Cliff sends his love. Riverview is very comfortable and he is continuing to appreciate the encouragement, the prayers and the love he is experiencing from so many.
Smiley
Q: What is Jesus’ middle name?
A: Andy ( “Andy walks with me Andy talks with me Andy tells me I am his own…” )
Cliff's story continues
***************************
The janitorial business actually lent itself to my art interest. The odd hours opened up a reverse schedule where I was working at the least productive times of day and wide awake during the latter time of the day – giving me ample opportunity to explore my art.
Having experimented with the “Farm Boys” and found fulfillment in sculpting them – I now had the time to go back and learn the basics of working with clay so I enrolled in a nearby ceramic community course and took it three times over. The first two times I participated in the course as a student, the third time with the teacher’s permission, I used the course time as my own studio time with the instructor as a tutor. I learned so much.
My masterpiece during this time was a perfectly designed pedestal pop corn bowl. Really it was the best! It made movie watching at home – as good as going to the theatre.
But as good as it was, it still didn’t satisfy the artist in me.
I had a problem. I could replicate scenery and animals picture perfect but when it came to replicating people, no matter how hard I tried, they always turned out cartoony. Being a Mennonite artist is bad enough but a cartooning artist was frowned upon in my circles. My farm boys were cartoony… did I really want to go in that direction?
Then my son came home one day from some kind of outing with friends and said to me. “Went to an art show and saw the work of an artist that you might identify with.”
He was insistent that I go - which was a little unusual - so I went. He was right when I walked through those doors and saw the art pieces, I understood them, loved them and identified with the artist, Jordan Van Sewell, an artist who had found a voice in his ceramic art.
Finding his voice hadn’t been an easy journey for him either, but he had found a very unique niche. I was fascinated with his explanation. "As I gained a voice in my own work, I realized that the way to do it was in ceramic sculpture and I could make three-dimensional cartoons and I could actually reach my audience with humour," Van Sewell has explained. "You get to express very deep themes but you get to do it in a humorous fashion so that it’s approachable, accessible and inclusive of the population."
By others Van Sewell has been described as creating whimsical clay creatures with a distinct message and that the “quirky sensibility of his sculptures convey profound and alarming truths about the human condition.”
He was also highly successful, He has exhibited and sold his whimsical creations around the world – including Buckingham Palace.
I also found it interesting that Van Sewell’s early influences were Charles Schultz, R. Crumb and Big Daddy Ed Roth. I could see the influences of all of them in the art but I was delighted that I shared another mentor, Charles Schulz, an American cartoonist and creator of the comic strip Peanuts.
Soon after seeing the show, I saw this advertisement promoting a class by Van Sewell.
“Jordan will demonstrate several ways of hand building with clay and will show you how he creates his whimsical clay creatures. You will have the opportunity to work with clay and create some wild things of your own. An evening with Jordan is always amusing, informative and fun.”
I took this course and it was everything it had promised.
Between Schultz and Jordan, I was given the permission I needed to explore the cartooning side of me. I might not have the emotional insight of Schultz and I didn’t have the keen social critique of Jordan – I had to find my own expression.
What I did have was a degree in Theology – and a basic love for the Bible stories that has influenced every aspect of my being. What would it look like to cartoon the Bible stories? Even the thought seemed sacrilegious but then again why not? Van Sewell’s work gave me the permission to play and mix up the metaphors that were already mixed up in my life.
How does this express itself?
One of my first sculptures under this new influence was of a cartooned Moses, white hair flowing in the wind, racing down Mount Sinai with the tablets of the ten commandments under his arm driving a white race car.
It is still one of my favorites.
The other was the image of my father with a cane and a hound dog head.
I was having fun with my issues – but making fun in a very gentle and profound way….
In the Moses sculpture, I was updating an old image of moral judgement and poking fun at the religiosity. In the sculpture of my father with the hound dog head, I was downsizing the strength of a macho dog by putting it on an old man’s body.
As I was being healed by playing with my issues, I was hopefully giving people freedom to interpret their issues in a new way.
At an art show in which I exhibited the farm boy series with these two new expressions of my art, the Moses and Old Man pieces sold immediately.
I had found a very unique niche…
I had a hope – I had market that now matched my passion. My work was being affirmed.
Up to this point I had transformed our laundry room into a makeshift art studio and because of this new door opening, I wanted to find a place with light, windows and a community of artists
I applied to Clifton Studios. There was a long waiting list.
But I had passed the screening – it was just a matter of time.
We as a family were in a good space. Wilma was Director of Victims’ Voice at MCC, Larry and Odia had moved to Altona, where Odia was beginning her successful career at Friesens Corporation, Larry was Youth For Christ Director in Altona, Syras had married Natasha Fay from Sudbury, Ontario, and was almost finished his PhD. They had plans to move to India to become missionaries.
I had finally found a new goal, a new niche, and was eager to pursue it….
And then we got another phone call that sent us all reeling….
Smiley
Q: What is Jesus’ middle name?
