True Art

For the true artist, the world is their medium… I feel that if I was homeless and destitute, I would still be making and creating art. Even if it was making tools to survive on the land or drawing in the sand, just to have it later stepped on, not noticed by the passer-by. Or the rain to melt it away into a muddy mess of dark murky water… I would be happy for the mere fact I had at some point that day created… And yes if I was homeless, I would have one hell of a cardboard sign.


I think this way of thinking is lost in the art world of today… Well at least by many that consider themselves artists… First off, the art world, the true art world, is seldom seen by the masses… It and its artist are only seen by a handful of people, true art lovers that are always on the prowl for something refreshing, not something manufactured… I guess this has been the way I’ve looked at the artists and their work I’ve liked over the years.


Vincent Van Gogh, and his wildly smeared colors were the first art I ever laid eyes on… A cheap copy of the Langlois Bridge With Women Washing hung in my childhood home… It was wavy and warped from hanging by a rusty nail in the thick humidity of Florida. I remember having pneumonia as a child and running a high fever for what seemed like forever… I would lay on the cool terrazzo floor looking into the blurry work of Van Gogh. Although, I was really young, I understood exactly what he was saying with his frantic strokes of momentary madness… It was at this time I knew my life as an artist had begun. Being lost daily in whatever the medium, painting, writing, sculpting, whatever it was, I was working with would be what I wanted to do for the rest of my life… 　

 Along with Van Gogh, there have been other artist that have inspired me along my journey… Margaret Kilgallen for her incredible talent of seeing the world as her canvas. Boxcars, walls, scrap pages from old books, she was as real as it gets… Harry Crews, who hides nothing in his writing, and who I was lucky enough to spend time with and interview… He was someone that really brought home for me the importance of helping your fellow artist…　

 Over the years, I’ve also realized the young artist, not age but time they’ve put into their work, have to have the willingness to learn and imagine… These are the true elements of getting better at your craft… You have to have the drive to create or you wont be doing it long.

For me, whatever art I’m doing today will most likely not be the art I’m doing tomorrow… This is never more true then when I’m introduced to a new medium. 　

 Fellow artist and friend Kinch White peaked my interest in carving bone when I saw a photo of a Sea Turtle he had carved… I was very intrigued with his work. The piece seemed to jump out at me when I saw it for the first time… He was nice enough to steer me to a local bone supplier and I was on my way…


Working in bone was something I quickly grew to love… With anything new there is an experimental stage were you are learning what to do, but more importantly, what not to do. Like carving to much bone away from what you are trying to create… For it can not be put back once it is gone. I found that bone was incredibly forgiving and flexible to a degree… I carved everything at first but found I liked the challenge of micro art the most…

Artwork By Jason E. Hodges

 

Inspired by an artist yet again, Willard Wigan, but not having a microscope. I started carving as small of pieces I could. Camels in the eye of a needle, Charlie Chaplin on a toothpick. Which was a real challenge painting his mustache. I finally used one of my dog’s lost hairs lying on the floor… It was tricky to paint with but worked quite well. So if you take anything away from this, remember, art is all around us; it’s happening everyday, more so outside the classroom than in… Just open your eyes, open your mind, and create…

 

Artwork By Jason E. Hodges