![[Sketch of EJF]](selfprt2.gif)
Man is unique.
We who call ourselves "man" appear to have some uncanny sense of awareness unlike any other creature in the animal kingdom, perhaps in the whole universe. From the days of our ancient Egyptian and Mayan brothers, we have been possessed with the desire to reshape mountains and re-direct rivers. Using the "stuff" from which the earth is made, stone, wood, leather, minerals, glass and clay, we have constructed magnificent temples, highways, colosseums, houses, barns and sky-scraping buildings of commerce. In recent history, we discovered that energy could be harnessed from nature. From that, we created light. And from the light, we created power. With light and power, we learned to convert night into day so that, with one eternal day, we could build engines that would convert steam, coal, oil, gas and electricity into work. For our comfort and convenience, we made great machines with steel and rubber wheels, and even greater vessels with screws and paddles, and light-weight, tube-like containers with wings and seats, and engines so powerful that we can now travel "over the meadows and through the woods, to grandmother's house..." or even to China if we wish, in terms of reference indexed to the speed of sound.
More recently, we have delved beyond the limits of the lifeline that binds us to our own sphere. We have successfully defied gravity and the earth's atmosphere to travel, land and walked on another sphere, the one we call our "moon". Over wide expanses of air and space, and at the speed of light, we are able to convey messages over telephone wires or through wireless radios, in the form of graphic pictures, sounds and printed words. We dress in clothes fabricated of infinite patterns, styles and fabrics. Most importantly, we have learned to express ourselves in many ways through the various crafts and arts. Generally, we work and play in atypical non-animal ways. Magically, man seems even to have mastered the untouchable "time" constant by employing principles of time organization. What other animal can do all these things?
With a curious zeal to better understand our own existence, we often go far out of our way to find out who we are and where we have come from. Why? We need to know, not just for now, but from our earliest beginnings to the present. We need to go as far back as is possible so that we might predict, with some degree of accuracy, where we will be someday in the future. Religions and the sciences both placate our curiosity with stories of deity or tangible evidence, both collected for study and display. Some people place more credence in the holy writ and hold tightly to it, while others feel more content to examine ancient fossils, footprints and petrified bones.
In truth, the best long-term explanations about our ancient counterparts can be found in the paintings, sculpture, crafts, tools of utility, language and architecture left behind. These are the building blocks of civilization we call culture. These are what we call "the arts."
An important question to ask is: where and when did decoration and utility first meet? From the beginning, I suppose. Some uncanny thing about man likes things that feel and look good. Those things are considered.... beautiful. Yet, if utility is necessary and functional, are not arts only impractical and imaginative? No. They are truly one-in-the-same thing. While today's utilitarian effort gets used up and disappears, artistic creations and conceptual values survive. In a cultured society, the arts tend to grow more important over time. For example: an ancient knife made of obsidian and antler may be even more appreciated as a work of art today than it was when it was created for its original utility. How does that work? The blade was constructed to provide meat for the body. After its original creator and utilitarian purpose disappeared, it gained another; and in some museum of ancient artifacts it now feeds that part of the brain that loves aesthetic things. So, a utilitarian value has been replaced by an aesthetic value. The body is mental and physical. It requires thought and care. A part of man's makeup sometime referred to as spirit seems to be defined by that secret something involving both body and spirit which motivates man to action. Could it safely be said then that this is what constitutes man? That the soul is a combination of the body's constant need for nurturing to survive coupled to a spirit which has no beginning, middle or end. Thus, does it not seem logical and prudent that the spirit of man drives his utilitarian instincts beyond their mere animalistic tendencies? Further, it appears logical that wise stewardship over one's natural gifts and talents leads to a higher perfection and preservation of the species.
Undoubtedly, the arts have become the universal language, even more so than any written text. Remember, a word is an invention, a symbol for an idea. Written text began as an artistic representation of a thought or event. A perfect example of the evolution of thought can be observed in the universality of symbols depicted in the great monuments, relief sculptures, murals and hieroglyphic characters produced by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Meso European and natives of India. In these examples, graphic symbols are used to represent "words" that, in an organized format, represent complete thought concepts, material things, specific people and events. As one reaches back to capture a picture of events that surrounded the birth, life and death of a civilization, there can be found no greater examples to study than the marvelous colored panels painted in the Caves of Lascaux, the giant carved heads on Easter Island, Stonehenge, the sculptured temples, walls and symbols of the Mayans and Aztecs and the totems and petroglyphs of ancient inhabitants of America. Primitive? We sophisticates often show our ignorance by thinking so, that is, until we look more closely.
While most professions might be considered more utilitarian than aesthetic, engineers could not function without drawings, doctors without x-rays and anatomical drawings, and even taxi drivers and pilots without a graphical representation of a complex matrix of city streets and highways in the sky. Thus, in everyday life, the arts have become just as utilitarian as the sciences. We just don't think about it. When one studies the structure of the universe, it becomes abundantly clear: the sciences are as aesthetic as the arts, and the arts are as practical as the sciences. Thus, they are different--but the same. "Form follows function" is the famous line describing the perfect melding of utility and beauty.
