Alzheimers and de kooning

How Our Lives Effect our Art

William de Kooning 

William de Kooning       google image

abstract artist 

One of the interesting things that I remember reading about de Kooning was how he continued to paint after he had alzheimer's disease. It interested me in how the brain continues to function after such a horrific assault. As the brain becomes more diminished how can an artist continue to create?  Does the mind retain reflex memory like muscle memory?  Did his paintings just become more simple?  Here is a paragraph I found about de Kooning during this time.

one of de kooning's women painted before alzheimers
google image

Painting William de Kooning did after alzheimer onset
google image

  "In later years, de Kooning was diagnosed with the probability of suffering from Alzheimer's disease.^[3] After his wife Elaine died on February 1, 1989, his daughter, Lisa, and his lawyers, Lee and John Eastman were granted guardianship over De Kooning.^[3]

There is much debate over the significance of his 1980s paintings, which became clean, sparse, and almost graphic, while alluding to the biomorphic lines of his early works. Some have said that his very last works present a new direction of compositional complexity and color juxtaposition, and are prophetic of directions that some current painters continue to pursue. Some speculate that his mental condition and years of alcoholism had rendered him unable to carry out the mastery indicated in his early works. Others claim some of these paintings were removed from the studio and exhibited before de Kooning was finished with them. Unfortunately, de Kooning's last works have not been afforded the amount of critical commentary or substantial serious assessment that his earlier works received.^{[9]" Wikapedia} 

So how is our art effected when we are ill, traumatized, handicapped or otherwise severely challenged in our lives?

HOW DOES YOUR LIFE EFFECT YOUR ART?

Biology 101  by Elizabeth Gordon              Clay tile with photo transfer printing inks   2012      
 
The clay tile above is a piece I created this year at Hyde Park Art Studio.  With my friend and teacher Kathy Pena we experimented and created a type of ceramic ink that we could use on low fire clay.  In this piece I had experimented successfully I think with overlays.  The idea for this piece came from my Mother's love of biology and nature.  She studied science in college and taught biology and chemistry in high school.  She taught me and my brother the love of all living things as children.  She formed stories around different kinds of insects to help us learn about their lives and habits so we would understand them and not be afraid of them.  I grew up fascinated with all insects.  Growing up in a tropical environment like Florida one becomes used to being surrounded by bugs of all kinds.  And more recently spending summers in the mountains of the Blue Ridge Mountains I have widened my knowledge of various insects.  Their colors can be brilliant and their structure complicated and fascinating.  From my Mothers' love of science and nature comes my interest that transfers into my art.  Sometimes it is conscious, other times I think it is not.  If you think deeply about how you grew up, what influenced you, what your parents did, what you were surrounded by..you might surprise yourself with what you discover that influences your art.  Sometimes it can be the most minute of things...we are complex organisms ourselves....where a hint of a smell can whisk us back to a childhood memory...like riding down a gravel road in Mississippi, windows down in a 1940's Hudson and red clay dust whirling in...will I make a piece of art from those memories or have I already?
Think, remember, think, recall, and you may just be amazed!

HOW LIFE EFFECTS ART
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

The Philippines 1972-75 
Journey to the Rice Terraces of Banaue 
Igorot Tribal Territory
Head hunters still active

I was a young art teacher working on Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines in the 1970's. I lived in the city of Olongapo off base with another teacher sharing a house on the side of a mountain.  I chose to live off base to live in the community and to get to know the Filipino people and culture better.  My friends and I were mostly in our twenties and some older, but all curious and open to learning about the world and other cultures.  I say that, because many Americans that were in the military, chose to stay on base as if it were an Island isolated from the world they lived in..never leaving, never interacting with the people or country they resided in.  Our group traveled widely and experienced all with open arms and with great delight.  

