Drawing Myself Straight

Rick Bartow *

Rick Bartow – Snake Dance
Sept. 3rd – Sept. 26th,
Froelick Gallery
714 NW Davis St
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 222-1142

Figuratively, Rick Bartow was dragged into being an artist, just about kicking and screaming. Having refused to recognize the artist within it took just about everyone, being led by his loving wife Julie Swan, to ‘persuade’ him to move into the direction of becoming an artist. Everyone else recognizing the artist before the artist did. But not only does he draw, he also paints, carves wood, and does dry point etching, creating some of the most beautiful, and popular, pieces of expressionist art to come around in recent history. “I’m a very lucky man, there are many artists out there, more talented than I, who aren’t making it was well as I am. I just happened to be in the right place and the right time.” Still to this day, he’s the last person to believe that some one can make a living as an artist, even while he’s doing it.

In the beginning it would be his personal challenges facing alcohol, drugs, and painful war memories that would provide him the inspiration and material allowing him to create and move toward being a successful artist. At one time calling it ‘Transformational Images’ since it served as a form of therapy helping to reconcile himself with the images coming from within. Now his art serves as being therapeutic in recovery from the death of his wife and a very serious sickness almost leading to his own death.

Bartows drawing "What the Snake told the Magician" *

After his return from Vietnam, his atmosphere was filled with self created irrational fears, beliefs, and symbols - even sleeping with his clothes on so he’d be “ready to go.” He began drawing to exorcise the demons. “My work has never stopped being therapy. With the help of family, friends, and my work, I have drawn myself straight.” He further describes his process. “The change has been a slow evolution. Color took three years to begin to work. The rich inky blackness of the graphite began to diminish in proportion to the first subtle colors I applied, until 1983, when at last the light out-shown the darkness and the graphite line delineated only areas of color.”

Quoting Philip Guston in a telephone interview “In art, satisfaction accounts for very little” Bartow refers to whether his own pieces are ever fully completed. “Sooner or later you have to just say it’s done, otherwise, if you keep working at it, it becomes a new piece.” While most of the pieces for his latest show Snake Dance are acrylic paintings – he has some wooden sculptures in the show too – his passion is working with pastels. Working in his Pig Pen Studio, one of four studios at his home, Bartow likes to start with strokes in graphite and then continues erasing and reapplying lines and color until he feels comfortable with saying it’s complete. He nicknames this room the Pig Pen Studio because of the shavings strewn about as a result of all the erasing done. Direction comes to him while drawing and he just continues to head in that direction, using discipline to complete.

It’s his recovery from Bartows recent illness that he found the inspiration for the current show Snake Dance – at the Froelick Gallery in the Pearl District, Portland, OR, ongoing through September 26th – with a climax being an artist’s walk through on September 19th, and collaborating performance with Portland Taiko on September 19th & 20th. Portland Taiko will perform while wearing wooden masks created and made by Bartow. From Portland Taiko’s website – “In honor of Oregon's big 150th anniversary as a state coinciding with Portland Taiko's 15th, PT wanted to revisit the traditions and stories of the native people who lived on this land before Oregon became a state. To celebrate the ensemble embarked on a unique artistic collaboration with contemporary Native American artist, Rick Bartow. Rick's award winning, nationally celebrated artistry is shown in Portland at the Froelick Gallery. Rick and PT sought to explore the traditional and modern cultures that make Oregon's journey through 150 years of statehood unique.”

Bartows drawing "Snake Dance"*

But the inspiration for the Snake Dance show also comes from the native Hopi Dance. Bartow counts himself as a descendant from the Mad River Band of the Wiyot Tribe in the Humboldt Bay area in Northern California before his family, a couple generations back, moved to the Oregon Coast where Bartow currently calls home. Analogously, Bartow refers to the snakes in the Snake Dance as human problems, and dancing with them allows us to embrace those problems, putting us on the path toward recovery. Bartow first embraced his health problems, and then used his talents to create art allowing his recovery to happen naturally.

To the new artists just out establishing themselves, Bartow compares the process to building Noah’s Arc in the desert. It’s a difficult challenge. But you have to remember in addition to feeding your body and mind you also have to feed you heart and soul. It’s a balance that you have to meet if you want to move in an artistic direction.

In tandem with his successful show at the Froelick Gallery, Bartow will also welcome Portland Trimet’s unveiling of his sculpture From the Mad River to the Little Salmon River, or the Responsibility of Raising a Child, a large scale bronze sculpture installed along the new Downtown Portland Bus Mall. Be sure to catch him in his Artist’s Walk Through on September 19th and collaboration with Portland Taiko at the Newmark Theater, 1111 SW Broadway, Portland, OR on September 19th at 8pm and September 20th at 2pm.
 

* All photos provided by the Froelick Gallery and used with permission