Thoughts from James Surls

Molecular Bloom in Shaw Park

2012-02-11T11:48:00.002-07:00

Molecular Bloom in Shaw Park

Sculpture Magazine

2011-12-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

A Conversation with James Surls: Paradox is All We Have
By Susie Kalil

Sculpture Magazine
December 2011
Vol. 30 No. 10

Taos, NM 1970's

2011-11-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

1970's Mabel Dodge House, Taos, NM

Masur Museum, Monroe, LA

2011-11-02T10:07:00.000-06:00

I am currently in Louisiana for an opening at the Masur Museum in Monroe, LA. Shows like this mean a great deal to me.

Seeing and Believing: Recent Works by James Surls
November 3, 2011 - January 28, 2012

http://www.masurmuseum.org/

Chopping Wood

2011-10-13T11:42:00.000-06:00

Unveiling in Greensboro, NC

2011-09-29T09:49:00.001-06:00

Poet with an Ax

2011-06-17T11:27:00.000-06:00

I was informed that something had been written up about the show at Grounds for Sculpture. I was honored when I read it. I would like to share it and say thank you to The Artful Blogger.

Show up at Grounds for Sculpture

2011-05-03T15:11:00.002-06:00

I have a show up right now at Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey. Linda, James C. and I were out for the opening. I am very pleased with the way it looks.

James Surls: In Balance

Museum building 05/01/11 - 10/02/11

Grounds for Sculpture

www.groundsforsculpture.org

Time lapse video of Construction and Installation of 3+3

2011-04-05T14:59:00.005-06:00

Molecular Three and Three from James Surls on Vimeo.

Time Lapse video. 1 minute 43 seconds

"3+3" was built at James Surls' Colorado studio, then installed in front of the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston on March 28, 2011.
Stainless Steel.
"3+3" was constructed by James Surls and Tai Pomara.

From a documentary in progress, produced by Greg Poschman, Director/ DP.
Additional camera work and editor: Danny Brown
Shot with Canon 7D for video, Canon 20D and Nikon D300 for Timelapse.

Power of Five

2011-04-05T14:20:00.001-06:00

CAMH

2011-03-30T16:46:00.002-06:00

photo by: Greg Poschman- Aspen

2011-03-28T10:02:00.003-06:00

Giving and Receiving: A Collaborative Exhibition of Contemporary Artists from China and the United States

April 8, 2011 - July 22, 2011

Giving and Receiving: A Collaborative Exhibition of Contemporary Artists from China and the United States features distinguished contemporary Chinese and American artists exhibiting together as a cultural and artistic exchange. The CU Art Museum is pleased to host the American side of the cultural exchange following the 2007 exhibition titledCorresponding and Responding: United Exhibition of Chinese-American Artists, which was mounted at the National Museum of China in Beijing. A major symposium is planned for Saturday, April 9, 2011 in conjunction with the CU Art Museum exhibition on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus. The symposium will feature presentations by many of the Chinese and American artists participating in the exhibition who work and reside in Colorado’s Aspen valley; Houston, Texas; New York City; as well as in Beijing, China and Shanghai, China. The symposium and exhibition are designed to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and discussion about artistic concerns, aesthetic approaches, and relationships of art to society in both China and the United States.

The exhibition features:

Cao Jigang, Jiang Dahai, Lin Yan, Wang Huaiqing, Wang Nanfei, Wei Jia, Xiao Bing, Zhou Changjiang

John Alexander, The Art Guys, Robert Brinker, Charles Dukes, Linda Girvin, Jody Guralnick, Pamela Joseph, Charmaine Locke, Tai Pomara, James Surls

This exhibition is generously supported in part by the Compton Foundation, the NBT Charitable Trust, the CU Art Museum benefactors and members, as well as by the CU Boulder Student Arts and Cultural Enrichment (ACE) fees. Additional support for the related symposium was also generously provided by the James and Rebecca Roser Visiting Artist Program and by the Center for Asian Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder.

Organization of the exhibition and symposium was directed by Lisa Tamiris Becker, Director, CU Art Museum. Special thanks to Julie Segraves of the Asian Art Coordinating Council of Denver for assistance with coordination of the exhibition and symposium.

From the vault cir. 2003: The Execution of "II Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes"

2011-03-27T18:08:00.006-06:00

The Execution of "II Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes"
by Charles J. Dukes

On August 9, 2003, under a withering sun in steamy Splendora, Texas, Louisiana-based artist David Bradshaw fired nine shots from a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol into the second edition of the James Surls’ print "II Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes."

