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The Artist’s
Almanac
July 2007
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Almost every one has some journey of pleasure in his mind,
with which he flatters his expectation.
He that travels in theory has no inconveniences;
he has shade and sunshine at his disposal,
and wherever he alights finds tables of plenty and looks of
gaiety.
- Samuel Johnson
July is hot upon us. This is the
month we think seriously of vacation and traveling, a time to
escape ourselves and our everydayness.
Travel and travail have the same
root; travailler, from Middle English, to torment, labor, journey
or torture. We all remember missed flights, noise, sleepless
nights, and disgusting food. Yet we never forget our first view of
the Grand Canyon or Fujiyama, and we try to share our excitement
with our friends by making them watch our slides.
Partygoers make small talk by
comparing foreign sites visited, a variation on ‘who d’ya know’.
This may morph into a subtle contest, as more exotic destinations
such as Libya, and Angkor Wat, are used to trump yesterday’s
favorites, such as Paris, Rome and China. ‘Been there, done that.’
Why is it impossible for us to
experience the Grand Canyon and to see it for what it is, as did
the first Spanish explorers? Walker Percy calls this problem
‘preformulation, the packaging of the object by modern culture’.
In his award-winning novel, The Moviegoer, his character Binx
Bolling attempts to escape the malaise of his life by going to
movies all day, a form of rotation.
A good rotation Bolling defines as
“…an experiencing of the new beyond the expectation of the
experiencing of the new. …Taking one’s first trip to Taxco would
not be a rotation, or no more than a very ordinary rotation; but
getting lost on the way and discovering a hidden valley would be.”
Percy says ‘the concept that the
road is better than the inn describes rotation. It is better to be
focused on what lies around the bend than on the stillness of the
moment.’ He goes on to agree with Dr. Johnson that rotation may be
achieved as easily at home as by traveling, as in a good book. We
may find it all around us if we will but learn to look at our
surroundings like a patient released from hospital. Rotation is
within our minds, where we live our lives.
The best vacation I ever enjoyed was
as a boy, in Red Boiling Springs, fifty miles from home. There
were new friends there and a pony. There were deep woods to
explore with a shady rippling creek to wade, and new fish to
pursue. At noon the big dinner bell rang and we went into the
large dining hall with family size tables. After my Father was
called on for the blessing, we treated ourselves to fried chicken,
and steaming bowls of mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans,
dumplings, gravy, cabbage, peas, apples, tomatoes, and dressing.
Dessert was usually a fruit cobbler or strawberry shortcake, with
fresh whipped cream.
The General Dance - Bill Puryear, Artist
After dinner the adults played
horseshoes as the older ones rocked on the long shaded verandas
and talked away the languorous summer afternoon. We bowled five
pins or took off to the creek to construct a gravel dam and deepen
a cool pool. At night the promenade along Main Street twinkled
with lights from its twelve old hotels as the bands played in the
pavilions and Mother and Daddy joined the dance. The bowling
alleys thundered as grown men scattered the pins and made the
setters duck for cover .We were living in the realm of pure
potentiality. I felt I was part of the general dance and I wished
it never to end.
Here in Tennessee we have much to
see and experience, if we but open our eyes. Every Fourth of July
in Smithville The Old Time Fiddlers’ Jamboree is held. Musicians
and Craft Vendors flock to it from across America. It is one of,
if not the largest and oldest gathering of those who love
Bluegrass. We choose a spot under a shade tree behind the
courthouse in the midst of the throng of those warming up for
their appearances.
These are amateurs, and this is
homegrown American music. Heat, crowds, homemade ice cream,
barbeque, funnel cakes and wares of all kinds, some finely
finished hand carved wooden mixing bowls and hand woven baskets,
as well as tacky paintings and T-shirts. There are fine dulcimers
and autoharps on sale here, as well as local produce. The
musicians are utterly un-self-conscious and without vanity and I
love to seat myself in the shade in the middle of them and
experience the cool breeze blowing and the sound of a dozen string
bands a I watch a dancer as entranced as any dervish dance away
the summer afternoon. The place, the people, the music, the Fourth
of July – all combine to intoxicate me with joy and pride in
America. I feel like dancing.
The Buck Dancer - Bill Puryear, Artist
It was hot, too, in that close hall
in Philadelphia that July 4th of 1776 as the thoughts of George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson turned to home and Virginia, where
the corn was ripening and where they needed to be. But the world
was turning now, turning towards America and towards Freedom. This
was something entirely new in the world, an expectation beyond all
previous expectations – a people governing themselves. This was a
good rotation indeed – the rotation of a tired old world into a
new.
Long may it last.
Upcoming Events
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Entire month of July -
Hendersonville Star News - display of several large paintings.
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October 5th - 7th - Fall Into Art
Show - Hendersonville High School, Juried Show of 40 Local and
Regional Artists.
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November 30 - December 2, Twelfth
Annual Fine Art in Brentwood Show and Sale , Brentwood Academy
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