First Day

January 30th, 2009 at 12:26pm mcgillc

I had my first day at The Open Studio on Sunday 1/25. It was an interesting day, or rather an interesting week. My birthday came on Tuesday, five days prior. That day was significant for a few reasons: January 20th 1964 is my birth date. I have always thought the year was significant to my work as an artist. It was the year the Civil Rights Act was signed by Lyndon Johnson.

Civil rights, racial politics and important landmark events and people in the civil rights time line have become a major theme in my work. From some of my earliest work as a teenager, the subject has been explored.

One of the earliest images I remember making was that of John Henry – The Steel Driving Man. I was 13 or so when I made that painting of a dark male figure with a large sledgehammer help on his shoulder. He was cast against a very bright, green/blue sky.

I have been reminded yearly of the significance of the date and the correlation to my work, since the days between the 15th and 20th of January are usually related to the birth of Martin Luther King Jr. So, in the past, my birthday has sometimes fallen on the same day the MLK Holiday was observed. Other times it is observed on the 19th, as it was this year. The 19th is my father’s birthday. He died at age 51 in 1993. The two days were very significant to me.

This year, January 20th, Inauguration Day, took on an entirely new meaning and significance. And again, I was reminded of the persistent relationship between my birth year and civil rights. Of course, I was never able to participate in the vintage civil rights movement, but in my own way, through my art, I have.

So as my first day in the open studio approached, I thought of what I might do. It seemed obvious that I would have to make a Barack Obama Inauguration Commemorative Golf Bag.

Over the last 10 years or so, I have incorporated the metaphor of Golf Bag, as a canvas on which to apply racially charged imagery, pieces of Americana and pop culture in the form of digital collage.

This piece seemed like the perfect way to begin my brief tenure at the museum. It is a blue “pleather” (Plastic made to look like leather) golf bag. I started with imagery from the Wednesday, January 21 edition of the NY Times.

Barack Obama and Michelle, Aretha Franklin and Abe Lincoln all appear in panels of the golf bag. Over the past week, I have been downloading and arranging different images in photoshop to bring into the studio and continue on what I think can be a very interesting piece of sculpture.

One thing I can say is that having the “Naked” art work “on display” long before it is “dressed” as a “finished” piece of art is an interesting way to work and the constant flow of visitors to the museum I found stimulating, challenging and exhausting – all in a very good way. If I know what I’m doing, trust what I’m doing and believe in what I’m doing, I should have no problem standing by what I’m doing when visitors express there curiosity, ask questions and give commentary.

All that said it was great first day in the open studio.

CM

Entry Filed under: in the studio