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Tom Ferguson |
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Nug Shot |
by 1997 that I was going to be part of the disposal, or recycling. Once I had found an object I let it hang out until what it needed, to become "Art" & thus enhance its chances of avoiding, or post-poning, the landfill, occured to me. This would sometimes become apparent while browsing the drawings I had set aside for this purpose. In the course of browsing notebooks, sketchbooks, files etc; I built up an awareness of this source so that when I began making boxbooks it evolved past the first idea to mining those notebooks et al. The found stuff overlaps heavily with the Kids Paintings since I remained infatuated with using images from my daughter's sketch books and other children's sources. Works in the next category, Finale, also overlap since virtually all are on found objects. I had a show at Sandler-Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, in 2000. It sold well, had good press (see selected press & installation views). It had been 8 years since my 1992 show which also sold well & had press. When I say sold well a Lawyer or Dentist would laugh, something they make before noon everyday. So, let's see, if I made $7,000, divide that by 8 years and you can see that a formal vow of poverty isn't necessary. And it isn't about money is it? or we'd be into something else, lawyering or dentisting, arms merchant perhaps. No, this is about celebration of being, joi de vivre, as Matisse would have it. Speaking of Matisse, some art stars do make money but thinking about that is like, some people win the lottery. It might be amusing to contemplate how one's life would change with that kind of windfall but in the end it's a distraction, to think about it or to manage it. "Best to step back awhile and savor, the minutes that won't come again." I lost my Mom in 2005, was there for it and luckily had spent a week with her just a month before. A humbling experience, nudges one into awarenss of one's own mortality, turns one's thought/feelings toward the fleeting nature of this sad veil and finally to the object of art and contemplation, being. |
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