The shooting, which took place behind Surls’ studio in Splendora before about 70 onlookers, was the result of a creative decision made by Surls that was also expected to put an end to a brewing controversy over the creation of the edition.
The following is a story about how and why the decision was made. (See photo captions and links at the end of this story.)

Controversy Erupts

March began in a heady way for Surls. His artwork, most of it made during the previous 12 months, filled half the exhibition space at the two-year-old Meadows Museum in Dallas. Surls considered the show one of the most important in his 38-year career. The reviews were good and the response to his work, particularly in Dallas and Houston, reinforced a close bond that has long existed between Surls and his admirers in Texas, a bond that had been somewhat strained by his 1998 move to Colorado.

About a week after In the Meadows: Recent Sculpture, Drawings and Prints of James Surls show opened, an unexpected telephone call from Houston art dealer Hiram Butler shattered Surls’ sense of serenity.

“He said a collector from Houston had attended the Meadows Museum show and had spotted a second-edition print of "Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes" ("II Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes") on display there. We had included the print in the show almost as an afterthought,” Surls said.

“As an owner of a first-edition print of "Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes," the collector objected to the very existence of a second edition of the print. He felt the existence of a second edition devalued the first edition.”

Surls said Butler, a former business partner in Houston, warned him that "II Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes" should never have been made and would harm, perhaps even destroy Surls’ reputation among collectors of his work.

It wasn’t long before that call was followed by another from Mark Roglán, Ph.D., curator of collections at the Meadows, who had also received a call from the Houston collector. Roglán first viewed "II Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes" at Surls’ Colorado studio and decided to include it in the Meadows show.

“I would have taken any call like this from a gallery owner or museum curator seriously. But Hiram is very knowledgeable about things involving prints; I consider him an authority,” Surls said, “I was stunned; the calls caught me completely off guard.”

Momentarily on the defensive, Surls said he told Butler that if a mistake had been made, it was one of love for the print and naiveté about the process.

“I would never go out of my way to upset or harm the interests of a collector; I don’t need collectors going around bad-mouthing me.”

After several more conversations with Butler, Surls said he decided to contact the collector directly. “I called the guy and offered to take the issue off the market as a courtesy to him. I made a second edition of the print out of love for the image. I had no commercial thoughts in mind when I did it. Most of the prints were still in my drawer, all except for some proofs, one that was auctioned to raise money for a charity, and a couple that were sold to friends. The rest I was planning to keep for my daughters. I was not out on the market hawking them. But the collector refused my offer. He wanted the whole second edition recalled and destroyed.”

Surls struggled to find a solution that would end the impasse without sacrificing what he considered his rights as an artist.

“I am an artist. I depend on collectors to buy my work, but the artist is the creative force. Collectors need artists to make art, but artists are the drivers of the creative train. Collectors fuel the train.”

Artistic Decisions

Surls said the woodblock of "Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes" was made during the summer of 1986 at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado.

“I spent a week that was very important to me with Chip Elwell of New York City, one of the best woodblock printers of his time. As the week was coming to an end, we still didn’t have anything we really liked. We decided I’d cut another block. It took me most of a day, but the result was "Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes." Chip printed it on Okawara paper by hand-rubbing it with a bamboo spoon.
“We hung the test print on a wall to look at it. Usually when you hang a test print, you look at it and criticize each little detail that’s not exactly right. You make decisions about what you’re going to do to make it better. In this case we were elated with what we had and decided to make no changes. We took it down and both of us left Anderson Ranch the next day.”

Surls said Elwell took the woodblock and the unsigned test print back to New York City with the intent to print an edition, but the print was never made.

“Chip died unexpectedly within a week or ten days of returning to New York City,” Surls said. “I got a call from his sister. She said I should come and get the block right away, and that’s what I did.”

Later in the same year, Surls took the block to the Houston Fine Arts Press in Houston where 20 prints plus proofs were made. The sale of the edition was undertaken by Butler, and it was sold out within a year at $1,000 per print. Fifty percent of the price went to the artist. “And I was happy to get it,” Surls said, “Back then a thousand dollars was a thousand dollars.”

Thirteen years later, in the summer of 1999, Surls returned to the Houston Fine Arts Press on other business. “While I was there, someone reminded me that my block was there and asked me if I wanted it. I loaded it in my truck and took it to Austin where I was planning to meet with Katherine Brimberry of the Flatbed Press. I had not struck the plate to guarantee that another edition would never be printed.”

