This coming semester I am going to be very busy, so I will be changing the format of Brass Tea. What I imagine will happen is that I will be writing a combination of shorter posts (sips) and longer more analytical posts (cups) depending on what I have time for that day. This way I will still be able to get in five artists a week.
In the next few weeks I will be trying this out, so bear with me if things seem a little wonky or uneven at first. I'll have it hammered out by January.
So without further ado...
Walton Ford 1960-
First of all, if you are not familiar with the PBS series Art: 21 - Art in the 21st Century, I suggest you become acquainted. Art: 21, which was Emmy nominated, "documents artists in their own words". New seasons are every two years (starting in 2001), and each episode covers a theme (such as "loss and desire", "memory", "transformation") and includes 3-5 contemporary artists working with the theme. The series is really awesome, because you get to see the actual artist (often working) and speaking about their work and how it relates to the greater scheme of things.
I have been sort of non-systematically working my way through the series (which you can watch on their website pbs.org/art21, or on Hulu or Netflix Instant View as well) and most recently watched the bit on Walton Ford (who is featured in the "humor" theme).
A self described "maximalist", Ford's work is modeled after the work of Audubon, a name which is surely familiar to most. Ford however, has a focus on contextualization. He notes that Audubon probably killed more animals than he ever painted, and that this "hero/villain" aspect of early natural historians is a source of inspiration to him in his dark comedies.
Ford injects current political and environmental tones into this vintage style, creating extremely strong paintings in which he confronts current culture and history (both shared and his own). The tension this meeting of times creates is mirrored in the "hero/villain" side of the work, as well as the "attraction-repulsion" that he says he tries to create. "The big, big thing I’m always looking for in my work is a sort of attraction-repulsion thing, where the stuff is beautiful to begin with until you notice that some sort of horrible violence is about to happen or is in the middle of happening." This reaction to his work directly relates to the sensation of digging a little deeper into history and realizing what was really going on in some situations (Audubon being a perfect metaphor to speak through, as he is is all too frequently painted as some sort of valiant sportsman). I will also add that each of his paintings has a really interesting/strange narrative behind it, not all of which are immediately obvious unless you have an extensive knowledge of history, and he outlines some of these narratives in the episode of Art: 21. There are also explanations with the images in the slide shows on the Art: 21 site.
If you are interested in watching his bit on Art: 21, as I said you can watch it on Hulu or Netflix, but if you watch it on the PBS site you can also read a couple of really interesting interviews with Ford as well as see a couple slide shows of his work, and a brief bio. All that is here.
images: pbs.org/art21/artists/ford/index.html
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