Grow Where You Are Planted
Regions of the Mind
Published in Art
in Wisconsin
by Gary John Gresl
Perhaps we wish too much to be artists who are part of a national movement,
erring by attempting to fit in to the current popular style. Perhaps we
have learned a “wrong” art history. Perhaps we have overlooked our roots
and environment… that which has nurtured us and that which still sustains
us.
Those artists of the Midwest who we easily recall as being Regionalists--John
Stuart Curry, Grant Wood, Gerrit Sinclair, Thomas Hart Benton--were men
with a broader knowledge of world reality and art than a superficial reading
of their paintings suggests. They chose their subject matter from what
they knew, understood, appreciated and experienced, but they did not fail
to see bigger pictures of how life was lived elsewhere. They knew the
depths of art and thought and culture, but they selected their subject
matter to suit themselves.
This author has come to a late recognition that what we have in our
reach, that stuff which has helped form us and which we still live and
breath, is good enough. It is good enough to provide us with inspiration,
beauty or horror, love or loss, simplicity or complexity.
The intrigue and beauty of the accomplished bodies of work of those
Regionalists mentioned above, the charm, the sometimes seeming simplicity…those
were chosen by sophisticated minds for a reason. Their choices had as
much to do with living and intellect as did the nonobjective and abstract
work of Parisians and New Yorkers. Their choice of subject matter and
technique was highly personal, and an outgrowth of their life experiences,
choices and intellectual evolution. And, what is more, they were independent
and not creating art to suit a snobbish class that included willing slaves
to certain art critics and a select art culture.
It is obvious that our world view and our ability to access information,
current and past, is nowadays much greater than that of our forebears,
and even much better than the days of our own youth. Quantum leaps have
recently occurred.
We recognize that TV emerged in almost every home in the 1950s. At least
by the early 20th century, magazines and periodicals were available to
anyone who desired them, with specialty magazines dealing with fine art
appearing at anyone’s reach by mid-20th century. Popular magazines like
Life and Look carried at least occasional stories about the most prominent
artists of the century. Our schools of higher education provided scholarly
classes on the history of art, and there have been plenty of books dealing
with the art of today and yesterday.
Now we can type a name into a search engine such as Google or Lycos
and find hundreds of references and potential sources of information about
almost any subject. While it is still possible to be reclusive and remain
unaware of what is going on in the so-called art world, avoiding contact
and influence from major art centers and art movements takes a nearly
conscious effort.
Despite knowing so much about the Universe, it still is important to
recognize that where we live, what we experience--the life within our
reach--this is our place to grow. Here we witness our fellow creatures.
Here we learn to interact. In this place we become adults, we learn to
love, we experience sex and nature and sunlight and death. In our region
we grow and transform. Our childhoods become our memories...and the past
is locked into our brains. We choose from what we see in the broadest
sense, as well as selecting ideas and places and moods from our local
experience.
As far as we are complete as persons and artists, we express what is
important in our lives. Sometimes that is drawn from the local, and sometimes
from the remote and exotic. If we are considered Regionalists, then let
us be so by our own free will. Let others categorize us as they want,
but let us be as unique as we choose to be. We are not robots, nor slaves,
nor dupes. We grow here. We make our choices here. Part of the beauty
of the current scheme is the fact that we are free to reach for other
things, to see what ideas abound outside our Region.
But...this is our place. If we awake each morning and find our roots
are well planted, perhaps we can show in our art-making the indebtedness
to our physical and cultural environments. If some of us select subject,
theme, imagery or method which might be construed as Regional, then simply
let it be. Relax about it. We are part of the fabric of culture...of visual
art in which all geographic and intellectual regions weave
together.
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