A: Andy ( “Andy walks with me Andy talks with me Andy tells me I am his own…” )
Cliff's story continues
***************************
The janitorial business actually lent itself to my art interest. The odd hours opened up a reverse schedule where I was working at the least productive times of day and wide awake during the latter time of the day – giving me ample opportunity to explore my art.
Having experimented with the “Farm Boys” and found fulfillment in sculpting them – I now had the time to go back and learn the basics of working with clay so I enrolled in a nearby ceramic community course and took it three times over. The first two times I participated in the course as a student, the third time with the teacher’s permission, I used the course time as my own studio time with the instructor as a tutor. I learned so much.
My masterpiece during this time was a perfectly designed pedestal pop corn bowl. Really it was the best! It made movie watching at home – as good as going to the theatre.
But as good as it was, it still didn’t satisfy the artist in me.
I had a problem. I could replicate scenery and animals picture perfect but when it came to replicating people, no matter how hard I tried, they always turned out cartoony. Being a Mennonite artist is bad enough but a cartooning artist was frowned upon in my circles. My farm boys were cartoony… did I really want to go in that direction?
Then my son came home one day from some kind of outing with friends and said to me. “Went to an art show and saw the work of an artist that you might identify with.”
He was insistent that I go - which was a little unusual - so I went. He was right when I walked through those doors and saw the art pieces, I understood them, loved them and identified with the artist, Jordan Van Sewell, an artist who had found a voice in his ceramic art.
Finding his voice hadn’t been an easy journey for him either, but he had found a very unique niche. I was fascinated with his explanation. "As I gained a voice in my own work, I realized that the way to do it was in ceramic sculpture and I could make three-dimensional cartoons and I could actually reach my audience with humour," Van Sewell has explained. "You get to express very deep themes but you get to do it in a humorous fashion so that it’s approachable, accessible and inclusive of the population."
By others Van Sewell has been described as creating whimsical clay creatures with a distinct message and that the “quirky sensibility of his sculptures convey profound and alarming truths about the human condition.”
He was also highly successful, He has exhibited and sold his whimsical creations around the world – including Buckingham Palace.
I also found it interesting that Van Sewell’s early influences were Charles Schultz, R. Crumb and Big Daddy Ed Roth. I could see the influences of all of them in the art but I was delighted that I shared another mentor, Charles Schulz, an American cartoonist and creator of the comic strip Peanuts.
Soon after seeing the show, I saw this advertisement promoting a class by Van Sewell.
“Jordan will demonstrate several ways of hand building with clay and will show you how he creates his whimsical clay creatures. You will have the opportunity to work with clay and create some wild things of your own. An evening with Jordan is always amusing, informative and fun.”
I took this course and it was everything it had promised.
Between Schultz and Jordan, I was given the permission I needed to explore the cartooning side of me. I might not have the emotional insight of Schultz and I didn’t have the keen social critique of Jordan – I had to find my own expression.
What I did have was a degree in Theology – and a basic love for the Bible stories that has influenced every aspect of my being. What would it look like to cartoon the Bible stories? Even the thought seemed sacrilegious but then again why not? Van Sewell’s work gave me the permission to play and mix up the metaphors that were already mixed up in my life.
How does this express itself?
One of my first sculptures under this new influence was of a cartooned Moses, white hair flowing in the wind, racing down Mount Sinai with the tablets of the ten commandments under his arm driving a white race car.
It is still one of my favorites.
The other was the image of my father with a cane and a hound dog head.
I was having fun with my issues – but making fun in a very gentle and profound way….
In the Moses sculpture, I was updating an old image of moral judgement and poking fun at the religiosity. In the sculpture of my father with the hound dog head, I was downsizing the strength of a macho dog by putting it on an old man’s body.
As I was being healed by playing with my issues, I was hopefully giving people freedom to interpret their issues in a new way.
At an art show in which I exhibited the farm boy series with these two new expressions of my art, the Moses and Old Man pieces sold immediately.
I had found a very unique niche…
I had a hope – I had market that now matched my passion. My work was being affirmed.
Up to this point I had transformed our laundry room into a makeshift art studio and because of this new door opening, I wanted to find a place with light, windows and a community of artists
I applied to Clifton Studios. There was a long waiting list.
But I had passed the screening – it was just a matter of time.
We as a family were in a good space. Wilma was Director of Victims’ Voice at MCC, Larry and Odia had moved to Altona, where Odia was beginning her successful career at Friesens Corporation, Larry was Youth For Christ Director in Altona, Syras had married Natasha Fay from Sudbury, Ontario, and was almost finished his PhD. They had plans to move to India to become missionaries.
I had finally found a new goal, a new niche, and was eager to pursue it….
And then we got another phone call that sent us all reeling….
“Sometimes I feel that life has passed me by...
Do you ever feel that way, Charlie Brown?"
"I feel that it has knocked me down and walked all over me!"
- Charles M Schulz
Do you ever feel that way, Charlie Brown?"
"I feel that it has knocked me down and walked all over me!"
- Charles M Schulz
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