Oregon Art Beat; #424; Rick Bartow

I think you're being interviewed. There we go. We're like you working pastels, you're working prints. I feel like asking, do you just like variety or can't you make up your mind? Oh, one thing will do something that another one can't really. Working on canvas, you know, there's a strange give to it and a different feel to it and the washing sort of watercolor mess that I can make, you know, is this sort of another challenge, I think, another area? I was just looking at that. I was just thinking about my mother and I were taking a ride before we came over today. What is that, Mom? Perrydale? Perrydale is where we went out through out of Dallas there and out across the farm country. It's so beautiful. I was just looking at that sort of minimal. It's almost like a landscape up there when the light hits it just right. It's almost like the sand dunes at home on the coast, you know, and every now and then you just recognize something like that in another medium that you, you know, I couldn't get that sort of washy quality with the,

with the pastels really. You know, I could if I erased just right, but it's much easier to do with the paint. And may work with the elk, I make spoons out of this part of the, of the antler. And when, when my family and I were invited to go to the, to the White House, I made Hillary Rodham Clinton a, a Hagon or a spoon, ceremonial spoon before the day before we left. And also, you know, the antler fall off and they're eaten almost immediately by small rodents and animals as a source of nutrition. And every year they regenerate and they're always, you know, there's a, they get a sort of a blood and gorge velvet. And so the red kind of part of that may be an ore, or it also just indicates more of that rosette end of the, of the antler. What about the, the crosses, the axes that we see all through a lot of your work? What is that? Well,

there again, it's sort of an arresting device. It also helps balance the drawing. Sometimes it's literally like a Christian cross. Sometimes it's the four directions to the north, the east, the south and the west. And we're always in the center. And always, I think about a long time ago at an art teacher that wouldn't let us erase. You know, and so we, you know, it's a deletion. It's not there if I put an ex over it. It's not there, you know, so. And then sometimes to, to mix the bodies up, human and animal is to say that we're not above anything but part of something. So it's sort of a, it's, again, it's an old ancient ecological visual device to say that, you know, we're, we're of this place, you know, and that we're all, I mean, if we, if we wreck something, we wreck it not only for ourselves, but a lot of people suffer for it, you know, so not unlike the great bird man in, in the caves in Altamira and Spain or the school. Maybe it's in the school in France where the great

bird man images, that there was a man with a bird's head. I mean, it's an ancient, ancient thing and it's, it's pan culture. It goes clear around the world. It's, it's not just Native Americans, Native European Irish shits. It's all around, I think in Jerusalem, there's some places where they're finding. And you use that theme a lot. Yeah. It's kind of emerging, emerging spirits, emerging. Yeah. But if we look even, I mean, at the, at the Flemish, like broigle, you know, Bosch, I think it's broigle that did the, the Garden of Ursula in lights and there's all kinds of animal and human images that are all mixed up and I always thought of this is very, you know, Native America and then I ran into a young black artist back, back east in Philadelphia at the Brandywine workshop there in the inner city named James Dupre. And James Dupre kind of burst my bubble and by saying, you know, he'd, he'd learn to work in that same

manner from a Dutchman at an art college upper state, New York and I asked him about that and then he led me around the corner back to broigle and those guys. But so it really, you find it in all cultures this early on, you find this, this sort of universal thing. Yeah. I think so and I just, I don't claim to be original and I don't, you know, I'm not really trying to do anything different. I just want to do good drawing, good painting, good sculpture. So a lot of times, you know, there's a discussion of what you add to it, you know, I don't imagine I've added a great deal, but I just want to make them good, you know, and interesting and have something for people, you know, maybe not, maybe you don't have to be an intellectual to understand, maybe you wouldn't like it, you know, quite understand. I've said and say all the time, I'd be the last person to think that any of this work would sell, you know, I really, I didn't create it to sell. I just, I was just making things because that's what I had to do was make things, but when things started selling, I was just

flabbergasted and still am to this day, I'm just amazed that people would buy it, you know. Oh, we think it's marvelous. Okay, now I, another sound thing, don't jingle whatever's in there. Oh, I got a, Latzo is a, is a northern California, a, a, a, Euro -Cropucla word for, for frog. I always like to, the, the height I have a name for him, we call him crab of the woods. That Latzo is a, a, a word for a little green frog. That's not a little about this. Yeah, no. He's five foot, something, five foot square, something like that. But here, you see, all, everything that I could throw at it, this is all, a, a, a, a, a, Japanese pigments. The white is made from burnt clam shell and linseed oil. I believe it is that they make their white gouache with there's some there's some pencil The red is is I believe is Japanese if it's not Japanese, it's Russian and then here we have burnt sienna and sapia

