Artist Statement for Murphy to Manteo—An Artist’s Scenic Journey

 

When asked if I had a title for this body of work, the words that came from my mouth of “Murphy to Manteo—An Artist's Scenic Journey” were not words that I had planned or rehearsed so I did not know from where the words came, and I certainly did not yet have an inkling that the seemingly spontaneous, off-the-cuff, title was actually multi-layered and metaphoric.

At the same time we have globalized, we find ourselves returning to values being placed on local and regional resources. We have turned our attention to local produce and regional food sources rather than building a future on those flown in from some distant continent. My intention is to ask you to turn away from the envy of the Alps as transported in Albert Bierstadt’s views of mid-nineteenth century America, in favor of the nobility of the Blue Ridge. For me, this journey is about rediscovering the riches of North Carolina in a pre-Interstate natural landscape and now hoping that you might experience the journey with me through these paintings.

Perhaps these works may contribute to a new sense of appreciation for the essential good of the North Carolina landscape. I am looking for factual information to confirm that the scenic environment of North Carolina still exists, however spotty it may be. The history of artists’ relationships with the landscape is strong in America but as a post-abstract realist, I have strived to find a way to depict the landscape that addresses post-modern issues rather than rehashing the issues of the great American landscapists of the 19th century or the great regional artists like Francis Speight of the 20th century. Although I have strived to assimilate the great American and regional landscapes, it is my hope that I have found an appropriate relationship to the current North Carolina landscape as well as to the artistic landscape of our time.

This body of work has actually evolved relatively slowly over a span of at least a dozen or so years and has finally taken on an impetus with a clear and decisive direction and objective. It is not that the core of the idea was slow in coming. It is rather than the fully developed concept and its various components were slow to converge. I suppose I began with the modest idea of just me, in my truck, taking an excursion, a journey, from my Edgecombe County farm to some connected and not too distant place and recording in paint the panorama unfolding before me along the way. I have often said that what passes through my eyes sustains me at my core, and I saw this as a way to acquire some sustenance. That beginning idea has evolved so that I now have taken on additional objectives as passengers, and now require a larger truck, more coordination, and a greater expenditure of all resources, especially effort and time. The aspiration to pursue such an ambitious objective challenges me to create the very best of which I am capable.

The journey started off quietly, without fanfare or any publicity, but as I have focused on the need for additional clear objectives, and have expanded the purpose, the journey has very gradually become something more like the Pilgrim's Progress. The other Christian was accompanied by an assortment of worldly obstacles, which in time compelled his wife to also make the journey. I am accompanied by a goal akin to building a mountain with a tablespoon. The quest is more-or-less accompanied in my head by Ravel's Bolero waxing towards a dramatic crescendo not yet achieved.

I suppose, in retrospect, this entire journey began when I started to see myself as no longer a South Georgian and began feeling that I was now a tried-and-true North Carolinian even though the red and black of the University of Georgia pulsing through my veins has never quite run true blue. As a North Carolinian and as a post-abstract realist, I believe that I should often seek inspiration for paintings in the landscape or the historic architecture around me so that the work will be more honest. I have found the example of the artist as tourist in an unfamiliar place or as a temporary visitor in a foreign land to not be much more than a pedestrian impression of what is casually seen. Although I have always found interest in the shapes and colors of still life subjects and am challenged by the circumstances of doing portraits, the periodic return to the scenes around me has continued to capture a great deal of my attention through the years.

This journey, this series of landscapes, began to take shape during the time that I had been sent by Barton College to teach at a sister institution in Nagoya, Japan. Jim Hemby, as president, had led the college to embrace internationalism to enhance the Barton experience. He had traveled to Nagoya, among other places, trying to establish reciprocal agreements with other colleges and universities. In Nagoya he found mutual objectives with the president of Aichi Shukutoku University and an agreement was signed. Upon his return, he announced the agreement to the faculty and staff. As I had long had an affinity for Japanese art and culture, the next morning I had a request on Hemby's desk so that I might be first in line declaring that I should like to be sent to the university in Japan to teach. I had gone to the trouble to look up and to write several phrases in Japanese even thought I did not yet speak the language at all. I later found out that I was not only the first in line but apparently the only one who had queued up.

