Art I'm Making: "Curious Boy" (c. 1975)

Over the last two days, I finally got around to cleaning up my photographic darkroom (which has morphed into a wine cellar) and I think I've now got it to a state that will allow the wine and the photo equipment to co-exist. I'm looking forward to putting the equipment to use again.

While cleaning and straightening, I found the negative for this photo, which I remember having titled "Curious Boy." I made this photograph when I was 15. I vaguely recall winning an honorable mention for it in a contest. The image was made on a bus in Dayton, Ohio, c. 1975. It's on Kodak Plus-X film. At the time, I would have been using a Yashica TL-Electro. Two years later, I had graduated to an Olympus OM-2, a camera that I still have and use occasionally. 

Seeing the image now, I'm a little disappointed that the boy's face isn't more crisply focused, but this was done before auto-focus was a thing. It was a fleeting moment. The boy turned around. I lifted my camera and pushed the shutter button. I probably had only a second to adjust the focus if I had any time at all. 

Books I'm Reading: Night Studio

Musa Mayer's Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston (Knopf, 1988) has been in my bookshelves for years - more than 25 years. When I took it down recently to finally read it, the sales slip was still in it. I bought it on September 2, 1989 at a store in Nihonbashi, in Tokyo. I paid $5,900 for it, which in those days was about $40 (¥146/$). I tended to buy whatever looked of interest and was willing to pay what it cost because interesting English-language books were comparatively hard to find in Tokyo at the time.  

Musa Mayer, born Musa Guston, is the painter's daughter. While she is not otherwise a writer, as far as I know, she writes very well, painting a vivid picture (unavoidable pun?) of what it was like to grow up in the shadow of a famous man and particularly of her stained relationship with her father who appears to have been more attentive to his painting than he was to his family – which is not to say that he was cruel or manipulative. He was simply devoted to his work. 

Additionally, the book was interesting on a personal level because it turns out that the author left New York and her parents as a young bride and lived and worked in Yellow Springs and Dayton, Ohio – both locations I know well. It's odd how often Yellow Springs seems to pop up. Among my artist friends here in Sonoma County, two have lived in Yellow Springs, and one, like Musa Mayer, worked at Antioch College, in Yellow Springs. According to the book, Mayer became a counsellor and worked with youth patients at Good Samaritan Hospital, in Dayton. I walked past Good Samaritan every day on my way to high school, although my school is no longer standing and I've heard that Good Samaritan is gone too. 

Tidbits: RIP--Helen Frankenthaler (December 27, 2011)

I saw today that artist Helen Frankenthaler died yesterday. I always liked her work. In the lobby of the Winters National Bank, in Dayton, Ohio, there used to be a very large weaving based on one of her paintings that I always liked very much (this would have been back in the 1970s, when I was in high school, or younger). I wonder if it's still there? I wonder if Winters National Bank still exists? Funny the way the Internet has changed the weight of such musings. There's no longer any need to wonder about much of anything, is there? If I really want to know, I can just Google it....*

Frankenthaler was known for the style that came to be called "color field painting"--using large washes of color, sometimes poured directly on bare canvas. I wonder how those paintings have held up--physically, I mean. I wonder if the paint and thinner has damaged the unprimed canvas over the years? Reminds me of one of Kurt Vonnegut's books--Bluebeard. Anyway, tonight I will raise a glass to Ms. Frankenthaler. RIP.

*And so I did. It seems Winters National Bank is now part of JPMorgan Chase. I learned a few other things. I had known that the bank was associated with the family of comedian Jonathan Winters, who was from the Dayton area. I didn't know that Winters studied cartooning at the Dayton Art Institute. Hmmm.... Now you know, too.

On the road: Goodbye Ohio--almost

Haven't been able to write much because of work. I've been stuck in my hotel rooms in the morning the last two days. Since I last wrote, I've been mostly in Oberlin, where I stayed last night. I went to Oberlin in the hope of seeing a copy of a little booklet of views of the Oberlin campus that my Grandfather, Warren R. Laity, published and illustrated with his own photographs, but Oberlin doesn't have a copy. I remembered there was one at the Ohio Historical Society Library in Columbus, so made plans to go home through Columbus. I was also hoping to see the Columbus Museum of Art, but work got in the way. I'm now having a late dinner in Centerville (decent Mexican), hoping to get as far east as I can tonight.

