Trash or Treasure Event At Plains Art Museum, Fargo

It’s that time of year again — the Plains Art Museum is having their second annual Trash or Treasure event.

Hubby and I attended the event last year & had such a great time we were hoping it would become an annual event. Sue Petry of the Plains Art Museum says that along with being a fund raiser for the museum the event raises awareness of collecting and celebrates it. “We had a couple of great finds: a book someone found in a closet in an old house was worth $1,500 for example. People really enjoyed learning more about the things they collected,” she said.

I know we did.

This year’s event began three weeks ago with their weekly lecture series, which are free to the public. I’m not only all about “free stuff”, but as the series focuses on collecting, well, I’m so there.

Last week, October 2nd, the session was The History & Collectibility of North Dakota Cable Pottery, with University of North Dakota Ceramics Professor Donald Miller. The session began with a viewing of UND Clay: The Cable Years, a documentary produced by the UND Television Center, covering the history and legacy of the ceramics department at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.

UND School Of Mines Stamp

It’s a fascinating story involving a chemist, the first state geologist, and founding dean of the School of Mines, Earle J. Babcock, who teamed up with an artist, Margaret Kelly Cable; both of them believing that the seemingly limitless supply of North Dakota clay would be a means of economic development, allowing North Dakota to create a pottery industry to rival Ohio and other states with a large pottery industry.

Under Cable’s direction, North Dakota clays & glazes were researched, examined, tested & perfected as part of the School of Mines. Ceramics classes were open to more than UND students, family members of faculty and local citizens were also involved. Because of this, UND School of Mines pottery has many levels in artistry. You have works from the many talented instructors (such as Cable; her sister, Flora Cable Huckfield; Frieda Hammers, Margaret Pachl; and Julia Mattson), talented students such as Laura Taylor Hughes (who went on to start Rosemeade), and average, everyday, folks with not-so-much talent.

Due to the number of years the UND School of Mines was open, from 1910 to 1963, you have many influences: Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and the Arts and Crafts movement. Popular designs feature regional interest such as crocus, prairie rose, wheat, flickertail, ox cart, cowboys, buffalo, horses, & Native American images.

1926 North Dakota Products Vase By Cable

One of the most famous examples of regional designs is the North Dakota Products vase. In 1926, Governor Sorlie asked Cable to create a single vase depicting an amazing number of North Dakota Products: corn, wheat, flax, clover, pigs, chickens, turkeys, cows, sheep, bees, potatoes, sugar beets, lignite coal, Dakota Maid flour, a pumpkin, a flickertail, a wild rose, a lump of clay and a cream can. Cable not only met the challenge, but did so with a stunning example of sgraffito (in which the blue glaze is scratched away to reveal the white of the pottery). While there was quite a demand for replicas of the presentation vase, Cable only made four of these beauties and denied all other requests. Donald Miller brought along one of the four North Dakota Product vases (the one which had belonged to Governor Sorlie). A collector next to me told me that it would likely fetch $25,000.

There I was, inches from it.

Some of the most coveted pieces are called bentonite pottery. Bentonite pottery, created by painting on a slip glazes of red, brown, creme, result in monochromatic yet vibrant works, such as these by Ruth Schnell, a Grand Forks resident who began UND ceramics classes when she was 46.

Bentonite Pottery By Ruth Schnell

Along with the usual conditions issues with pottery, there are several things to know to look for in UND pottery. Authentic pieces will bear the cobalt blue School of Mines stamp — even the most uninspired pinch-pot can fetch $50 to $100, as long as it bears the proper UND School of Mines stamp. Not all pieces are stamped thus; some have a more simple UND stamp. Artist names can be confusing; not all student records exist to cross reference, some women signed their husband’s name, and Cable herself signed her Prairie Pottery pieces with “Maggie Mud.”

