Love What I Love by Heidi M. Marston

Things I Love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch @ the MFA
And
Things We Love: Selections from the collection of Jim Smith and Rob Clifford @ Clifford Smith Gallery

The color was like the sky. It had a texture that changed from a soft brushstroke quality to a patchy more cloudlike look. It was 5’ x 5’ which at the time seemed huge. I felt like it could envelope me completely when I was in the same room with it. I loved it. I loved it so much I have it moved with me wherever I went, like one of William I. Koch’s paintings. “What was it?” You may ask, maybe I have intrigued you by the description to the object, or the love I have tried to convey. It was a blanket. When I was young I would carry it with me everywhere, it was patchy in spots where I would pull out the soft fuzz out on rub it on my face (a story for another time). Ii brought me joy and I thought it was beautiful. Would I hang it in a museum or gallery next to the sculpture I have by Deborah Giller, or the photographs by Bill Burke? No, probably not. I have a different relationship to my blanket then to my art collection.
Things I Love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch at the MFA is both intriguing and baffling to me. “How on earth did this happen?” I asked myself, “How did we end up with sailboats on the front lawn of the Museum of FINE ARTS?”. Well, we didn’t just get sailboats; we got great works of sculpture, paintings and historically significance objects. We got Fernando Botero sculptures. Where do we go from here? I wonder if my artwork became greatly desired, would my blankie end up next to my photographs or drawings in a gallery? The MFA exhibit leaves me perplexed, if we love it does that make it art?
If I happen to have an “art” collection does that include all of my collections? Should I now consider the15 stuffed animals I have won in the video game room claw machine as art? They are hard to acquire, they sometimes cost more than they should, they are rare, and I kind of love them. Part of what seems to be the trouble here might be that distinction between what we love and what we want everyone else to love with us. The boats are on the MFA lawn because the MFA loves William I. Koch’s Fernando Botero sculptures. And they are amazing. I love them. But I think this show sends the wrong message. It says that we should love everything in this collection the same way. Everything is presented in the traditional form of an exhibition from paintings on the wall to sculptures on the lawn. Mr. Koch has been given an opportunity to share what he loves and he seems to love everything in his collection the same way. If the point was to show things he loves at the Museum of Fine Arts, I end up getting the sense that he just loves things that are expensive, not necessarily that he loves great works of art. And that is a love I can’t relate to. And for me it has nothing to do with art at all. It feels like it has nothing to do with love, it is simply about value.
Now down to Boston’s South End we go to continue our journey into things people love. On view at Clifford Smith Gallery is Things We Love: Selections from the collection of Jim Smith and Rob Clifford. Normally this would just be a group exhibition with a great variety of work by their represented artists, but this exhibit has something very unique. On one wall hangs a painting done for Jim Smith by his mother. In all the things that I have seen that people are telling me to love, I understand why this is here. I can relate to that kind of love. Its personal, it has nothing to do with cost, but it does have something to do with value. Is it a Picasso or a Chagall? No, but It hangs in Clifford Smith for us all to share in. It has its place in the gallery’s list of works, and at the end of the description it says, “We love this painting”. For me, that is true love.
These two exhibits both inhabit venues where I go to find “art”, and in both places I found some things I would call art. I also found out what I think about love. I don’t love the boats, I like to sail, but just being “really into sailing” does not make a sailboat a work of art. Each piece in the collection of Jim Smith and Rob Clifford has been selected, they have a story for each piece and they love them all, and they love them all in different ways.
As a working artist, a curator, a writer and a teacher I love many things. But if I loved them all the same way in the same amount then they would all become meaningless and unrelateable. Would I like to someday have a show called Things I Love: The Many Collections of Heidi Marston, hell yes. Would it include my blue blanket? Probably not, would it include the Jim Dow photographs I have or the Andy Mowbray sculpture, yes. The things I love do have value, some monetary some personal, some both, and for me that distinction is what makes the love more true. So check out Carolyn Smiths painting at Clifford Smith, and see the things Jim Smith and Rob Clifford love. And go to the MFA and see the many Collections of William I. Koch, and you tell me what the difference is. I might have to go add my claw game animals to the installation on the MFA front lawn. Why not? I love them. Why shouldn’t everyone else?


