what would they have lost without Doug doing what he does?

JUDY: Having Doug is enormously um, rewarding to other people who are working today. We need our models; we need our masters to show us what the potential is in any given art form. If we don’t have the fine quilter uh, not only don’t we learn how do ourselves make those fine quilts, but we... we lose something as... as inspiration. We lose something as a teacher. It’s almost like the question of well, so what if you didn’t have teacher X who changed your entire life. We need teachers; we need models, because it helps us if we are traditional craft woodworkers aspire to a different level. We can see it being done. And Doug is incredibly generous in... in his—opening his shop to the sincere student. So I think if we don’t have these traditional craftspeople um, we lose so much of inspiration that we really deserve to have.

Q: Could you tell me a little bit about Tony Ellis? Could you talk about him? Why is Tony deserving of an Ohio Heritage Award?

JUDY: Tony is a giant personality. He’s a giant in music. He’s a giant in inspiring people. And he’s a tremendous advocate for arts in his own community in his life. Um, Tony is one of the most amazing musicians we’ve ever had in the state of Ohio. He, you know, he comes way... way back. I mean, he is connected directly to North Carolina banjo tradition. We only have bluegrass banjo playing because of another fella in North Carolina who thought it up and he came from Tony’s neighborhood. So Tony has tapped in, not only to the origins of bluegrass music in a certain part of North Carolina, but within his own family. His grandmother was a... was a musician. He has a direct connection between the oldest American uh, root music that we have. As we all know, the banjo is the Native American musical instrument. It didn’t exist in Europe. It is the product of the meeting of African’s and Anglos’. And so therefore, it’s an enormously important part of American musical culture and Tony is one of the greatest representatives we have of that tradition.

END