Good references are University of North Dakota Pottery: The Cable Years, second edition, by Donald Miller, the heavily illustrated UND POTTERY: a History and Comparative Study of the Art Pottery, by Ken Forester, and the UND North Dakota School of Mines pottery collection website will be adding additional images and information. There’s also The North Dakota Pottery Collectors Society, which has their own “Road Show”.

Sgraffito Vase By Margaret Kelly Cable

Because of this Trash or Treasure lecture series event, I learned much about UND pottery. I have Andy Maus, Mark Ryan, and Rusty Freeman of the Plains Art Museum to thank for that. They are the folks who choose sessions and select lecturers. Maus says the team, “attempts to reflect the diversity and interests of our collecting community and those curious about collecting. As a regional museum, we do whatever we can to reflect the interests, talents and diversity of our community through all of our programming.”

The Trash or Treasure event continues at 7 P.M. tonight, with Discovering the Past Through Objects: Adventures of a Real-Life History Detective, a lecture by Wes Cowan. Yes, the Wes Cowan of History Detectives. He and Danica M. Farnand of Cowan’s Auctions, Inc. are the headliners at Friday night’s VIP Appraisal Dinner and Saturday’s Appraisal Fair.

That means I have three “dates” with Wes Cowan this week!

If I was nervous last year, you can only imagine how much worse it is this year… It’s not like I have any UND pottery to take along.

Intellectually, I know I shouldn’t be intimidated. But it’s Wes Cowan! The kids and I have huge crushes on him. (The kids think I’m cool and want me to get Cowan to autograph a photo or something. How nice that I can really blame it all on the kids!)

The lecture tonight is free and open to the public. And there’s still time to get tickets for Friday & Saturday’s events. As an extra bonus, those attending can watch me stammer & sound like a school girl when talking with Cowan.

As a toy collector, I often find myself hungering to ensconce myself even deeper into the toy-niverse and become a toy creator. I think it’s the quiet dream of many artists who fall anywhere into the ‘pop surrealism’ genre to have a toy made of their own images or characters, but the road is long and difficult, and absolutely incomprehensible when it comes down to the technicalities of the manufacturing process. I know - I’ve tried.

I have sketchbooks full of ideas, and my hours of plumbing the seedy and / or non-English parts of the internet were only met with frustration, and I came away with no greater knowledge about how to get my toy designs made. I collect this stuff - wouldn’t it be neat if someone collected MY stuff? Isn’t my line of Monsters Sitting In Stylish Chairs vinyl toys worth something to someone?

Jesse Wroblewski has the answer, and it’s called Toy-Creator.com, and lo, it is a bright beacon of awesome sent down from the plastic heavens, guiding us through the previously labyrinthine mire of the toy process. Sure, I’ve never had any problem with the creative aspects, but when you start throwing money and math and overseas construction in there, my brain starts to close off and curl into a tight little angsty ball - more than usual. But a little less than when someone asks, ‘So, what are you doing with your life?’

Jesse presents two distinct kinds of toy creation in his series of six videos, each handsome and clear video running about eight to fourteen minutes long. I won’t hold the wacky backgrounds against him. Even if Jesse’s brand of creepo toys aren’t your thing, remember that the techniques and ideas that are discussed within can be applied to anything; action figures, statues, trinkets, geegaws, etcetera.

First, the general processes of craftily hand-producing your own toys at home is discussed, from prototype to finished product. Of course, these solitary methods are labor intensive and can only produce small amounts of product, but it’s far cheaper than mass production, you have total control of the process, and handmade things are pretty hot right now. While the video addressing handmade toys speaks of things in very general terms, offering hints but few specifics, the series of constantly updated links below each video is where the real money is. Jesse knows what he’s talking about, knows where to get the proper materials, and acknowledges that there are far more detailed resources out there that explore and exhaust the finer points of the artistic process, and so he points you towards them.

