Grant Proposal
1970
For convenience an excerpt of the lengthy application precedes it.
Within the next year or year and a half I would like to build a traveling show. In my mind I seeabout fifty pieces built in a variety of sizes from five foot sculptures suitable for outsideall the way down to jewelry size pieces. Also, I wish to use as many techniques, claybodiesfiring processes, etc., as possible.
Now here is where my problem lurks. During the six months building period my wife and I have no real income . . . . Since my first one man show in 1967 I only had to work on the railroad one summer, which is amazing considering lawsuits with bad galleries, some seven months active duty in the National Guard and trying to finish my MFA.degree. . .
This year seems to represent my year of choice. . . . First: the easy way out appears to be, taking a teaching job to collect a steady income and, then, trying to find time to sculpt. I must admit that I am not too keen on teaching and have been downgrading the possibility. The one big drawback in the teaching area that I see--is that one cannot choose his own students. That is unless he can afford to build his own school or studio facilities. (This is one of my plans for the future.) . . . .
Another choice for life would be to contract myself to a dealer manager or several managers and let them represent me to those few buyers which galleries cut each others throats to win. I narrowly escaped this twice, . . . Mostly there is misrepresentation.
However, I've tried to get around this by staying out of common Art Galleries and trying to show in museums and if at all possible have a personal friend handle sale of work.!
Shortly after leaving advanced training at Fort Ord, California in February 1969, I was lucky to arrange a show at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, . . . The show was held in May 1969 and contained 90 pieces (all under 22" tall). During the month showing I received four invitations from museums for shows because of a museum convention held at the Palace. . . . one show of 50 works is at the Louisiana Arts and Science Center in Baton Rough until mid March; and the other, a show of 15 larger pieces is at the Memorial Union gallery, Davis, California, until march 24th. A third batch of work (30) pieces was sent to Gimbles Department store in New York to be part of their Spring 1970 Art Stock.
I do feel that I could continue to supply the gallery and museum buying crowd enough to earn a living. But, for many reasons just making and sending work to be sold doesn't appeal to me. No one knows me personally at the market place! For me, "Art" is an active, creative force that produces objects. In a show thousands of ideas are condensed into objects and sent to communicate something more than a price tag. Yet, the only reply I often receive is a few checks. People laugh at the scatologist: but, at least, that man knows what went into the making of the object he looks at.
I really don't know what incentive is needed for the public at large to begin communicating with professional artists. Since I am 25 years old and expect to be alive for a few more years this lack of public feedback is disheartening. With this in mind, I want to build a travelling show that I made easily accessible to as many people as possible. Along with each piece I plan to write a "paragraph or two" explaining THE building process, firing, symbolic motif and subject matter Also, I don't want to push sales, so there should be no price tags to hinder appreciation of the work. This at least assures that I have done whatever possible to express my ideas to the public. Needless to say, I feel this is important. . . .