Surls said he really liked the block and asked Brimberry if a second edition of the print could be made simply because he liked it.

“She said Flatbed had never done a second edition, but if they did it, it would have to be clearly marked as such. It could not be an extension of the first edition. Each print would have to bear the Roman numeral II which would clearly mark it as a second-edition, as a second state of the print.”

Each of the 15 second-edition prints and printers and artist’s proofs were made on Arches “cover buff” paper using Daniel Smith Permanent Red Relief ink, according to the print’s documentation.

“We used a different paper, a different ink and a different printing pressure,” Surls said. “We all thought this was sufficient to distinguish the print from the first edition.”

After the print edition was completed, Flatbed printer Patrick Masterson personally delivered the prints to Surls in Colorado where they were signed and deposited into Surls’ massive print cabinet. There they remained, except for private viewing, until Roglán’s visit in connection with the Meadows show.

Shaken by developments and the collector’s refusal of his offer to simply hold the second edition off the market, Surls said he began investigating his situation. He called lawyers, print makers, fellow artists, galleries.

“I decided I had done nothing wrong,” he said.

Others tend to agree. Bud Shark of Shark’s Ink in Lyons, Colorado, said the main difference between the second-edition print in question and others was the amount of time that had passed between the time the first and second editions were made. “Second editions are made all the time,” he said. “Usually it’s when an artist likes the print, experiments with it and decides to produce it in a second state. It might be on another paper or in another color. It’s usually done at the time of the first print.

“In this case the difference was a separation in time and in the materials used, and in the documentation since it wasn’t made at the same time.”

On the other hand, Shark said, collectors usually take the words “limited edition” to mean a limited number of prints will be made and a block struck.

Mark L. Smith of Flatbed Press said, “We didn’t publish the print. James was the publisher, but we did what we felt we needed to do to do it right. As a favor to James, we clearly documented the print run and recorded it as a second publication. Each print was marked with the Roman numeral II. It certainly does not look the same as the first edition print. The color is very saturated and the coverage was very good. If he’d done this at the same time (as the first edition), there wouldn’t be any question at all, or we’d have the same question.

“Still, I’m not sure Flatbed would ever consider doing anything like this again.”

Enter David Bradshaw

Responding to the controversy, Surls said, “There was no attempt or intent here to deceive anybody. The print was clearly marked as a second edition. I recognize there are print purists who say second editions should never be made. I understood where this collector was coming from. The collector is trying to protect the value of his investment and he thinks the second edition will devalue his print. I disagree with his approach to the problem, but I respect what he’s saying.

“I told my dealer, “My god, he just wants me to shoot the damned thing!” He wants me to destroy them. That’s when the idea of shooting the prints and getting David Bradshaw to do it came to mind. The idea to shoot them was a creative decision.”

The collector has refused to comment publicly on the issue, but Surls said his conversations with the collector led him to believe that transforming or destroying the second-edition by shooting the entire edition and striking the block would be sufficient to satisfy the collector’s concerns. Surls then began planning the August 9 event in Splendora.

“Texas was the only reasonable place to do this given our state’s reputation for solving problems by executing living things.”

Butler did not wish to comment at length on the controversy, but wrote in an e-mail, “ 'Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes' is among the best prints made in the eighties. James Surls has told me he is taking the block and impressions and firing a bullet through them to create a conceptual piece…it is brilliant.”

As he prepared to “execute” "II Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes," Bradshaw, 58, of Cecilia, Louisiana, who has long used dynamite, C-4 plastic explosives and firearms in his own work, and in collaborations with the likes of Robert Rauschenberg and William Burroughs, said, “I disagree with James somewhat on the stand-alone veracity of this print. There was nothing wrong with it. During a print run with Robert Rauschenberg in Captiva (Florida) in 1971, we made an edition of 29 and 20. One was green, one was brown.”

Bradshaw said he knew of an edition of lithographs that were sold as an edition despite the print block cracking while the first print in the run was made. “The crack got a little wider with every print, but Robert said to keep on printing. The edition ended up being, in effect, a set of monoprints,” he said, implying that "II Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes" might be considered in the same way because of the way he expected his bullets to affect the prints.

