Saturday, October 05, 2013

zarrow show...

Yesterday we had the opening night of my show with 3 other artists at the University of Tulsa Zarrow Center, and over 1100 people attended. Folks were very complimentary of my work. The show was laid out in beautiful form, and it is always interesting to me to see what I do regarded as art.

I also visited the Fab Lab in Tulsa while I was there and will post some photos to the blog later.

This was the first time I've made a public display of some of my sculpture in a fine arts gallery setting and it was interesting to observe the response, which appeared favorable. The cabinets and boxes got rave reviews.
One thing we observed at the show was that it was impossible for people to look without touching. Even with signs placed in front of boxes, warning not to touch, folks had to open them, handle them, more than once spilling rocks from the box that had them embedded in the lid. My friend Virginia Carey explained to me many years ago that if a person saw something beautiful his or her next inclination was to touch it. And wood is perhaps the most irresistible of materials. Also, I believe that utilitarian things provide an additional inclination to touch.

I left the show to get dinner with friends, then came back to find all the doors of the cabinets and lids of boxes were open, so folks could see inside. I'm sure that was done by a member of staff to keep things from being handled so much. I closed all the lids before I left at the close of the night.

The show will be on display until October 27, 2013.

Make, fix and create...


What the heck is that? Must be art.

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2 comments:

  1. Steve Zawistowski6:37 AM

    Doug, Your blog was just referenced in the comment section of my blog….i was noting the same observation about folks wanting to touch the wood on a table I had made. It is interesting how touching something seems to be important to the understanding and the “seeing” of a piece.
    Steve

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  2. Doug Stowe7:05 AM

    Those with an analytical mind tend to take things apart, even before the whole is understood. Thus we see the hands, left and right as being separate in function rather than holistic, and we see the various senses as separate rather than taking a holistic systems view of their use.

    The hands do this and the eyes do that??? The hands actually stand in to confirm what the other senses tell us, and the hands are capable of standing in when the other senses are impaired. We quickly learn as human beings that the eyes can be fooled with regard to things like surface texture and form. The engagement of the hands is absolutely required to find truth in what the eyes see.

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