A drawing might be defined as a linear two-dimensional depiction of what the eye and brain sees or feels and is usually represented as a series of lines or shaded patterns. Truly, "A line in the sand" supersedes all language barriers, particularly when there is no mistake in the translation. A simple line drawn by a finger or a stick could be made to say: "This is a demarcation point across which no unauthorized person should cross."
Can a line be so important? . . . . Or an "X," made as a result of someone's having crossed the line?
A painting is a colored drawing.
Sculpture is a form shaped in three dimensions. In German, the word is bildhouer, meaning picture banger. However, unlike drawing and painting, sculpture does not normally contain lines, per se. Sculpture is more a representation of tangible or intangible objects as they might appear in nature, as a series of 3-dimensional shapes which, while fitting together, cause the perception of lines to the viewer, even where they do not exist.
When we draw a horse, we draw a line, or an edge around which the rest of the horse is hidden from view. In sculpture, the horse has no edges, but instead, is composed of a series of edgeless shapes all fitting together in one unified form. When I teach sculpture, I tell students that there are no "lines" in nature. What appears to the eye as a line, is always something very different when looked at closely enough.
And for me, that is just what I do. I am a sculptor, a boy who never grew up but spends every day searching in the mud for a lost treasure, that is, a treasure of my own creation. Am I any good at finding it? That is not for me to answer, but for you to decide . . . . and your children . . . . and their children, and so on.
Artists are dreamers. Most people act surprised when they learn that artists can also be utilitarian. True artists are curious about everything. They constantly analyze and seek to understand all materials and their limitations. An insatiable appetite for knowledge guides the artist in his quest for experience and understanding. A thorough knowledge of aerial and linear perspective, a complete understanding of values or the absence of light, color saturation, anatomy, proportion, design, texture, transparent vs. opaque, warm vs. cool, and the chemistry from which paint is created, are studies absolutely essential to the accomplished artist. After that, what makes art poor or great is the artist's ability to blend the technical with the intuitive, the knowledge with emotion, or the physical with the spiritual.
That is the secret of art.
Art is the supreme communicator of diverse cultures and ideas in a common frame of understanding, a virtual bridge across time. It is also the universal link into genius. Unlike other animals whose basic senses seem strictly limited to survival and procreation, man is different. An artist forever strives to elevate his own senses of touch, hearing, sight, taste, smell and voice, and then directs their energy into the culinary arts, music, literature, dance, drama, painting, drawing and sculpture. The hope is that this will lead to loftier purposes of thought, understanding, inspiration, talent, creation and re-creation for everyone.
Some people ask why, when I have seemingly developed such great success as a sculptor, I should jeopardize my career by turning to the field of invention. My answer is: the sciences and the arts are one and the same. Some think it unusual that Leonardo daVinci and Michelangelo had so many seemingly diverse talents. In their day, they were not only expected to decorate their villages with the most outstanding decorative artistic creations, but were also called upon to design fortifications and new weapons of war. In Michelangelo's case, he studied anatomy in secret by candlelight. The penalty for mutilating a human cadaver, even to study it, was death. Had he been caught, that is precisely what would have happened to him. When Michelangelo created sculptures of the Medici brothers for the Medici Tomb, he represented drapery and armor as a natural extension of the human form, something never done before, but something which looked more correct than that which existed in nature. He considered himself neither painter nor architect, yet, when called upon to do so, he created examples of fresco painting for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and solved the greatest architectural puzzle of the Renaissance which called for a free-standing dome to cap Saint Peter's Cathedral. Though 500 years have passed away, Michelangelo's feats remain unsurpassed in modern history. Michelangelo said, "The trouble with sculpture is, you have to know all the crafts . . . . better than the craftsmen."
One of my obtuse college professors once told me that we know more about design today than Michelangelo knew about design in his day. He was dead wrong.
Likewise, Leonardo was a consummate anatomist, painter and inventor. He painted the most important smile in history, invented far superior weapons of war during his lifetime than anyone else, made water machines and foresaw the practicality of manned flight. Amazing. And how is it that Michelangelo and Leaonardo lived in the same time and in the same town?
Turning to Rembrandt: Rembrandt painted simple ideas on canvas using a limited pallet and a few carefully chosen colors. With those tools, he produced light. His paintings stand alone in power, spirit and understanding of light above all other painters in history.
So what is this legecy called art? It is to do good. Its purpose is communication, edification and elation. Art is real and imaginary, two worlds rolled into one, the fulfillment of the artist's insatiable soul. EJF
Note: I have my own foundry and a skilled staff of foundrymen. Managed by my son, Ted, and Bryce Liston, the rest of the crew consists of foundry workers Jeremy Fergus, Joel Blake, Geoffrey Vaughn, and my Secretary, Trish Williamson. My gratitude and generous thanks go to you all for making my work a success.
Copyright 1996 © Edward J. Fraughton