and indigo from the root all real natural Stains and dyes that come from over in Japan from my friend shop at paper now and and of course Black sumi The the regular black you know and then Intermixed with that too is What else is in there burnt sienna. There's sienna burnt sienna Indigo Not only their layers of different colors and things but there's layers of drawings on top of drawings That's why you can keep looking and go oh, there's another hand and oh, there's one up there It's just you can look at this one for a long time. Yeah, all kinds of things a little bones in there also I was practicing my name in Japanese. So it's and there's something else. I saw horse yons and do is write his name repeatedly and so I just kind of filled in the spaces, but a lot of times I Love calligraphy

because it's not so much that the calligraphy is the space in between So it begins setting up things that are different here's a here's an upside down triangle here and the way those two characters aren't my word makes a triangle going up that way So there's always juxtapositions, but they also fill in and then they start making little shapes So calligraphy you see all these things, you know, I learned that from from Looking at my 50 some books that I've collected. Oh now on on yons and work But also the names of the gallery and things it's all just kind of fun, but it also Takes up space and makes your eye move around and you think well Stoning to know. Yeah, that's a gallery in Seattle, but what about Yonaga Sawa art gallery, you know on Takasego Udoa. What's that? You know, and it could be just an advertisement or it could be just something to take up this little bit of space where they're where I didn't quite get the red in, you know You know, it's all fair

game But to me, it just enriches it. The eye has lots to wander around, you know, and Larry Rivers Can't see much of on him personally, but I loved his early work and he made a statement about Or did a book about his work or something where he he referred to all the elements with you by using jazz terms You know, so each chapter would be you know something of some jazz term scatting or something and and I Think that's really nice because the way you listen to music, you know, or that Period of time that you listen to a piece that you like and you hear things that you didn't hear before you see things that you didn't see before And I think all these different things tend to lend themselves to that that it it gives you know the eye food You know, you're looking at there's things to consider. Yeah, yeah, I think so and this one certainly I mean at that size you can sit back and look at it for quite a while, you know It's a This is one of my personal favorite

slots, so I really really like that one, but then it was a it was kind of an exciting point for me where I just got this big paper and You know, it's trying some different things and some newer things and I felt like it was successful too with all of all the different things going on Okay Let's walk over to the totem now before we get there My sweetheart and my agent Carla Malcolm and Charles Frolic Got together on this and she's buying this piece or I couldn't possibly oh we must talk about it that leave without talking about wolf and dear They look like they're having a party they celebrate well, they were having a party, but not as you'd think the the late La Lusca chief Don La Lusca from up aerial Washington told a story After my uncle passed away my good friend Lillian Pitt Got my my my late wife Julian and and my son Booker and I tickets to one of La Lusca's performances up at the long house and

We went up there and it was a day not unlike this it was snow and it was cold and stormy and inside it was you know It was just wonderful, but Chief Don told the story about wolf and and deer and wolf was telling sort of Jokes to the deer trying to get it to laugh because he wanted to see if it had sharp teeth or round teeth They've had a round teeth. He knew it was a vegetable eater and he was gonna get him and deer wasn't anybody's dummy So he was you know and cuffish mouth covered and and so wolf told increasingly You know robald stories are just really working to get him to laugh and deer wouldn't laugh And wolf said no you must laugh, you know if you're T showing your mouth open And so here we see us mouth all open, but to reinforce that this is wolf Up north they have a wolf dance and they dance with their thumbs up and So here we have a ceremonial indicator that it's wolf but still deer won't open his mouth until finally he told a

joke It was so outrageous that deer finally had to laugh and he sized teeth and he's been chasing him from that day to this You know they haven't been friends. So that was a story of this and I really like this drawing and initially it sold I believe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was a little poster piece for the showdown and in a gallery that that's no longer there But then through a whole twist and turn series of events it came up for sale and My sweetheart Carlo was able to buy it and and so she was tickled to get here because she hadn't even seen it except in the slide So she can right here the other night. You don't see it. You're drawing. You couldn't possibly Tense green and it's very unusual because of that and I was really you you're influenced by Japan you're influenced by Germany and Then your own heritage as well. Yeah, but one thing that I wanted to do was to keep away from that because the Iraq there's no the the woodcarving

Tradition is a yatch or a canoe Very unique style of boat that they made and some stools stairways and some storage containers They're limited note there were no totems that there was one picture and one book that showed a kind of an image But I that was the only thing I ever saw about it But when they talked about the worklet such as the piece that went to the White House I said no, I don't call it a totem pole I'd call it a pole sculpture Because I said a lot of people when they hear totem pole think of the wonderful work from you know from Victoria and Vancouver Island You know north and then look at that wonderful stuff. That's the story of a of a of a person's lineage or a family's lineage and everything You know and I said, but you know, I'm think somebody's gonna get Get less than they want if if we call it a totem pole so I tend to stay away from that this one

