An Artist's Perspective

Sometimes it’s essential that I reconnect with one of the great loves of my life. I stole away Sunday to meet her where I always do, at the Wichita Art Museum. She helps reconnect me to the core of what makes me search, and finally begin to scratch the crude lines which hopefully will become my better works.

My now adult daughters, Jessy and Carmen, were raised in the '80s and '90s. I remember feeling quite upset when I would think that my little girls would grow up and might not get equal opportunities in life that men tend to get.

Artist Charles Baughman is an explorer of nature. Staying outward bound in all climbs and places provided the fuel that powered his latest body of work he calls “Splatterscapes.”

When I am around other artists the subject of reading usually comes up. Most artists I know devour books and live on documentaries about artists. I keep a fair library in my studio but there are five books I always return to for inspiration.

I have a friend of 20 years named Roby who approached me recently and semi-reluctantly told me that he had taken up painting.

Several keynotes came to light at Wichita’s Mark Arts this past week.

I moved back to Wichita from Texas in 1991 after having left in 1978. I had been a working artist in Texas but knew not one local artist upon my return to this, my hometown.

For many the mountains signify wayward abandon and escape. For others, an elevator to spiritualism or an ever upward path to enlightenment. The clergy will always write that they are the handiwork of God.

We collect clay work at our house, from functional pottery to earthenware sculptural objects. I’ve always been in love with the medium, but it should be noted that I am a painter only because I have never had a great ability with clay.

Marc Bosworth is royalty within the Wichita art scene. With an MFA in printmaking from WSU, he is a founder of the Famous Dead Artists Co-Op and co-founder of The Tractor Factory Gallery and Studio, both of which helped propel the explosive ‘90’s ICT art movement into what it is today.

In 1972, I was 13 years old. While art was on my mind, I had not yet come to grips with its full power.

I go to various art openings and always notice not only the work but how it is presented. Galleries and show spaces depend on the artist to arrive with art that is show ready, well framed, with reliable hanging hardware on the back.

Artist Kevin Mullins passed away unexpectedly last year in Wichita at the age of 68. His passing marked the end of an amazing life and prolific career that will become so apparent once you arrive and step into the retrospective show being given in his honor at the Ulrich Museum.

From February through March, the Fisch Haus had an artist in residence who recently moved back to North America from Scotland where she received her MLitt in Fine Art Practice from the Glasgow School of Art. She is Sukaina Kubba, an Iraqi-Canadian artist and architect.

Saturday, March 30, will mark the opening of the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition at the Wichita Art Museum. To honor the occasion I will read a few passages from her letters to her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, taken from the book My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, edited by Sarah Greenough.

I was asked by a friend recently if I’ve ever stood before a work of art that brought me to my knees. I told him the story of a road trip I had taken years back, along with my wife, to view a group exhibition that one of our friends was involved with in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Art and Design Advocates is a Wichita group that supports the WSU School of Art, Design, and Creative Industries and its students by providing funding for special needs, travel, and opportunities not financed through state or municipal funding. These funds help to enhance excellence within the art and design program.

I remember back in the mid '90s when selling a painting for $200 was a hard-fought victory. The idea that somebody would buy local art and wanted to live with it was cause for celebration among local artists. An artist could have an exhibition and if she or he walked away with $600 it was a real success.

Wichita artist Bill Goffrier told me that he has strategically steered clear of showing his art in larger spaces. Over the last year he has concentrated on getting his work into every local space he could manage, as directly and personally as possible, to promote his paintings to people who literally told him they were intimidated by the formal gallery scene. He says his latest show at CityArts is...

A couple of weeks ago, Reuben Saunders, owner of a local art gallery that bears his name, took to social media with an idea to change the legendary Final Friday art crawl event to first Friday. Saunders finds that since most large cities offer a First Friday event it tends to confuse traveling art patrons and places us out of step with the national scene.

Do you feel like you got kicked around in 2018? I know I do. The political climate in the country is at an all-time low. I think people feel down. The “shock” volume has been on 10 for so long, over so many issues, that I think we, as a society, have gone tone deaf. Things just seem meaner.

In July of this year City Manager Robert Layton introduced budgetary ideas to Mayor Jeff Longwell and the City Council that proposed drastic cuts and eliminations of some libraries, public pools, Cowtown, and City Arts in order to “balance” the increased costs of our police force.

Wichita artist Wade Hampton earned his chops in the '90s as a member of The Famous Dead Artists. It took a lot of hype to get people interested in coming to art exhibitions and an artist had to crow like a rooster to make that happen.

Wichita artist Jim Simpson is a fisherman. Fishing and being out in nature is a mission for Mr. Simpson.

I went to artist John Boyd’s funeral back in 2012. Everyone who entered was handed a scroll of canvas on which was printed a self portrait of John in a priestly robe.