Halsema Highway to Banaue  google image

Bus on narrow dirt Halsema highway google image

On this one trip we went to Baguio in Northern Luzon.  There was an American R&R for the military personnel, but it was also a beautiful cool mountain city with fantastic open markets with fresh vegetables and exquisite crafts.  From there we booked a trip to the rice terraces of Banaue.  We were told the trip was arduous and long on the Halsema road ( Halsema must be one of the worst highways in the world. I must say that I agree with him. Quote: “There are many accidents and overturned buses on a yearly basis. Often there are sheer drop offs of over 1000 feet without a guard rail. During the rainy season it is nearly impassable.”) and that we would be driving through head hunting territories ( warning, graphic picture in link) that were still active....but we were told it was our good luck it was not the right time of year to take heads! As we drove through the country side the mountain roads twisted more and the elevation got higher and higher.  At one point the road was so narrow it only allowed for one way traffic.  We were stopped at the base of the mountain in a small village where they radioed ahead to stop the cars at the top.  It took over an hour of waiting for the last automobiles to come through. While we were waiting I decided to take some photo's of the people and village from the car (as we asked not to get out).  It was not a popular decision, as the locals decided the camera would steal their souls.  The people began throwing rocks at car. In the nick of time the gates lifted and we were off.  The road was narrow, dirt and hugged the mountain. At one point huge rocks blocked our path and we all got out to help our driver push the bolder's over the edge. Later we encounter a bus full of nuns that were on their way down the mountain that had gotten stuck..they blocked out path and there was no getting around.  So the driver of our car got out and begin to try to help...with lots of effort from many people standing precariously near the edge on the steep slippery cliff of the mountain...the bus was unstuck and the Nuns were on their way again.

Banaue Rice Terraces                                                  google image

We finally arrived in the very remote village of Banaue. The first day was market day, where the most awesome of weavings were sold.  My goal as a twenty year old American had been to go to the most remote areas untouched by western civilization and see indigenous cultures.  I was so pleased, I thought I had achieved that in this head hunter village as I was being stared at by a barefoot

Ifugao man with the barest of covering, and wearing his human vertebrate necklace! And 

Ifugao Man  google image

then I looked up, and on the side of the mountain was the largest Coke sign I had ever seen!  I was stunned...there was no other signs anywhere, no advertising, but here was this red huge Madison Avenue affront.  So began the first conceptual art piece I ever did....Pervasiveness Of Culture.  It was a montage of Coke ads and photo's of the Igorot peoples.

Ifugao Weavers                 google

There was much discussion during the time I lived in the Philippines about the influence of Western culture that was obliterating the culture and belief system of Filipino's...and not for the good.  As there has been world wide also, and the discussion continues.  When does one culture have the right to dominate others?  

Magandang Umaga Philippines!  

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Paco Garospe(click) is known as the Picasso of the Philippines. 

 I lived in the Philippines as a young art teacher and had some wonderful experiences there.  I met artists and took art classes as well.  It was a wonderful time in my life.  I learned many things during that time, about myself, my country and the world.  The Filipino people were kind and patient mentors of a young American abroad.  I was greeted with generosity and warmth wherever I traveled.  I had a little brown Dodge Dart that I drove to Manila and Baguio and back.  I rode through dirt roads with pot holes in a cane field for miles to take a short cut to Manila with the warm island breeze drifting in my car windows.  I need to have a t-shirt that says I drove in Manila and survived!  I watched local craftsmen carve statues in a variety of woods. I watched tiny woman, as strong as a man, throw huge pots of a wheel.  I drew and painted and took photographs, but mainly I experienced life.  I learned to love lumpia and pork adobo. I rode jeepenys through town and shopped in the open markets.  I saw rice fields with slow moving water buffalo and small children riding on their backs. 

google image

 I saw families so tender and patient with children it touched my heart.  I snorkeled the crystal clear waters and floated above a universe of the most beautiful sea life one can imagine.   I rode through head hunter territory to the terraced mountains of Banaue. And it was there I had an experience that would later become a major piece of art for me.   
So to the Filipino people, I say salmat po!  Thank you!

Love the U.K.!!!! A Shout Out For You!!

To my ever present friends in the U.K. it is so nice to see you checking in and reading our blog.  I do have a prejudice about you U.K. people...I just love you all!!!  I have two very close friends in Whitstable, one famous generous compassionate artist friend in Manchester(Martin Stynes), two wonderful English buds who lives between France and the U.K.( Graham and Peter) and two wonderful friends who live in Scotland..Bonnie Lassies they are.  I can hardly wait until I get to come back and see everyone.  I also love the Tate!!!

Visual Artist Register of the U.K(CLICK)

David Prentice                British Abstract Painter

A NOD TO SWEDEN

Today when I was checking my blog stats, I noticed many people checking in from Sweden...so I thought I would honor you in my own small way.  Here is a website that list an alphabetical list of Swedish Artist.  So lets all learn more about Sweden and their artist. 
Thank you for your patronage and readership Sweden!