However, most of the video series places a heavy focus on exactly what to do with your toy ideas and products on a grand, mass-market level : how to get a company to pick up your idea or how to deal with the mass production process yourself, which overseas manufacturing plants are good to deal with and which ones speak English (which is less common than you’d think), how to buy licenses to make toys or have someone buy your licenses, how to market your toy to the world, and a general miasma of anecdotal wisdom gained from the very difficult process of making a collectible, interesting toy. Again, these all come with super-helpful links on every page, which Jesse strives to keep actively updated.

Because of this, the delivery of the info is ideally suited to the web. While some folks might be hesitant to drop a subscription fee to the website (which is currently around $40), we have Jesse’s assurance that everything will be kept live and updated for the foreseeable future. Don’t be put off by the stark, sales-pitch aesthetic of the introductory pages, because it’s much cleaner and slicker inside - and if you’re serious about getting any of your ideas into three dimension or into mass production, this collection of links alone is a great resource.

No, the site isn’t really designed for someone casually interested in throwing something together for fun; this is business, and it takes a serious investment of time and finances to get it started. If this doesn’t scare you, plunge in. It’s the first investment in a series of greater investments, and hopefully a first step towards becoming the creator of a collectible.

John J. Lomasney movie art poster for A French Scandal

A hand-painted film poster by John J. Lomasney for A French Scandal (1948) is up for auction as part of the LIFEbeat Summer Vacation Movie Poster Auction, which runs through September 10th at CharityBuzz.

This poster is part of what is called The Lomasney Collection, more than 800 hand-painted movie posters by John J. Lomasney spaning over 50 years of film history, called a “treasure trove of art” by the New York Post.

Lomasney worked briefly at the dawn of the golden age of cinema as a set painter for Warner Brothers and Paramount. But in 1936 he moved to Hawaii with his mother Mary and found work as a staff artist at the Royal Hawaiian Theater (not to be confused with the Kuhio Theaters — see comments).

The old Royal Hawaiian theater

It was common practice at the time for theaters to attract customers with studio “one sheets” displayed in glass cases at the front of the theater, but Royal Hawaiian eschewed the studio’s posters and hired Lomasney to hand-paint originals.

Using film stills as inspiration (& incorporating them into the creation), Lomaseny slowly & meticulously painted in gouache on 28 by 44 inch art board to produce one-of-a-kind movie posters. Rarely making more then four posters per film, he used his talent to paint “huge luminescent portraits” of film stars and integrated the billing requirements to sell movies to theater passersby.

Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow poster by Lomasney

His hand-made one-sheets varied greatly from one another, as shown in the multiple variations of Sophia Loren’s Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow — which also greatly varied from the studio produced sheets for the film.

A quiet man said to be obsessed with painting and films (he rarely talked about anything but movies and is said to have shushed others for talking while he painted), Lomasney, with his specific dress (always wearing a sport coat, shirt and his trademark bow tie) and signature-smoke (White Owl cigars), would likely be called Autistic today. Little else is really known about this studio-schooled painter taught to be anonymous and only two of his original signatures are known to exist.

Lomasney’s sad fade-out scene took place when, after 40 years of service, he left Royal Hawaiian taking not a single one of his paintings — just a paintbrush.

But the quiet anonymous man’s unique posters live on, speaking his love of movies.

The Lomasney Collection remained with the theater, eventually purchased by tennis legend John McEnroe and featured in his short-lived SoHo gallery. (The John McEnroe Gallery lasted just five years, showcasing young, unknown artists. In a June 25, 2008 interview with The Sidney Morning Herald on the subject of his love of art, McEnroe said this about his art gallery experience: “I thought I had been a champion at tennis so I could be a champion of the arts. But it was more difficult than I thought. I realised I was more of a collector at heart.”)

Vintage Charlie Chan movie art poster by Lomasney

McEnroe donated The Lomasney Collection to LIFEbeat - The Music Industry Fights AIDS, which has placed ten summer travel-themed posters from the collection up for auction at CharityBuzz.com.

