APR 12 2022
I don't write as much in the blog area as I did in the my early days/years here at Artwanted. There are several reasons for this. For one, I figured folks might be a bit fatigued with my usual rant and/or tirade regarding the current state of things. I mean, I could be taken for an old fogey, which I am, I guess. But the recent on-line article I read about an auto mechanic who ended up with most of a man's artistic output sort of shocked me into thinking. What happened, really, was a contractor was clearing a barn that had been designated abandoned and found a lot of 3D and 2D art which was placed in a dumpster. The contractor called a friend, the auto mechanic, because he thought he'd be interested in the items. He was correct and I guess that is what saved the work from the local landfill, or a slow barge out in the middle of the ocean. Who was the work by? An artist by the name of Francis Hines, known as the 'wrapper of New York.' He was of the abstract expressionist school and artists like Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Just to let you know, those two never interested me much, but after viewing some of Mr. Hines' paintings, both 2 and 3D, I thought his stood out from that crowd. But it was the circumstances of the find in that barn in Connecticut that really made an impact.
Seems the auto mechanic did the ethical thing and reached out to the deceased artist's two sons who said the mechanic could keep and sell the art. I mean they should have known the work was there in the first place but let it sit there since the man died in 2016. So this started me thinking about my humble efforts and what would become of them after I shuffle off into oblivion. Many notebooks of drawings, walls full of paintings, around 100 3D pieces going back as far as the late 80's. And I'm still adding to it, though mostly in the drawing arena lately.
Who would be interested in preserving my so-called life's creative output? Probably no one on the familial side of things. I've been presenting my work via this site since 2007 and, to date, no gallery or curator has reached out with accolades of any kind. So what do folks do? Hope for the best? This isn't a world where such hopeful thinking is usually rewarded. Reality should make teetotalers of us all but it usually has the opposite effect. The pandemic bore that 'truth' out.
Maybe my work served its purpose while I was working on it and I should be grateful for that alone. But what would you do if you were Mr. Hines and still had some time and breath left? That's what's running through my head today and I thought I would share.