SWEDISH ARTIST WEBSITE(just click)

Swedish Artist Michael Johansson                                                                               google image

Christopher Burdett

ART OF CHRISTOPHER  BURDETT                                                              google image

How our lives effect our art.  This is a story with a personal side for me.  I know Chris, I have known him since he was born.  He is the son of one of my very best friends who is more like a sister than a friend.  And Chris is more like my nephew than a friends son. I have watched him grow and been with him a good bit of his growing years.
Chris was born to a Mother who was a high school art teacher and a very talented artist.  His Father was an ecologist for the state.  Each parent was to influence him in his life and art in interesting ways.  Chris' first word was "ish" for fish.  When he was barely a toddler he was in the john boat with his parents basking in the Florida sun and catching blue crabs or a net brimming with shrimp.  He was constantly surrounded with nature and its creatures.  I went on many of those adventures with Chris watching him interact with his environment with such joy.  He was a happy child and took in all his experiences with delight.  His Mother drew, threw clay, painted and created constantly around him.  So Chris copied his Mother and began to do art.  He made creatures of all kinds and often they looked alot like the creatures of the gulf waters and swamps where we had just ventured.  He made clay figures and photographed them, changed their movement and shape and photographed them again.  The he made a film...he wasn't even 10 yet and he was making movies. The he made his own comic character and story...his character Bill, was part bird but had super powers.
His art and drawing became outstanding for his age.  He continued to outshine all his classmates.  He got a part time job in a comic store and that added another influence to his art and his interest in fantasy illustration.  Chris went on to study art at the university level and added to his skill in various media.  Then he worked on film sets and tv shows in Hollywood.  He married returned home, but continue his work in fantasy illustration.  He has built a reputation amongst the fantasy illustration artist and is quite respected.  But I will always see that blonde curly boy basking in the Florida sun holding a blue crab looking so carefully....and now see parts of all those creatures in his work today.  Our lives art are intertwined with our art.
Chris made this fascinating time lapse drawing of one of his creatures.  He also has a wonderful blog I highly recommend.
Take a peak...you will love this..just click on highlighted address below.

http://christopherburdett.blogspot.com/2012/07/sahrvin-demon-drawing-time-lapse-test.html

HOW OUR LIVES EFFECT OUR ART
series 2

Here is a partial list from wikipedia on artist who suffer from major depression.  It is a huge list of people that is alphabetized.

Edgar Degas Suffered From Major Depression
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1. William Faulkner: Battles against depression and alcoholism did not prevent the quintessential Southern Gothic, modernist writer from winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. While a tragic figure, William Faulkner's successes dispel the myth that depression equals incompetence.
2. Michel Foucault: The heavily influential French philosopher's depression likely stemmed from his homosexuality at a time when such things were even more stigmatized than they are today. However, it likely led to his intensive studies in the fields of psychology and sociology as well.
3. Stephen Fry: Because society listens to celebrities much, much more than they ever will to psychological professionals, Stephen Fry has been an invaluable asset to the destigmatization mental illness in the world. He uses his position as a beloved writer and performer to encourage others with depressive disorders to seek therapy. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder (formerly manic depression), Fry has experienced suicidal behaviors, fugue states and reckless behavior as a result.
4. Paul Gauguin: Suicide attempts and overall mental and physical malaise plagued this popular painter's adult life, so much so he eventually abandoned his family and fled to French Polynesia when the stresses of poverty and artistic failure grew too overwhelming. Even there, though, he drank too much, contracted syphilis and ran afoul of the law and the church.
5. Vincent van Gogh: Perhaps unsurprisingly, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh formed a tumultuous friendship over their mutual creativity and mental illnesses. Theories abound from epilepsy to schizophrenia to bipolar disorder, but regardless of the source he still grappled with severe depression.
6. Francisco de Goya y Lucientes: Francisco de Goya's artwork reflected his bouts of depression, revolving around themes of absurdity, meaninglessness, physical torment, growing old, death and other common fears and anxieties.
7. Ernest Hemingway: During Ernest Hemingway's famous stint in Cuba, his lifetime of depression and alcoholism began wreaking havoc on his mind, which rendered him paranoid and disoriented until his eventual suicide.

HOW OUR LIVES EFFECT OUR ART
Series 2 

 Artist with disabilities
Steven Wiltshire/British Autistic Artist

Steven is an amazing artist. His visual memory is astounding.  He flew over London in a helicopter and then proceeded to draw the entire city by memory!!! Watch the you tube video included below.