Now the rare one-of-a-kind pop art works by Lomasney are not only available to art collectors and film fans, but they have another purpose: To help raise funds for HIV/AIDS prevention programs targeted at America’s youth.

As long as the hand-painted movie art posters — and the movies themselves — are loved, I think Lomasney would be pleased.

You can view The Lomasney Collection anytime at LomasneyMovieArt.com.

I’m a big fan of Juxtapoz Magazine, because reading through the pages always feels a little like finding friends and coming home. During my long-fought battle to find an artistic identity for myself, Juxtapoz visits with artists who find themselves fighting the same creative fight as myself, and that’s comforting.

Juxtapoz has been acting as a chronicle of a the lowbrow / pop surrealist art movement since 1994, allowing spectators and participants alike to watch as the art collective evolves, transforms, and incorporates more and more into itself, with editor Robert Williams acting as the post-modern André Breton. Fortunately, Williams has been a lot more forgiving and accepting of the transformative nature of Surrealism than the dismissive Breton, who shunned more artists than he accepted into his clique. The result of Williams’ approach is a diverse magazine that addresses a very wide swath of creatives, from urban to rural, with their divergent influences and inspirations.

The magazine has recently begun to publish hardcover books, the first two being Juxtapoz Tattoo and Juxtapoz Illustration. In true Juxtapoz style, they’re handsome as hell. Juxtapoz Illustration has already made itself an essential inspiration and a bookshelf necessity, as well as something I plan on selectively using in my art classes. You know, skipping the pages with nipples and such - gotta keep it PG-13 when you have easily distractable, teenaged boys around. It’s like they have some kind of nudity radar.

Readers of Juxtapoz magazine will already be familiar with many of these 23 included artists, though the organizers of the book were careful to not repeat many pieces that were already featured within the magazine’s pages, and have even included a few artists that haven’t been featured in the magazine at all. After a half-page bio and artists’ statement, each artist is given eight quiet pages, full of beautifully printed artwork. No premise, no explanation - just art for the sake of art, unified under the nebulous idea of ‘illustration’. There’s a purity in this structure that’s exciting, and which isn’t allowed in a traditional magazine format. The translation is great, and every artwork is well-chosen.

No modern illustration book would be complete without the inclusion of the amazing James Jean, who I view as an essential 21st century illustrator to know - whether you’re an artist or just someone with eyes. Jeff Soto is also another name that’s thrown around a lot, and the tranquil artwork of Amy Sol (which was recently profiled in Hi Fructose magazine) is also featured here. Barron Storey is an oldschool illustrator and creative chameleon, whose dense, semi-abstract artwork has always been fascinating. The stark black and white of Mike Giant, the epic texture and motion of Nate Van Dyke, the supercomplex and unexpected vistas of San. What all of these people have in common is that they take the underappreciated world of ‘illustration’ and elevate it past the simple idea of ‘drawing a story’ and into places more painterly or abstract or energetic - many, many miles away from the rampant Photoshoppery that we’re assailed with on a daily basis.

While the collective work sometimes travels under the term ‘lowbrow’, I think that we now embrace the term as a way of ‘owning’ it. Anyone who gives these works even a cursory look will see the intellect, effort and artistry inherent in every one.

So, while there are many annual hardcovers that address ‘illustration’, Juxtapoz book eschews the commercial angle that runs through most of them, and gives the readers a brief but powerful look at the potential of the genre. It’s become a vital part of that indispensable shelf of inspirations in the ol’ studio space.

