Home » Michelangelo, Leonardo and Soybeans

"Art should speak on its own. It should be a synthesis between the artist, the observer and all the forces in the cosmos...It shouldn't be a crossword puzzle!" Boy could Buddy get worked up about this stuff. Now I know why he prefers growing soybeans and leaves art to his own solitude.

 

Buddy Rutherford got his soybeans planted just in time. What he hadn't anticipated was that dang, blaster volcano in Iceland. Buddy is not an impetuous man but, when Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael call, he'll drop everything and go a running.

 

Buddy loves to operate within the confines of contradictions. He says it is the easiest way to reveal the prejudice in folks who claim they hate people who are prejudice.

Anybody who knows Buddy knows he is an artist. As much as they know, or care, they figure he is pretty good with a pencil and a paintbrush. Not as good as a soybean farmer, but pretty good at put'n up a picture. Beyond that being an artist around here is thought of more of a craft than an occupation; like quilt making, or whittling walking sticks. If someone wanted a barn painted they might call Buddy who would tell them he ain't got the time. He's not the sort of person who would get mad at someone who was ignorant of his talents.

So to answer the Masters' call, Buddy figure to head over to London. The British Museum is opening a new exhibit this week and its focus is on the 'drawings' rather than the 'paintings' of these High Renaissance, Italian Masters. Buddy had his ticket to fly to London six weeks ago and planned his farm chores around it. If and when that volcano gets tamed, he is still going; he has his mind and heart set on it.

Buddy will go because he knows the secret of the Masters. He just wants to confirm it.

He has seen firsthand their Works and can appreciate it as much as the talent The Man has given him can bare; eyes and mind. Those who hanker for Art the most are always in awe of the finished paintings of these Masters. For Buddy, well, he looks for a deeper relationship between the artist and their art- and finds it in their drawings. In his way of thinking, it is found best in their drawings where you can feel the thought process and the creative spirit being pulled from the creator's individual soul. (All thanks to those early Renaissance travelers introducing the Chinese invention of paper. Now artists could experiment with the design and story of a work until it satisfied their tinkering (not unlike computers are for writers, or video for filmmakers, etc.)).

But, I digress...again!

No one here in Parrot County much knows or cares that Buddy studied art and, even lived in Paris for three years. Some pretty lofty folks in Europe and places like New York and Chicago have his stuff hanging around. He even taught art and design at several art institutes. But he gave it all up. Nobody ever asked him why. They probably wouldn't understand if he told them.

But I asked him once and he answered. See, he knows that I know a bit about his secret. And, I am not kin to him. I've been here a while enough to blend in, but not too close to have a family-type opinion: his secret of being an artist-best defined as a 'wild venture' in his early years.

He told me that he had been hurt. Said Art had been high jacked by the intellectual's who were smart but lacked the soul and the skill of the artist; he didn't define these robbers any more than that. He told me, that in his mind, Art was supposed to be equally shared. An experience describing the harmony of God's images created, and it was to be made so all people would understand. To be touched and moved by the experience of seeing something that their eyes and mind valued but, were unable to articulate themselves-that to him is what the Masters did best, and was best revealed in their drawings. 

He continued in as frustrated tone as I have ever seen him, pointing out that the abstract art of the past was valid, created by artists who had been disciplined in the rigors of traditional art and just rebelled to evolve a different style of their own. "But it still was good design!" He would vent. "The abstract Art today doesn't involve any discipline. It is just an immature, visual representation of how confused the individual is!"

You could see the veins in his neck begin to stick out a bit as he swung to the heart of the matter saying, that the abstract Art of today wasn't even an artistic process, it was a mind game. It doesn't make sense unless the one responsible is there to explaining it: "what I wanted to say was...They all do it. It's like it is some kind of secret password that no one else is allowed in on."

He described his idea of the true role of an artist, "It is the artist's gift to teach the world to see..and to understand."

Then, he ended with a deep breath returning his demeanor back to the calm we all know him to be.

So any ways, the volcano now seems to be cooperating and early tomorrow morning I am driving Buddy to the airport. Sometime later this week Buddy will be face to face with the creations of his earthly heroes.

Give em hell Buddy!

Enough Said!