Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Introduction
I recently returned to North Carolina after a several-year stint in Texas. I had heard for the past year or so that my father was painting again, but this time with a vengeance: he had reportedly completed over fifty paintings in a six-month period. I thought that was "cool," I suppose, and I didn't think about it much more than that. But when I returned to the old homestead and went out to the barn (where my father was painting) I saw on the walls painting after painting after painting in various sizes and colors. And they were, for lack of a better word, good, but "good" doesn't begin to cover it-- they were arresting, and vivid, and troubled, and vibrant, and tumultuous. He was signing them "Suto," pronounced "pseudo," presumably a wry comment on whether or not they are actually art or just some scribbling on canvas.
Now: a brief segue about my father and his background. He grew up in North Carolina, went to Vietnam, came back with existential questions, spent time with the semi-famous hermit of Carolina Beech, got married, had kids, and worked as a landscape architect, eventually specializing in golf courses. So he has an art background--mainly in design-- and he also has an interest in art in general. He and my mom have gathered along the years an eclectic collection of paintings that hang on the walls of their home in any configuration in which they will fit. They are arbitrarily rearranged every now and again in various groupings which gives the impression of a shifting 3-D wallpaper of sorts, and also tricks you into thinking that there are new pieces hidden among them when usually it is just that an old painting has been hung in a new, prominent place. In the past, he has done a little painting and some sculpture, but nothing like what he is doing these days.
I'll talk about his influences in another post. For now, this is just an introduction (mainly) to what this blog is about. This blog is a step towards letting other people besides family and close friends take a look at my father's art. I hope to soon have a website up, and I would also like to have some pieces placed in galleries. Since he is more-or-less retired a little income would not go amiss. My father is not interested in interacting with others concerning his art (probably concerned about the repercussions on his creativity, but also worried about baring his inner life). So at least for now I am here to serve as a kind of proxy. This blog will be about my father's art, but as I see it and as I experience it. Art's subjective anyway, isn't it?
Now: a brief segue about my father and his background. He grew up in North Carolina, went to Vietnam, came back with existential questions, spent time with the semi-famous hermit of Carolina Beech, got married, had kids, and worked as a landscape architect, eventually specializing in golf courses. So he has an art background--mainly in design-- and he also has an interest in art in general. He and my mom have gathered along the years an eclectic collection of paintings that hang on the walls of their home in any configuration in which they will fit. They are arbitrarily rearranged every now and again in various groupings which gives the impression of a shifting 3-D wallpaper of sorts, and also tricks you into thinking that there are new pieces hidden among them when usually it is just that an old painting has been hung in a new, prominent place. In the past, he has done a little painting and some sculpture, but nothing like what he is doing these days.
I'll talk about his influences in another post. For now, this is just an introduction (mainly) to what this blog is about. This blog is a step towards letting other people besides family and close friends take a look at my father's art. I hope to soon have a website up, and I would also like to have some pieces placed in galleries. Since he is more-or-less retired a little income would not go amiss. My father is not interested in interacting with others concerning his art (probably concerned about the repercussions on his creativity, but also worried about baring his inner life). So at least for now I am here to serve as a kind of proxy. This blog will be about my father's art, but as I see it and as I experience it. Art's subjective anyway, isn't it?
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