Along a road in Mitcham, South London, once appeared a number of spraypainted stencil-graffiti depicting juxtapositions of war, rats, and humor — characteristics that would point towards Banksy, the now world-famous ‘vandal’ whose art costs more money than I’ll ever see in my life. Although some art critics attributed the work to Banksy and appraised at being worth “millions,” there was no definitive identification of the work. And, at the sub-artistic level, the spraypaint was vandalism and graffiti. What does a city council do when faced with a graffiti problem? They remove it. This isn’t the first time Banksy’s work have met the foul end of paintbrush — a Pulp Fiction painting disappeared from the Underground, the earliest known work by him (”valued” at over a million pounds) was blacked out only to invite new graffiti commenting on its loss, a maid was lost, and so on. As a graffiti artist, Banksy must completely understand that his works are not intended to exist for very long before a property owner decides they’re the only ones who get to decide what’s on their walls, and with his other culturejamming events he probably revels in the fact that with a few dollars of spraypaint he has license to mint millions of dollars of value on a dank alleyway wall — only to see the millions whitewashed away with a few more dollars of paint. It’s the nature of public art; exposed to the outside, temporary or not, art in a public space is transient at best.

Here in Fargo, there’s been several attempts at public art. From huge abstract railroad-tie-and-asphalt structures to the strangely beautiful Sodbuster, works were commissioned that eventually fell into disrepair due to the elements. My oldest daughter participated in the downtown bison statues that graced the metro area two years ago, but when we went hunting to track them all down, many were in for weather-related or vandalism repairs only a few months in to the project. Others still sit outside today, showing little impact from the weather. Besides the weather, urban movement has an impact on public art. I was shocked one day, when looking for an apartment, to see a huge mural from my youth entombed within their parking garage — it had been painted in the seventies by high school students, and when the apartment building was built they left it where it was, now blocked off from the world and a door cut through it. Another mural, also by high school students, was the backdrop for a downtown playground. Eventually the playground was removed, making the gaily-painted zoo animals seemed out of place. Then, the boarded-over windows were uncovered, leaving wide rectangle voids, until a few years ago when the wall was painted over and the mural destroyed.

Such destruction of a mural through normal construction and upkeep can be trouble for a mural-owner: Artist Ken Twitchell sued a company that painted over his mural on the side of the U.S. Department of Labor building in Los Angeles. A $175,000 settlement was reached before going to trial. Since 1991, public works of art have been protected by the Visual Artists Rights Act, which provides for protection for artists’ rights above and beyond regular copyright law. The law, in general, protects artists from experiencing the destruction of their works — essentially, even if you own a painting, deliberately burning it is against the law if the artist objects. The protection extends to public display of the works, a condition that pretty much all outdoor art enjoys. This is a sticky subject if a popular artist were to begin to ‘tag’ buildings, signing their name to the art. They could be fined for vandalism, but under the VARA protection, they could argue to preserve the graffiti for the duration of the artist’s life. The VARA allows for reasonable degradation due to exposure and materials, but doesn’t say when a weatherbeaten mural ceases to be protected works of art.

Or, even, what happens when a piece of public artwork is stolen? St Paul discovered one day that a Lucy was missing, which is quite obviously theft, but what of ‘unofficial’ public art? Keith Haring’s subway works often ended up in private collections without the artist’s permission, a practice that has gone on until today, with a vinyl-printed temporary mural that disappeared after two weeks of display. Police do their best to recover such art, but it’s pretty much understood that there’s no secondary market for such easily identifiable objects, which means these works of art will most likely end up hidden in the private study of an amateur, classless art collector.

Becoming a curator of public art appears to be a hard job. Communities in London have been making efforts to preserve Banksy’s works, cataloging known art so they can differentiate it from ‘other’ graffiti art. 24-hour access encourages theft or defacement, even if it’s unintentional, as with the broken arm on Paul Bunyan. And if you decide to do anything else with it, you could run afoul of the artist’s legal action. If you’re adventurous (and being a mechanical engineer) you could just move the art. Be extra careful, though: the University of New Hampshire moved an enormous mural to accommodate new construction.  Split into two three-ton chunks, the reinforced chunks of masonry walls were hauled down a hall, down a floor, to their new resting place. Just pray Banksy doesn’t stop by your wall in the dark of night: that multi-million dollar work of graffiti art — sorry — “public mural” he leaves you may be more trouble than you bargained for. Good thing you’re an art lover!