All of the pieces eventually fell into place. I took two semesters of Japanese language and culture at Barton College in preparation for living and traveling in Japan and in early September of 1995, my family and I left Edgecombe County to spend nearly half a year in Nagoya. Although I had some prior knowledge of the beautiful Japanese wood-block prints, I became increasingly interested in the serial nature of many of the themes. The theme that most captured my imagination was the theme of “Scenic Views along the Tōkaidō.” The Tōkaidō was the ancient and most important road of the five that connected the island of Honshu during the Edo Period. It was the most important because it connected the old capital in Kyoto with the new capital in Tokyo. While Tokyo became the new political focus of the country, Kyoto remained the cultural heart of the country for many. Ando Hiroshige was one of the ambitious ukiyo-e artists that produced “100 Scenic Views of Edo” and “53 Scenic Views of the Stations along the Tōkaidō.” This whole concept began to capture my interest and I began to think I might undertake something like that when I returned to North Carolina.

Upon my return to North Carolina I began to think about the fact that the Tar River is directly across from my house and that this river had once been the principle highway from Tarboro to the Pamlico Sound. I thought the water views might provide interesting scenery. I began to think that I might undertake something like “100 Scenic Views along the Tar.” I began to travel by road up and down the Tar River gathering images and doing several Tar River paintings over a several year period while continuing other painting subjects. By 2000 I came to the conclusion that there was not enough visual variety for me to generate a large series of paintings of the Tar River. The river looked pretty much the same with the verdant canopy in the spring and summer from Louisburg through Tarboro gradually widening the further downriver you travel. In the winter months, it was pretty much the same, but without the canopy. I began to realize that what I was really looking for was an opportunity to explore compositional strategies beyond continuing to paint the cotton field in my front yard.

In 2001, not too long after thinking that I would abandon the project, I was invited by then Lieutenant Governor Beverly E. Perdue to exhibit some paintings in her office. She looked through many images of my paintings and selected a half dozen landscapes from Wilson and Edgecombe Counties that she wanted to hang. I happily brought the requested paintings to her Raleigh office on Blount Street and she quickly made it clear that because of her pride in being a North Carolinian, she wanted to showcase the beautiful landscape of the state in her office. Cotton Field at Cool Spring, Twilight hung across from the Lt. Governor's desk and she later told me how much she had enjoyed the painting and how it reminded her of her connection to the land and the history of North Carolina. Bev Perdue kept the paintings for a little over a year and then her assistant asked that I come and pick them up as they had received a request from some Wake County artists that they should be given the opportunity to have some of their works show cased there also. I quite understood and was honored to have had the opportunity to have my paintings in the Lt. Governor's office for the year. Bev Perdue's joy at seeing the paintings of her beloved state began to focus my attention on the fact that although the Tar River that I had abandoned as a subject might be in my front yard, I can almost see US 64 from my front porch and it is that famed Murphy to Manteo Highway that connects me to the entire state of North Carolina. Although I already thought of myself as a North Carolina artist, not just an Edgecombe County artist, because I had been exhibiting at Somerhill Gallery in Chapel Hill and other galleries across the state, I came to recognize that I mainly had been painting only Edgecombe County scenes trying to be true to my belief that an artist should paint what they know best.