OUR LIVES ARE NOT SEPARATE FROM OUR ART!

OUR LIVES BECOME ART AND VICE VERSA
A discussion            

  Part 1

Yayoi Kasama                                                             google image

This morning I was watching a national news morning show which highlighted an artist I have been interested in since becoming aware of her fantastic long career.  She is Japanese, she is in her 80's, she has voluntarily lived in a mental facility for the last 30 years, and she is obsessive about dots.  Her name is Yayoi Kusama(click).  She is one of the most important artist of our time and one of the most pioneering women artist of our time.  It calls to mind something about the creative nature of our minds, imagination, and the healing nature of the arts.  I think there are people who think all artists are mad, or border or mental illness and there are some famous ones:  Van Gogh is an example.  He also struggled with his mental health and turned to the arts.  Caravaggio was another, a man obsessed with violence and pain; he also turned to the arts.  I think what we must see in this path is that people turn to the arts to heal and to survive.  The arts also offer an avenue to  self expression that is denied in other parts of our society.  Jackson Pollack drank and smoked to much, 

de kooning            google  image

de Kooning painted very scary looking women, and so on. Are there happy artist with life without drama...of course.  But I would say we reach to the arts for many reasons, to express ourselves in a way we can not in any other way.  We are the sensitives of society, we absorb and we reflect our times.  Those sensitivities drives people to the arts, to express or to heal or to communicate.

Now I will talk about my life personally and how it influences my art.  I was born in Mississippi in a time of great prejudice against African Americans...it drove me to express the need for all people to be treated equally.  I grew up in Florida on the Gulf Coast in a city of Cuban and Italian Immigrants.  I grew up want to learn and to express what I learned about various cultures.  I lived in Asia and the Philippines, I learned to respect all cultures and become a citizen of the world, not one place.  I learned how my country could effect other countries for good and for bad.  I learned other people may have better ideas than my own country and that we are not the center of the universe.  I taught mentally handicapped children, mentally disturbed children.  I learned what prejudice existed against children and adults who had no choice in how they were born.  I learned no matter what intelligence level you are you can be an artist, you can be creative.  I lived in the  Middle East and learned not one religion or faith is better than another.  It all began to come out in my art...cultures, the world, rights for all peoples, peace, prejudice, the horrors of hatred and war, my travels, my friendships of other people in other cultures...and now for the last 10 years plus the struggle of watching my Mother struggle with the effects of massive stroke, caretaking, nursing homes, how age and dementia and alzheimers destroys people we love.  And now I find a need to express that in my art...I look to art to heal and to help me as I go through this journey with my Mother.  As I write this I realize I need to break it into sections of interest.  Our first subject is creativity, madness, and art as the healer.  Secondly a close up look at artist who are artists struggling with mental and physical health.
Thirdly I will take you on my personal journey with my art and life...showing you where the experience crosses over into the art....and I would say, we as artists are not always aware when or how that happens.  It is like when you dream a dream...the symbols in the dream may not make since to you, but a friend will point something out...and you think-how did I not see that!

ART IN THE 21ST CENTURY
this is a wonderful series on contemporary art

The series started in early 2000, so you can subscribe  or find many of the episodes on you tube.  Enjoy world of art lovers if you are just discovering this-it is rich!

Without poets, without artists, men would soon weary of nature's monotony. The sublime idea men have of the universe would collapse with dizzying speed. The order which we find in nature, and which is only an effect of art, would at once vanish. Everything would break up in chaos. There would be no seasons, no civilization, no thought, no humanity; even life would give way, and the impotent void would reign everywhere. -Guillaume Apollinaire

Caos by Miro                                             google image

Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back. Remember that and be very gentle with yourself.
Julia Cameron 

Monica throwing with more and more confidence

NEW BENCHMARK FOR RABBIT'S MOON STUDIO!

Benchmark up three thousand hits!!! 33,010!
Thank you world, thank you artists and art lovers and art advocates!  Your support is what makes us successful.  It is our pleasure to serve you and join hands in the name of art and peace and understanding across this big planet of ours!!

GOOGLE IMAGE

MAY THERE BE PEACE IN THE WORLD
MAY THERE BE BEAUTY IN THE WORLD
MAY THERE BE LOVE IN THE WORLD
AND MAY ART HELP TO HEAL AND BUILD BRIDGES OF UNDERSTANDING. 

New Artist Series

Javier T. Jones

How we make a difference in the arts, Makes a difference din peoples lives. 
Muy Bueno Por Todas El Mundo.

