Words

………and words are powerful… From the breath of our bodies we add vibrations of immense conviction, not unlike that of the inebriated heart broken soul who shouts venom of pain. Words, we utter, as if the understanding is as sure as night following day. Though we appear and disappear in forms of cosmic relevance, we will always understand, we know, we think we know, we may know, we speculate and speak to those things universal that we have in common. We come; we go, vibrating in ways of repetition and acceptance, with our hearts and our souls, attesting to faith of the vibrations of our voices, words.

From the book “The Critical Eye”, by Rufus Snoddy

 There is a kind of beauty in organized chaos. The chaos that takes place in the culture I have lived in, here in the U.S.A., is on a psychic level while the organization happens philosophically. More and more people are turning to religion as a way of chaos management. Vast amounts of content are spewed at us each minute of our awaken existence. The brain adjusts to the bombardment through societal programmed systems of categorization. We know that we should scrutinize this massive sundry list of technology, dogma, acts of persuasion, perversion and general base behavior. But, as we get caught up in the pursuit of the good life, we often forego scrutiny, succumbing to the day to day feeling of being overwhelmed. Besides, buying things makes us feel good. It is so much easier to let someone else figure it out and give us the roadmap or the quick fix. Why recreate the wheel? There is the Bible, the Qur’an, the Talmud, Scientology and all manner of books and philosophical movements that have figured ‘everything’ out for us. Why bother to think for ourselves. Lets all just “keep the faith”, we say. Why turn over stones when we have been told what is beneath them? Why think when someone else has already thought for us? As a side note, does it matter if none of  the aforementioned books or movements ever mention how to  deal with things like computers, nuclear weapons, global warming, Aids, bird flu? Or does some general word like plague sum all these things up? There are a great number who think these words and beliefs should be taken literally.

It seems that we live in an era of “Magic Thinking”.  I find it very difficult not to see cynical beauty. I love to laugh and think that humor is our only salvation. The day we can no longer laugh at ourselves will signal our demise. Surface appearance is the ‘order of the day’ in our culture. It matters not the sensible and logical layers of content, only the surface appearance. This attitude pervades our culture, driven by the “quick fix” sensibility and powered by mass media and technological innovation. We are “star worshippers” in a profound way. Most of us love to identify with glamour.  We are intrigued by the “rich and famous” and live through them vicariously if we can’t afford to be like them. The term “glam” has become almost as common in our lexicon as the term “fame”. If one looks the part, as attested to by the way we choose the leaders of our country, many care not what character flaws lie beneath, unless it is somehow concerning sex. This seems to be the one area in our society that is intensely charged. With this in mind, my work is infused with conscious as well as subconscious imagery pointing to the profound dysfunction around this issue in our culture. Sex seems to be much too real and problematic for many to deal with on an objective rational level in our culture. We tend to be extremely sophomoric around the issue and there is a tendency to drift, again, into “magical thinking”. As with many things intimately pleasurable and gratifying on a primal level, we want to legislate it, make restrictive laws, censor and place moral standards or forbid it all together. By contrast, the level of acceptable violence to one’s fellow human being is horrifying. Somehow a human body being blown to bits is much more tolerable than a woman’s naked breast. Earlier I intimated my observations of varying forms of acceptable insanity. This seems to be another example.

            Superficially, the idea of public acknowledgement of sexual impulses is offensive to many, though gobs of natural evidence to prove that all of us have sexual urges. Meanwhile, implicit and explicit sex is being used all over the place to sell product. So the message becomes prostitution is fair game as long as it is used in a mass corporate way to reel in consumers, as long as you don’t show nipples, vaginas or penises (and  certainly not the three together). The rules have something to do with the concept of “crudeness”. What could be cruder than a small percentage of the world’s population consuming more than ten times that of the rest of the world? This seems blatantly obvious though most of us would gloat and actually be proud of this subtle form of acceptable insanity. Hypocrisy abounds in our culture.

The unveiling of ‘Red Ginger’, a 4’ x 8’ construction painting by Rufus Snoddy, will take place March 18th at the Red Ginger Restaurant, 237 East Front Street, Traverse City, Michigan. The event is from 5 – 10 pm.

A few years ago, when Red Ginger Restaurant opened, I was asked by Dan and Pam Marsh if I would be interested in showing some of my work in their restaurant. Through out my career I have been approached by many restaurant owners, asking if I would show my work.

Early in my career, while living in Los Angeles, I had done this a couple of times. However, from these experiences, my responses afterward were usually “no thanks”. But, since moving to the Traverse City area eight years ago, I came to the realization that this  art market differs from L.A. and people  do pay attention to the artwork in restaurants here. I had shown works at Tapawingo prior, with some sales success.

Red Ginger reminded me of some of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles and New York. The look was contemporary with an Asian flavor, which I felt would be very compatible with my work. It reminded me of one of my favorite restaurants in L.A., Matsuhisa, who commissioned and purchased several works from me. So, I said yes. I hung one of my larger pieces there and was very pleased to put the work on loan for a while and loved how it looked there. I recall Dan saying “One of these days, when we can afford it, we’d like to purchase a piece of yours”. He especially liked the ‘Shield Painting’ series.

So a few months ago they contacted me, wanting to commission me to do a piece for Red Ginger. I was elated, as this was the perfect challenge for me. I love this restaurant and the food. So I wanted to come up with something that conveyed the spirit of the restaurant as well as the spirit of my creative process. We settled on one of the sketches I came up with and I got to work. It has been a wonderful project, inspired by their input as well as my goal to meld together art and food creation.  Dan and Pam, as well as the staff, are a joy to work with. We are all looking forward to the unveiling.

Food, wine, art and music. What more could you ask for on a summer weekend in Northern Michigan?

Well, that’s what it’s all about this Saturday at the second annual Traverse City Wine & Art Festival. The Festival will run from 3-10pm at the Village at the Grand Traverse Commons.

Fox 32′s Alex Jokich talks to some of the weekend’s featured artists, Bill Allen and Rufus Snoddy.

For more information, or to order advance tickets, go to: http://traversecitywinefestival.com/.