For the first time I thought of US 64 as my highway in the same way that for the past 10 years I had thought of that cotton field in my front yard as my cotton field and something that I needed to record in all its moods and seasons. I quickly saw the enormous variety of landscapes that would be encountered if I had the courage and fortitude to try to paint a portrait of North Carolina from the westernmost border to the coast. I was transformed by a great pride in the pictorial possibilities of the North Carolina scenic landscape. I was unaware of any painter having attempted such a feat. There have been many coffee table books with breathtaking photographs of the state; and, there are many fine landscape paintings of various regions in the state; and, there was the series of etchings of historic structures and landscapes that were created by Louis Orr with the collaboration of Robert Lee Humber; but, I am unaware of a painter undertaking such an ambitious project as to record the over 560 miles of North Carolina from one side of the state to the other. The opportunity to artistically interpret the various landscapes in paintings became the objective.

The very first thing that I did once the concept began to take shape was to write a clear mission statement identifying any parameters that would focus and narrow the intent of the paintings. The writing of the mission statement forced me to make a series of early decisions that would provide direction for doing research and developing painting compositions. The principle objective in the mission statement was that I was going to focus on the scenic landscape, especially broad vistas that are either difficult or impossible to photograph descriptively. I felt that each of the counties through which US 64 passes should be represented in the series. I also began to focus on a desire to seek the most visually impressive scenes as well as scenes that celebrate the dignity of the commonplace from the mountains to the coast, which is where the idea of doing something like a portrait of the landscape of North Carolina emerged. That concept also provided me with greater variety of compositional opportunities and formats. I decided that the scale of the works needed to be adequately large to communicate the basic grand scale of the scenes represented, and that standing before the finished paintings should somehow be imminently satisfying akin to standing before the actual scenes.

I also began to think about the responsibility that each generation has to examine the landscape in such a way that may lead to an understanding of the status of the landscape in their time. It was not my intent to focus on ecological or stewardship issues but rather my objective was to seek what I considered to be the most visually impressive and interesting natural scenery whether that scenery was created totally by natural forces or by the hand of man. Sometimes those scenes are as seemingly timeless as is Chimney Rock, one of our two newest state parks, and sometimes as ephemeral as a sunrise, as transitory as a stand of trees, or as formidable as a stone quarry. If buildings, structures, or people were present, they were, for me, an incidental component in the scenic landscape, neither edited out nor elevated as principle subject. It, however, proved most often of greatest interest to me when the scene that I encountered had little reference to man so that I can freely cast as my protagonist the granite cliffs, spectacular waterfalls, and misty sunrises ensuring the focus remains the North Carolina scenic landscape. For me then, scenic is scenic with no intent to comment on man's relationship to his environment. It is the visual impact of place that I wish to experience and communicate.

I began research on this project by taking a North Carolina transportation map and drawing in red the US 64 Route and identifying what I might expect to find on or near to US 64 in each of the 24 counties through which US 64 passes. I made what I thought might be a comprehensive list based on looking at the map with a magnifying glass and listing landforms and waterways that were on or very close to US 64. I quickly found that going to a county tourist office did not lead to a good result as it was impossible for the county tourist agents to direct me based on things that would generate in me a strong visual response. In some counties there is spectacular scenery visible from US 64 and in others I would explore further into the landscape looking for those scenes that would stir me to action. I was predisposed to include as many of the significant contributors to the state's scenic environment as possible. As a result I began to think of the US 64 corridor as the access point to the scenery, sometimes visible from 64 and sometimes 64 becomes the principle destination route. I eventually decided that the US 64 corridor might include excursions as much as 10 miles from US 64. That parameter emerged very pragmatically as I certainly wanted to include Whitewater Falls in Jackson County which is the tallest waterfall in North Carolina and part of the Blue Ridge escarpment which is the highest set of waterfalls east of the Rocky Mountains. I also wanted to include among my works such a singularly distinguished scenic wonder as I had found near Lake Phelps in Washington County in Pettigrew State Park where there is a stand of trees that brings hush to the soul like being in some great cathedral.

