Uncle Wiggily, an engaging elderly rabbit, was the main character in a long running series of children’s books by Howard R. Garis. In his assorted adventures, Uncle Wiggily encounters various “bad chaps” who are intent on causing some sort of generally harmless mischief.
Although we never used the term in his presence, ‘Uncle Wiggily’ was how some of us undergraduate art students occasionally referred to Philip Wigg, a printmaking professor at BGSU. I suppose that Professor Wigg could have rightfully considered us “bad chaps” intent on causing our own form of mischief, but we held him in high regard.
Phil Wigg believed that understanding and embracing the mundane technical details of any creative process was a key factor in being productive with it. In fact, Louise Bruner, The Toledo Blade art editor at the time, wrote about Mr. Wigg's prints in a 1957 article, "His appeal is to those who place technical virtuosity above pictorial content." Although I’m not sure how he felt about that comment, Uncle Wiggily helped me understand that imposing a certain level of discipline can enable greater freedom of expression and this has had some lasting impact on my work.
In the illustration above, originally published in 1927, Uncle Wiggily is flying a carpet. In 1944, LT P.R. Wigg was flying a PBY-5A Catalina long range patrol plane for the Navy in the South Pacific. In 1966, he suggested to me that the chance of getting my hands on something really fun to fly was probably better in the Navy than in the Air Force. So, I followed his suggestion and that’s pretty much how things worked out.
In the Studio
‘Somewhere, Sometime’ is a 33”x44” canvas that I recently completed. It started out as a small mixed media study a couple of years ago. I sold the study and then forgot about it until a photo of it jumped out at me and placed itself at the top of my ‘Do This Next’ queue while I was cleaning up the studio.
When I saw the past month’s exhibit of Jay Stargaard’s work in the main gallery at Arthouse, I was impressed by both her sculpture and paintings. Her work can be found at https://www.stargaardart.com/. But what really caught my eye was the augmented reality experience she was able to incorporate into her exhibit and how it offered a glimpse of the artist’s perspective during the creative process. I didn’t feel ambitious enough to attempt AR, but the basic idea seemed good enough to be worth stealing. I was able to take my daily progress photos, clean them up in Lightroom and turn them into what sort of resembles time lapse photography. Below is my attempt at providing a little insight into the path the painting took.
The painting looks better in person than it does on a computer or phone screen. ‘Somewhere, Sometime’ and some of the progress photos will be on display in Studio #7 at ARTHOUSE this coming Second Saturday, July 13th from 5-8 PM. I will be in Alaska gathering new source material, but that will have no effect on how the painting looks. Come check it out.