Javier T. Jones  Copper Artist

Javier honors a past copper artist Jack Lebow
Jack worked with my students on a public art project.

Javier is an artist I met recently that impressed me in his life and his art.  He has a studio loft above the Florida Craftsmen Guild in St. Petersburg Florida.  He is originally from Puerto Rico where he taught elementary art.  So, right away we had something in common, both being art educators.  He taught in a very rough area where he had 5th graders who were already prostitutes and boys who were rapists.  He worked hard in the community to make a difference. He did a mural program in the neighborhood to cover up gang graffiti with the kids.  I can not tell you how much I admire people like Javier who work a hard day of teaching art, pushing a cart, begging for art supplies, and trying to survive financially in teaching...but still go out after hours and on weekends to help kids.  The sacrifice is enormous, it takes away from your own kids and family time, it takes your own money and resources, it takes your heart and soul.  
Javier's art work demands duel attention with his work as a Physical therapist and a Father.  He gets up early, goes to the studio, mixes his chemicals to make a patina for his metal, then heads out to work.  He is an amazing person, and has such a positive outlook for his art and art for others.  

CAN SOMEONE BE A CRAPPY PERSON, BUT A GREAT ARTIST?

Caravaggio

Caravaggio died in a mysterious death at a young age
google image

The Sacrifice Of Issac by  Carivaggio                 google image

The answer is yes!  Sometimes we are elevated beyond ourselves.  In the case of Caravaggio, it is possibly very true.  Here is a synopsis of his life from Wikipedia below.  It appears he was difficult to get along with, always looking for a fight to get into, and killed a young man in a brawl.  But his work was brilliant, he can show emotion and suffering so dramatically in his work.  We can easily be moved by his paintings and his evident empathy with those suffering. It is hard to wrap our minds around that.  Van Gogh was a difficult man, found it hard to interrelate to people, and often psychotic.  He could be violent and angry.  But he is now one of the most famous of artist...his work is colorful and delightful.
So how did these men and other artist work on such a high level and their work become brilliant inspite of themselves?  Is there another level we reach when we open ourselves to the ideas and visions that come to us when we approach our art?  Are we elevated in above our own nature?  It is a question worth pondering and worth discussion.  

"An early published notice on him, dating from 1604 and describing his lifestyle three years previously, tells how "after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him."^[3] In 1606 he killed a young man in a brawl and fled from Rome with a price on his head. He was involved in a brawl in Malta in 1608, and another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. This encounter left him severely injured. A year later, at the age of 38, he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole, reportedly from a fever while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon.

Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. Despite this, his influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from the ruins of Mannerism was profound. It can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence were called the "Caravaggisti" or "Caravagesques", as well as Tenebrists or "Tenebrosi" ("shadowists"). Andre Berne-Joffroy, Paul Valéry's secretary, said of him: "What begins in the work of Caravaggio is, quite simply, modern painting."^[4]"

Van Gogh with Bandaged Ear

^{Van Gogh}

^{quote from Wikipedia on Van Gogh's} struggles
In January 1879, he took a temporary post as a missionary in the village of Petit Wasmes^{[note 5]} in the coal-mining district of Borinage in Belgium. Taking Christianity to what he saw as its logical conclusion, van Gogh lived like those he preached to, sleeping on straw in a small hut at the back of the baker's house where he was staying. The baker's wife reported hearing van Gogh sobbing at night in the hut. His choice of squalid living conditions did not endear him to the appalled church authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood." He then walked to Brussels,^[30] returned briefly to the village of Cuesmes in the Borinage, but gave in to pressure from his parents to return home to Etten. He stayed there until around March the following year,^{[note 6]} a cause of increasing concern and frustration for his parents. There was particular conflict between Vincent and his father; Theodorus made inquiries about having his son committed to the lunatic asylum at Geel.^{[31][note 7]}

Candy Chang

    

NEW ORLEANS ARTIST

I first saw CANDY Chang's work in a New Orleans publication.  It showed a house boarded up since Katrina painted with chalk board paint and the phrase "Before I die" painted line after line repeatedly living room for an answer. Candy's desire to connect others to each other in a positive way that pitches art and social environmentalism in a new light.  Her ideas are touching, visionary and needed.  As we disconnect from our world with technology, we more than ever need to be connected  personally in an ever challenging world.  Watch the ted event movie and you will be touched.  I am ever interested in young artist who see our world and interactions to it so differently.