I enjoyed seeing the campus at Oberlin. Judging from the photographs in my Grandfather's publication (which I saw and copied this afternoon), it hasn't changed much since he was here, in 1923-24. I especially enjoyed the art museum on Campus. It's a small space, but the quality of the work is excellent. The large addition was closed for renovation. I assume they usually show more than what I was able to see, but there was an interesting special exhibit of German Expressionists and one of Japanese prints as well. As a souvenir, I picked up an Oberlin T-shirt. Stayed at an inexpensive B&B in Oberlin.

I didn't get back to Columbus until 4:00PM, but the OHS is open late on Thursdays, which was lucky. Actually, it's closed on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so it's very lucky I hit it. I found and had them copy the book of views of Oberlin and also found some family records in their collections while I was waiting. The OHS is huge. I had no idea. You could spend a week in the place looking things up. Wish I had known when I lived nearby.

Then headed south and east, hoping to make some headway. I was hoping to see Corinne, my old friend from Japan, in Dayton, but it didn't work out. I have no idea where I'll stay tonight, but I suspect I'll stop driving earlier rather than later.

On the Road: Dayton and Columbus, Ohio

In Dayton, spent the evening last night with friends from high school and college. It was a lot of fun to see them again after about 12 years, and nice to be among friends for the first time in many days.

This morning I ran over to Woodland Cemetery to see the family plot. I cleaned off the stones a bit, but everything was in order. Now that some time has passed, the broken stone cross doesn't look that bad. I left a few flowers at my Grandma's grave and sent her greetings.

I drove around a bit, but really didn't look at much. It was rather sad. So much of the area I knew is run down and overgrown. I did go to the old house. It's for sale. It looked empty, or as if someone was camping out on a mattress in the living room. The redbud tree I planted all those years ago is giant. The plum tree has been cut down. There were many shoots from where it stood, but I couldn't pull one with roots. So, I guess my quest over the years to get one going in a yard of my own is hopeless. Too bad. I drove by the Forrest Avenue house in which my Grandmother was born. It looks in good shape. It's been painted red, but someone seems to be keeping it up.

The downtown area looks very different. The arts center looks good, but I just drove by it. Without Rike's being there, it was very hard to get my bearings. Looking at things was rather depressing, so I moved on quickly. I went to the Dayton Art Institute, but it had closed already. So, I missed that. It's a small collection, but there are some things there I like very much and wanted to see, so that was a disappointment. I particularly remember a small painting of Charleston harbor (I think) in a beautifully hand-carved frame that I had looked forward to seeing. There's a good Hopper, a small Modigliani portrait, and a fun Bouguereau. I remember those at least.

It was a short drive to Columbus. I arrived at about 6:00PM. I spent an hour or so walking around my old neighborhood, on Highland Street and King Ave. (photo above). The houses are still very interesting. I'd like to spend a month here, drawing them all again. There just isn't time on a trip like this. The church on the corner of King is now an Eastern Orthodox church, otherwise little has changed. The trees are bigger. It was fun to see some of the places in my old drawings. The Ohio State campus, however, has changed quite a bit. There has been a lot of new construction. Also, the area called the Short North, which is just north of downtown and well south of campus, has been developed to an extraordinary degree. It looks attractive now.

I found a hotel north of campus. Tomorrow I'm going to have lunch with Jon, a friend from high school that lives in Columbus now, and then I plan to head north, to Honeytown, initially, which is where my friend Scott's family farm is. He's offered to put me up. It should be a good base for a night, or perhaps two, to visit Millersburg and Oberlin. After that, I plan to head home as quickly as practical. It's been fun, but rather tiring after 3,000 miles and with the thought that there are at least that many miles still ahead of me. That said, I am well. I hope everyone at home is too.