This is actually the back off of the pole that went to the White House and it was sort of a byproduct because it take the back Often then gutter it out or hollow it out Take the the deadwood out of the center that tends not to crack so better to split completely open It'll always move like those checks or cracks and it will always be there because they'll always move around But so anyway, you take the back off and open it up and then I had this back part of it was usable part of it wasn't and This particular piece has been through a couple different Metamorphosis in it before the eyes were closed and it was just the head and I never felt comfortable And I'll tell you why because it's so narrow as To the width but the depth is relatively small and And then I had that big head that I really like on it and For about four years I'd walked by it at the house. We'd stood it up. You know, I walked by like I think It just looks so spindly

and so I cut it off Brought it down and then I opened her eyes up because I think of it as the moon and then I put Abelony pupils in the eyes and I really liked it, but it wasn't done yet and just Either just before my wife's death or just afterwards my son Was looking at it and he kept seeing over the crow would land on top And it would eat up there because the neighbors all fed him There was an old folks home across the street and it was one lady that would throw out bread and a crow would zoom over there And he'd stand up there and eat and book or got a couple of pictures of him and so I think in my mind Maybe that's what turned it around to make this with the with the bird to kind of spread that image out a bit and Break up this the straight linear movement Yeah, but you'd see if it were if it were really northwest coast and it would be very symmetrical Exactly, and something that I stayed away from that just kind of working more freely with it but

and then put some brass leaf on it not gold leaf but brass leaf and then Spray it for the fixative, but then the the rain I made a hole in the top of the head and That was another thing I had to dress with that some problems there And so when I fixed that the water had come from the outside or from the inside out and still started making it green inside So that's that lovely patina it is beautiful I re -sprayed that and and hollowed it out again and put a cap on it But then when we were talking about how do you want to present it? I said I think if it could hang on the wall it would be much nicer because it's so flat Yeah, and the other PC was quite a bit more dimensional. So this is just the back third off of the tree So that's how this came to be and I just think of it as as a pole sculpture Okay Now is there anything in particular you besides those two there and it's retrospective. Oh, yeah I see a lot of things here that I'd forgotten about these the little fool there, you know I'll tell you a funny story. There's a funny story about art and

being a country bumpkin My wife for some reason hated the story, but I loved it because Here's this little guy with this little hat and everything, you know And I made his little sculpture and it went up to Canada and We went to the gallery the Derek Simkin's galleries no longer in business now But we went there and they were all excited and he said he said All this this famous actor bought a piece of yours today Richard gear And he said he might be back tonight Well, I didn't know who Richard gear was I don't I don't watch movies that much don't have you know didn't have TV and so I said well Oh, that's nice. She said you don't know who it is do you and I said no, ma 'am I'm afraid I don't I said, but you might talk to my wife. She probably knows she knows a bit more about that Well, she did but Got away from me. He's with my wife said Richard gear about that piece and Julie said oh

So this whole thing so that night This man came in and he was it was a very short man, but very Interestingly dressed, you know and and pressed pants and neat cowboy boots and very articulate and I thought I've heard that actors are often smaller than we think they are I'll bet you this is Richard gear and so it was very effusive very, you know conversant So I talked in probably 45 minutes or so and then he said well I've got to go, you know, and I said well gee it was wonderful talking to you. Thanks a lot and He turned around to leave and I thought you know well They said he was he'd stop by because he's very busy. They're making a movie and so I thought yeah He probably has to get back to work so well. That was wonderful, you know and then the lady from the gallery came over and she said That Harvey he's he runs the bagel shop down the street and he comes to all the So we didn't know who Richard gear was till we got home and then my wife

went down to the To the grocery store to check out a movie of Richard gear movie to find Was not the bagel man It wasn't the guy down the street selling bagels and don't it's like So anyway, it was a little figure kind of like that one And he bought and then the little coyote guys. I just have fun making these guys, you know Pencil I needed to pencil, but it made a good leg so And you know and and then A friend and I were His messing around with tattoos. He's a merchant marine guy and does all his own tattoos and he did some tattoos for me and stuff So we're we're making some tattoo needles and they didn't quite work out So it became a leg on the on the dog and on and everything has a purpose to you Yeah, I'd always said there's there's all kinds of stuff, you know that that work out. So at and then toothpicks is teeth are made out of little toothpicks. Oh, yes, and This big piece over here almost like a crucifixion. Well, that's an interesting piece. It's it's it's