The project gathered momentum because of my large retrospective in 2003. The retrospective was, to my knowledge, the first regional retrospective by an artist in North Carolina and had 140 paintings and 7 venues in three counties and involved many patrons and loans of paintings from many public and private collections. The retrospective was documented in a comprehensive catalogue co-produced as the first regional art collaboration in the three counties' histories and supported by more than 25 benefactors. I am immensely grateful to the patrons and benefactors who continue to offer me encouragement. The concept of the retrospective was to involve all of the communities where I had been very active since 1974 when I moved to North Carolina to take the teaching position at Barton College, and no single exhibition space in any of the communities was large enough to accommodate such a large number of paintings. In fact, in preparation for the retrospective, I was able to find over 600 images of paintings that I had produced, and a list two pages long of paintings that I could remember but had not recorded with images. I continue to run across paintings of mine in area frame shops being reframed and in homes that were not on the list. After the regional retrospective, a representative sampling comprised of 30 pieces traveled to the Spartanburg County Museum of Art and the Burroughs-Chapin Museum of Art in South Carolina, and the Albany Museum of Art in Georgia.

The importance to me of the retrospective was to help me focus on what I was going to do next having spent more than a year preparing for the 35-year retrospective. That act of looking back led me to begin looking to the future and convinced me that the work on the US 64 project was of utmost importance. In the years following the retrospective, apart from my teaching duties at the college, a number of events including the illnesses and deaths of my mother- and father-in-law with whom I was very close, doing numerous commissioned paintings including 30 for The Lodge on St. Simons Island, GA, being involved in an automobile accident that had a broad impact on my life, and working on the restoration of 2 historic houses in Wilmington consumed a great deal of my energy. Now that I have basically completed the work on the last house, I have turned my full attention to completing the US 64 series and will plan to begin traveling the exhibition in 2012 throughout North Carolina.

I and my family have spent several years renting condos on or very near US 64 giving me the staging point to research and gather images of the various sections of the state. We have twice spent weeks in the Highlands area both in conjunction with my doing four commissions for the Highlands Country Club and other times solely for the purpose of researching and preparing US 64 paintings. I have made a number of trips without my family to the middle part of the state and to Roanoke and Bodie islands at the coast. I have made dozens of day trips from my Edgecombe County farm both east and west searching for scenes in the neighboring counties that represent those counties in the series and that fulfill my mission statement. I have become so familiar with many of the sites that I am painting that I do not feel like a tourist in my own state. Rather I am indeed painting the scenic landscape of the state that I have come to know as well as I know my own front yard in Edgecombe County.

The impact of being in the various landscapes has frequently precipitated in me a variety of responses that has led me to a renewed desire to explore elements in the paintings beyond postcard-like appearances. It has become important to me to also strive to have the paintings reflect the feelings of being in the scenic places and reflecting each one's uniqueness.

The art elements and principles serve as a basis to communicate to the viewer with as much visual engagement as I can muster, and continues to be a major objective. For the past 35 years, I did always strive to use sound abstract compositional arrangements melded with descriptive representational perspective and form. The newly acquired objective, or should I say re-acquired objective, of my desire to communicate what the experience of being in the scenic landscape feels like has brought me full circle; as when I began painting, I was painting based on feelings rather than appearances. I have often told my students that making art is a combination of what you see, what you know, and what you feel. Perhaps I have indeed found greater balance with all three of these attributes being of importance in this series.

It is this intersection of seemingly unrelated influences and events that has led me to come full circle in these landscapes. In searching for scenic North Carolina, I found more than subject matter for paintings. Believing that an artist should represent that which they know best, embracing becoming a North Carolinian, developing the interest in the serial nature of the Japanese wood-block prints, beginning to see the broader opportunities beyond my own front yard as a result of Bev Perdue's love of North Carolina, and, finally, becoming again interested in communicating about feelings has brought me to the place that these scenic North Carolina landscapes have come to be. Although I began the journey seeking only to represent North Carolina scenic landscapes; I have, in fact, on the journey found something of myself reflected in these scenes and I sincerely hope that viewers might find something of themselves reflected there also.