Up with Rosenquist! Down with electronic billboards! I remember road trips in the 1960’s when you could catch the derring do of men in their white jumpsuits and caps painting roadside billboards. Not only were the billboards beautiful, but were raised high off the ground requiring arial contraptions and bravery. Working free hand these journeymen would trust harnesses to keep them from falling while they used brushes to paint very large outdoor canvases. As thrilling as a high wire act, the men created art. Pop artist Joseph Rosenquist was one of these daredevils and his experience proved to be influential as can be seen in his piece below.

Stage artists blow me away with how they create emotional moments with their fearlessness and ability to “sell” it. The recent Grammy awards proved that! I get nervous for them.. they are the focus for massive audiences putting everything they have into each performance; and they thrive on an audience. Visual artists need an audience too. With the exception of in person shows we rarely get the “live” chance to showcase our personalities, guts and determination. While live performance is immediate yet temporary, gaining “fans” for visual artists is a long game. The prevalence of social media and access to personal websites has greatly improved exposure, but visual artists still peek from behind the curtain to ascertain if anyone is noticing our work. I had an art professor who once quipped, if you wanted applause you would be a performer. So from all the studio artists who work alone, thanks for your patronage, encouragement and recognition and “buy art from living artists, the dead ones don’t need it” (I am not the creator of this phrase).

I see colors! A visual person from childhood I would try to see specific colors when my eyes were closed. Understanding that my eyes were not closed but my rather my eyelids. And if you looked in different light well… I was also perpetually fascinated by the rainbow of colors produced by tar bubbles in the pavement. All was well until I decided to draw with the those colors. Tar all over my fingers, took my mother a long time to clean off and I was in big trouble admonished to never do that again. My poor mother, I constantly questioned her to be certain that all people saw colors the same as each other. What if my green was your orange? We would all be looking at the same thing convinced we all saw the same thing! Color has been a permanent sidekick my whole life and I’m glad about that.

I use the word “elegant” a lot, (of a scientific theory or solution to a problem pleasing, ingenious and simple) cite: Oxford Languages. I can use the word to describe anything from Christmas lighting to alarm clocks. It’s the intention of a design that pleases me. Is it beautiful, is it simple in its function? Looking at nature, form follows function in the leafing and consequential shedding of tree leaves. Or in the way flowers cover a field. It is never overdone. Regarding the human approach to elegance, it could be the neckline of a dress or the gesture of taking someone’s hand. Some may consider elegant as “snooty” word; it is anything but. It is simplicity and basic forms that make something elegant, it is a bird in flight, it is the Eiffel Tower, it is quiet.