Things I Love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - Sunday, November 13, 2005
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Avenue of the Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115-5523
617-267-9300

Things We Love: Selections from the collection of Jim Smith and Rob Clifford @ Clifford Smith Gallery
450 harrison avenue, 3rd floor . boston ma 02118
tel 617.695.0255 - fax 617.695.2255
gallery hours - tuesday through saturday - 11am to 5:30 pm

I Would Pay to See This One!

I Would Pay to See This One!
By Heidi M. Marston
Joe Wardwell at the Gallery@Green Street


The lights go down, everyone screams. We don’t see anything yet but we know what’s coming. The anticipation is almost too much. The smoke pours out onto the stage; the lights from below light everything up like something from out of this world. They walk out, the music starts, and they are almost in reach but always above you when you are in the front row. They begin to move wildly, their hair long, like Jesus, like the messiah, like gods. It’s amazing. It’s a religion. It’s Rock.
I remember being 15 years old and going to see the Ramones. I worshiped the Ramones. I had every album, I knew every word of every song, I had dreamed of the day when I would be front row. Looking up at my gods. It was all I had hoped for. When I went to the Vatican, I felt the same way. I know, I know it’s the dorky vow an art history lover. I couldn’t believe I was there. I couldn’t believe I was standing looking up at the Sistine Chapel ceiling. I wanted to cheer, and yell, “YEAH! I made it! I’m here! This is awesome!” but you’re not allowed to talk so it wasn’t as much fun as the Ramones.
I recently had an exciting experience at the opening of Joe Wardwell:Solo at the Gallery@Green Street last Saturday night. The lights came on, everyone piled in, the music began to play, and the work was awesome. I wanted to yell, “YEAH! JOE! YEAH!”, and I am sure that no one would have minded, but I held it in. Even though it was the Gallery@ Green Street, it was still a gallery and even here there are some social expectations. Wardwell’s works are beautifully executed paintings reminiscent of classical Baroque works. The figures of angles and heavenly hosts (in the traditional sense) have been replaced by a variable who’s who of heavy metal and rock’n roll history. There are women, there are men, and there is hair, instruments, tattoos and flames. It is like the Garden of Rock’N Roll delights, I think Hieronymus Bosch would have appreciated it. Sex, drugs, Rock n Roll, and great painting. I never thought that would be the new phrase. Also has included in the exhibit are paintings in the shape of guitars. I had to suppress the urge to pick one up and play “Crazy Train” on them like an air guitar.
As I get older going to see a live band has turned into thoughts of, “this ticket was really expensive, and its really loud in here, god I wish this sweaty guy would move over, anyone got hand sanitizer?”. I now look back on my Sistine chapel experience and think, “Thank god I got there before they restored it, it’s actually kind of ugly.” The opening of Joe Wardwell:Solo was a fun experience. I actively engaged in a game of find Brian Johnson, or Ozzy Osborne. I spent some time trying to figure out what famous composition they might have been based on and I watched other gallery goers as they looked on with fascination, confusion and excitement.
We all have some idea how to react to our surroundings. We don’t act the same at a heavy metal concert as we do at the MFA. But the feeling of being “star struck” is almost the same no matter what the situation. Many of today’s “Art Stars” have an almost “Rock Star” quality to them. I once met one of my favorite artists and I felt that surge of panic, “What do I say, oh my god there they are, I love their work” and the experience was not like seeing the Ramones. It was more like seeing Kenny G. The mystique fades so often when you meet the star in person. I expected more interesting conversation out of a meeting with Nan Goldin and I got more out of talking to Guy from Fugazi. The differences between the gods of the art world and those in the music industry are minimal. They only real difference is their medium.
Wardwell’s paintings has invaded the art worlds exclusive society with AC/DC and it’s awesome! He has merged the two worlds of the rock stars and the art stars into pieces that entertain me, intrigue me and most of all they challenge me. Pretty soon to be a real “Art Star” you will have to have been immortalized in a Joe Warwell. Or take up the drums. While I feel you may have missed out on some of the rush by not having been to the opening of Joe Wardwell:Solo I highly suggest paying the $1.25 to take the subway out to the Gallery@Green Street, you may want to get out your lighter and hold it up high, or just bust out into some good old fashioned air guitar. Either way there is something for everyone to enjoy. Joe Wardell, you rock!

Joe Wardwell: Solo

September 10 - October 15, 2005

Reception: Saturday, September 10, 7 - 9pm

Artist's Talk: Saturday, September 17 @ Noon