Past Life Reflection
Forget renewable energy for a moment. For the past few weeks I have been inundated with art.
Years ago I was invited to create a chess set for the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. It is an exceedingly cool place, which celebrates the work of “Outsider” artists. The particular show was called “Out of This World.”
At the time I was a full time metal sculptor, running Moncure Chessworks. We did a life sized chess set comprised of “Angels vs. Aliens.”
It was a hit, and stayed in their permanent collection. I had a blast at the opening, dining with Barbara Lorie and Margaret Pollard, who drove up from Chatham County. We had a wild night on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
And I basically forgot about it.
Until a month ago. Through the loud background noise of my biodiesel life came some cryptic messages about “windows in New York.” There were release forms and people calling looking for information, and a call from Rebecca Hoffberger herself looking for biographical details.
It was wild. My friend Gary likes to point out that the only people included in the American Visionary Art Museum are crazy. Clearly he is wrong about that. And while it might be true that I may have been the only artist in the show that had not actually been abducted by aliens, “Outsider” artists have a proclivity for the divine and have often been touched by the gods.
The greatest collection of “Outsider” art in the area is surely housed at Jim Massey’s Holly Hill Daylily farm in Haywood, NC. That’s just on the edge of Moncure, and it’s 18th Annual Daylily Festival is currently underway. Anyone who has never been has yet to experience the full flavor of Chatham County. Jim was the first art collector to acquire one of my pieces, and I am certain that when he gets the news he will immediately order a re-appraisal of his entire collection.
So my sculptural chess pieces shipped from Baltimore to the display windows of Bergdorf Goodman, which apparently is known for its impressive art displays. Not being that fashionable, and now spending my life immersed in free fatty acids, I had never heard of them.
Yet I seem to be a minority in that. Suddenly I am hearing from art collectors. People I once longed to impress are finally impressed. My daughter Jessalyn’s advertising firm made a field trip to the windows. I had forgotten about the urgent need to break into the New York art scene.
Drat.
I wonder if I am destined to always leave things too soon. By the time the Internet “bubble” arrived, I had left the technology space to do art. By the time I “made” the windows of Bergdorf Goodman, I was submerged in sustainability. Sustainability is welcome to hit any time. I’m still in it from sun up to sun down.
I wasn’t able to attend the New York opening. I was in London, looking at an electrical generator which was running on glycerin. And hanging out with some dear friends (most of which were utterly familiar with the windows of Bergdorf Goodman, and startled by my ignorance).
Oh well.
The last art piece I worked on was a giant mushroom on the dam of the pond. I find it a good place to reflect on how I am not crazy, how I never seem to catch the wave just right, and how I might not be destined to make the big time.
Which is OK. I rather like feeding the fish in the pond, and going to work, and playing in the sandbox which is our eco-industrial endeavor…
Original post by Lyle