not and yet That's the general connotation of that piece it but it's a quite a literal interpretation of what we see Almost weekly at our place or every other day or so we see the hawk Who's harassed by the crows or the ravens and then the crows pick on the ravens So it's that whole the whole cycle of the hawks and the crows and it my uncle Used to eat a lot of buffalo and so these are buffalo bones and I in a George noxhima book I saw that he used little butterfly sutures And some of his tables and I thought that was a really neat idea. So I just made some sutures out of those buffalo bones This cedar plank had lain under a friend's in a garage and he used to drive his car and set a oil Stains on it and things and a friend of mine Dennis Guthrie helped me Stabilize this whole plank and then work it and rework it and then I made these

two to the side I always really liked this piece my my brother -in -law Mike Clark because just he said it was really nice to come here Particularly to see this he just he wanted this piece in the worst way and who owned it? This is from the Portland Art Museum. I think yeah Portland Art Museum are you amazed that they were able to get together such a great collection of your work from all over the place? I'm just amazed at the whole thing. I mean, you know what? It's pretty humbling, you know, it's really humbling too. I Had a lot of trouble coming here. You know, I said well, what if nobody comes who the heck am I? You know, I just I didn't Rebecca, you know and John Oldbrands here Rebecca Dobkins set this whole thing in motion and Stuff, you know, and then you kind of get scared, you know, thinking well Jeepers. It's kind of presumptuous, you know And and yet when I saw the work, I thought gee, I think it's I think it's pretty handsome, you know, I think I did okay over

the years, you know, I'm pleased with it but Yeah, to put the whole thing together and to see some of these pieces that I just had in slides, you know and saw briefly and then they were gone You know, it's pretty nice, but it is humbling, you know to I know I have a lot of friends that have worked a lot a lot harder and a lot longer that weren't given this opportunity and yet This is an opportunity at you know, which which came my way and we were able to to see it through with the work of Going on tour. Yeah, yeah, so a couple years anyway, you know, and so Perhaps there's something here that'll say something to someone else or Show show a kid that there's you know something besides Flippin burgers or doing something else, you know and they're creative that they can actually Make a living out of it because nobody ever really told me that was a possibility. I was the last one to believe that, you know My mom my dad and I stepped out everybody,

you know said You know an artist, but I just thought you know until Tell my late wife and my my last boss convinced me to to quit, you know Just when my son was born so my son's 16 16 and a half down He's my timeline because the first show he was a couple of weeks or a couple of months I think a couple months old For my first exhibition with the Jameson Thomas, you know, so Every year passes with him. Why is another year that I've been creative, you know And then actually making a living out of that. I don't do anything else, but the art and so and so 16 years of doing art I know I'm sorry. I'm almost done here Um, and to get a retrospective already. I mean some artists may work 40 30 years before they get that honor That really isn't on our isn't it? It is. It is indeed, you know Yeah, and and yet friends like Drake Dutton tell and Joe Federson and and Lillian Pitt and these people that I talk about Repeatedly and consistently. I really do feel it without them You know that this couldn't be because They'd been in business a lot

longer than I and so I could always call on them You know for criticism as well as for How do you do this, you know, what should I do Joe Federson Drake Dutton tell the painter introduced me to Joe Federson and Joe Federson said let me see your Your portfolio, you know, and he just started putting things in order, you know and showed me that you know Put your best foot forward and told me, you know, we'll go see this person go see that person and you know I'm an alcoholic and he's oh well. I was too, but you know just do this, you know and take care of business quit Basically, you know quit apologizing quit feeling sorry for yourself. You got something to do here do it, you know And so you know with help of friends I came you know, I'd worked for years and years and years just not hadn't hadn't had the the um What the the strength to take it out, you know and and much of it was lost given away, you know just So they told they showed me you know when I when I came out of the

out of the box They showed me how to be professional. So I hit the ground running, you know and had things were looking good when I took it out because they they'd showed me, you know to Use good paper and good materials and of course the you know with more money Why I'm able to buy better materials and more more things like that. Yeah All right, wonderful. Okay. I think we got it Oh, yeah sure you bet you mom said I would love that do it, you know And your name bar B -A -R -B Oh Oh

But it's like I just realized oh, I'm about 30 minutes late in putting in the money But they hadn't made their rounds here so smart. You had your microphone on too. So they really heard them firing So you don't talk about your co -workers just because you're outside of hearing range because you're not So he's always with you That's right. It's like God. He's always with you Listening That one is also beautiful. That one's really nice. I love that one. Believe it. That's the two of them I really love that you have such a variety I mean you've got the acrylic. You've got the the pastels You've got like what is that a wood block print over there? It looks like and the carving and etching All these different things. You don't limit yourself at all. You sort of love to explore everything Yeah, I just did some wood blocks. No matter fact, I Are linoleum block. I when I came out last last week or

whenever it was for the opening Why I passed a wood block or a linoleum block after actually off to Joe Federer You You

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