Visual messages...the spirit that comes through art. The painting of the bear below won 2nd place in the Annual Cherokee Nation Show this year. Brett has won several awards in their annual competitions.  

      Brett and I sometimes talk about the experience of artmaking; how no matter the vision one sees in the mind, the end result or physical painting will not look just how it did in the vision. Someone once said to me that artists have to be courageous because they are destined for failure. I understood what that meant. I used to be discouraged that I never seemed to be able to create something to look just how I “saw” it, either it be a vision coming from a higher source, my mind, photo or still life. It never seemed to look like what I wanted it to look like. Now I appreciate that whatever the vision or spirit that comes through “takes on a life of it's own,” as my step mother says, and is to be honored for what it is.

     Another reason artists, musicians, writers alike must be courageous is to not worry how others will receive their work...there can be many lessons in staying true to the heart, allowing oneself to be vunerable, and standing strong against adveristy. Another artist friend of mine told me she believed that everything an artist, musician, writer creates is actually a self portrait.

     My stepmother is a musician and she talks about how she would create a song or part of and then feel discouraged when it seemed too similar to something heard before, or a less fruitful version of what it could be, that feeling you might be “copying” someone or something. Over time, she says, she realized that we are always taking from a place we know, a reference of what has come before, yet it then moves through us and becomes expressed as our own. Whatever creation appears is unique, though it can be obvious at times what may have influenced the work.

     An artist is a vehicle for expression, and it's the mystery of what will become that fuels the fulfillment, it is the process of creation that serves the soul. And no matter the subject matter, a scene, a feeling, the play of paint and brush, or the uncovering of a word or tone that fits just right, the one constant of any form of creation-making is that the possible results are infinite; that no one original piece will look, sound, or read the same, though some may come close to one another. Art, music, creative expressions, are like fingerprints, they happen in a certain time, space, and through a particular person or persons creating life together.

     Some art is made with a purposeful expectation of an audience, that it will someday be shown to someone, communicating something, and/or sold. Then there are creations for creations sake, the pieces that come from a spontanenous flow of spirit, the artist being the conduit for expression, often not knowing what the result will be. You could say that procreation can make anyone an artist of the human life.

     These kinds of spontaneous expressions, one could call “free-flowing,” and for me they have been some of the most enjoyable, meditative experiences I've had. Hours go by in a flash. It doesn't really matter if it's ever shown to anyone because it was so enjoyable in the moment it was made. 

     Some pieces I look back on years later I'm almost embarrassed for myself because of the raw, vunerable feeling I get looking at some of the expressions that once came through me. Much of the work Brett created on display in this show were spontaneous paintings, somewhat different than of some in past shows. I was very happy for him to know that a lot of the work in this show came from bursts of creative energy...creation for creations sake.

     It seems that this kind of explosive work can not only be a different kind of pleasurable experience for the artist, yet also for the viewer. Artists that start of with calculated, almost academic-like painting find it very freeing to “loosen up” with feeling and stroke. I used to paint very tight, detailed work and my teachers would always encourage me to “go bigger,” it wasn't until recently did I appreciate what they meant. They wanted me to feel the freeing sensation, as Brett's paintings have, that truly expresses an uninhibited way of being.

     I find Brett's “free” paintings to have much feeling, movement, and expression of the heart and soul (then for instance a intellectual concept piece). The complimentary colors he intuitively chooses are compelling to view in person. I suppose it invokes different thoughts, feelings for each viewer.

      Back to not knowing what the “end result” will be, Gustav Klimt used to say that none of his paintings were ever “finished.” I could agree and disagree with this statement. I learned through trial an error to be careful to stay with a good stroke, a certain knowing not to mess with what is already there. I had “ruined” paintings by overuling that feeling of keeping a good thing, however, no matter how far gone the painting was from the good moment (sometimes laying in only a small section of a painting) I could always build upon whatever was there to create something else. In some way, it could never be ruined.

     A painting, though it may always seem unfinished to the artist, s/he somehow senses when it's time to stop. Finished or unfinished is a relative notion. Some artists go back years later and add a few strokes to something...his or her paintings are open to change as s/he sees fit, it isn't a closed door unless chosen it to be.

    Brett included some of his photography in this show. I find myself amazed at some of the natural world he captures. Some of his photos of birds are truly “National Geographic level” images. I wonder how he has the ability to capture them so eloquently. I always sense when taking nature photography that the animal knows I'm there. They must be very comfortable with Brett's presence. (Please excuse the glare/reflections in the glass)

     A new media Brett made were war shields made of old quilts. He explained to me how it was a statement about the spreading of smallpox on blankets purposefully given to tribes during colonization to kill them through disease as well as warfare.

     Brett invited a friend, Ironhand, a Native American flutist as his guest to play at the show. We sat and listened to his music, I drifted off to some meditative land...many people came and went, some sitting down to listen for a while. A few sat and closed their eyes, also drfiting off to some place. It was a beautiful day...a time to finally relax and breathe, to remember to slow down and just be. An older woman danced around with a baton ribbon like a small child and someone brought their puppy with them. It was one of those days that you could live the moments for just what they were.

  Ironhand

    Mark, Brett, & others            /           Mark relaxing by the firepit  

     Thanks Brett. You are a dear friend. You have given us many gifts of beauty, sharing, understanding, and reflection. You have inspired an innumerable amount of people...and continue to...

       (This is a card Brett made for a friend, not included in the show)