Meeting Martin Stynes(click)

Have you ever met someones art before you met them?  That was the case with Martin.  We have corresponded on line and facebook for a good long time.  We have talked art, about his shows and exhibitions, we have talked of other artists, we have talked of philosophy and science.  I have read Martin's poetry, and time traveled with him to the future and back.  I have introduced other artists to him and him to me.  And now he sent his work to a gallery in Florida near where I live.  So I hurried over to see it and there it was hung in the front room, the same lovely abstract landscape paintings I knew so well.  I would have bought that tryptic, but someone beat me to it, it had a little red dot...sold! I think it happened the first day, lucky person!   So now I must get Martin to come to Florida or North Carolina when I can actually get to meet this fine painter and good hearted friend in person!

" Welcome Martin, I thought, so nice to finally meet you!"

Me meeting Martins' Painting            photo by Ann Suggs

photo by Elizabeth Gordon

"All of us do this: Experiment, play, move things around, juxtapose stuff, re-invent and re name. Sometimes something happens and we stop and stare. We didn't know we were going to do this. And then it might wind up in the editing page and make its way to an album on facebook, pinned to the wall and stared at. And again some of this becomes a piece of work to finish. It might end up in the blog or listed on the website. Occasionally it is selected for a show. A group exhibition or a solo show. People come and look. Stop and stare again. The title intrigues them, it begins a train of thought they were not expecting. I visit and see this thing with words and begin to wonder if I knew what I was doing. It is often the case that I conclude, no, I didn't know. This is why I and we are in awe of what we do and what we bring into this world. In awe because I do not think it is us who are in charge." a quote by Martin Stynes

Close up detail of Martin's tryptic 

note the red dot...SOLD!

Morean Art Gallery and Center Members Show

Hi Martin Stynes, so nice to meet you!

A Man Who Does Good in the Name of Art

Duncan McClellan
hero of the arts

Duncan McClellan, glass artist                         from google image

DON'T ASK WHAT THE ARTS CAN DO FOR YOU, ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR THE ARTS! 

Glass Art of Duncan McClellan                                                                from google image

That is Duncan's philosophy. It is Kennedyesque, but it is also all Duncan, a one man rocking machine!  He is a glass blower, and he etches his glass in amazing ways.  He is a charming engaging man.  He is a successful artist who has made his way.  The story could end there, if he were a man who only focused on himself and his success.  But what makes this story unique is he did not choose to focus on himself only.  He chose to help a community, a neighborhood, fellow artists, schools, and a city along the way!  

Duncan's Art Studio, Gallery, home and organic fruit garders                  photo by elizabeth gordon

He single handily turned an old dying warehouse district into a district of the arts and active studios.  He took an old warehouse in a very iffy area, sunk a huge bunch of money to turn it into his studio, galleries for himself and visiting artists and now a huge hot shop.  Every Saturday on the first day of the month he opens he studio to every one, and it is quite an event.  He also reconditioned an old trailer into a traveling art trailer for the local schools. 

with $6000 dollars Duncan reconditioned this old trailer with a sand blaster, and glass art tools to take to the local schools to teach them about glass blowing and etching.  photo by elizabeth gordon

 For he knows something I know as a teacher of the arts, if you teach children to love and appreciate the arts they will the future buyers of art, and visitors of galleries!  But he does if because he cares about kids and the arts.  He is a man with a big heart and a huge smile. 

Maryanne(art therapist and author)  and my with the handsome new manager of the new hot shop
Jake Stout

First Saturday Art Opening at Duncan's Gallery and Studio

Side patio at Duncan's Gallery with another artists sculptures

Mediterraneo by Sergio Daveri and Italian Artist

Sergio Daveri

Duncan's Art Openings are a popular event

The point is we can all chose to do art for ourselves and our needs or our bank account...Duncan chose to bring others along with him in his success and to be inclusive rather than excluding.  To me that makes him a hero...a hero of the arts! 

ADDENDUM FOR THE UNLIKELY ARTIST
Jim and Andrew the bankers turned Quilters

FROM GOOGLE

CHECK IT OUT!!!  MC CALL'S QUILTING MAGAZINE HIGHLIGHTS OUR ARTISTS!!!!
AND PORTLAND QUILTING SHOW!!!

 http://quiltsb.blogspot.com/.....BOOKMARK THIS SITE...THESE GUYS ARE SMOKING HOT!!!