On the morning of August 9, while Bradshaw, in his role as ballistics expert and national-champion pistol marksman, carefully experimented with different bullets and firing-powder loads, Surls and Smith meticulously collated the entire edition of "II Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes", including all the numbered prints. They stacked the prints face down on the woodblock used to make them just as they were printed. The duo, with the assistance of friends, neighbors and colleagues, created a kind of press to hold the block and prints to keep them from moving when being shot. The second edition was then escorted without ceremony, but in the manner of a condemned prisoner, to the rear of Surls’ long-time studio where they were shot by Bradshaw, who used dots carefully placed on the prints by Surls as aiming points.

Bradshaw said, “James wanted this done by someone with a certain amount of dignity. Someone couldn’t just pick up a gun and do this. Many people view pistols and firearms as tools of violence, and they can be. But I view them as tools that involve control.”

In addition to carefully controlling the speed and mushrooming of the bullets used as they punched through the prints and block, precision was desired in the execution of "II Cut Hand/Hurt Eyes." Bradshaw said that’s why he used a “Les Baur Model 1911 .45 caliber ACP originally designed by John M. Browning. “I can put a group (of shots) into the area the size of a coffee cup at a hundred yards with this pistol.”

But Bradshaw, who sometimes makes sculptures by blasting large sheets of metal with explosives said, “You can overdo this. If you look for too much precision in art, you do it at the expense of spontaneity.”

After the execution, the transformed prints and block were returned the studio where they were carefully parted, signed by the now co-artist Bradshaw, and returned to their owners. The block, along with Surls’ copies of the prints, were loaded into a pickup for their return to Surls’ print cabinet in Colorado.

Outside the studio, people dug in the dirt and leaves behind the execution ground to retrieve the bullets that had shattered the block. Several left with mushroomed, full-metal-jacketed souvenirs that had been designed by Bradshaw to fall harmlessly to the forest floor.

“I was totally satisfied with the whole event,” Surls said, “I got out of it exactly what I wanted.”

Jack Massing of the Art Guys of Houston, who with his partner Michael Galbreth videotaped the event, said, “James built this into something special. It was nice the way he allowed the public to participate in this moment of creativity. “Usually people don’t get to be a part of art until the creativity ends.”

“As far as I know this is the first time an edition of prints has been shot and a plate struck by shooting through the prints and striking the plate,” Surls said.

Sinclair Hitchings, keeper of prints at the Boston Public Library’s print department said, “Prints are multiples. The whole object of making prints is the prints. But the wood print lends itself to confusion. I’m sorry the prints were shot; there was no reason to do it.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing before,” he said in reference to the way the block was struck.

“This will certainly make it a limited edition,” said master printer Sheila Marbain of New York.

Masterson of Flatbed Press, who now resides in Houston and who owned a printer’s proof that was shot by Bradshaw, said, “Considering the controversy, this was a perfect response to the situation. Prints are very precious. For James to be willing to shoot this thing is very special; it’s what printmaking is all about.” (end)

For more information about Bradshaw, search "David Bradshaw" on Google or your favorite Internet search engine.

Contempoary Art Museum Houston

2011-03-26T06:26:00.000-06:00

This coming Monday morning, March 28th at 11 AM, Tai Pomara and I will be out in front of the Contempoary Arts Museum in Houston. We will be installing a new sculpture which will be on loan for 4 to 6 months. It will be there while Charmaine and I have our two person show at the Jung Center on Montrose just a couple of blocks away. The Jung Center exhibition opens the first of October of 2011.

I am pleased to be front and center at the CAM in Houston.

2011-03-24T10:19:00.001-06:00

In NYC for the show at Gerald Peters Gallery. Looking forward to visiting with some great friends. I will get home on Friday, then Sunday it's off to Houston. We are installing a new work infront of the Contemporary Arts Museum on Monday. I can't put into word how excited I am. If you are in or around Houston I invite you to check it out.

Arab Spring

2011-03-18T07:46:00.000-06:00

Arab Spring was a glow on the horizon, a light rising in the east. So much hope, so exciting to see the beginning of Arab Angles Rising to stand strong against the Arab Demons. An awakening of a thousand years coming. The whole world was watching with excitement the coming of a new dawn, the kind of beginning that changes history.

But wait, a Twelfth Century Thug, a full grown male criminal of the highest order has sic-ed the dogs on his people, he robs them, he rapes them, he pillages and plunders them, he kills them by the thousands, all who gets in his way are to be taken out. We wittiness an Old Patriarchal System coming up for air and fighting for his dieing breath, he is being as mean a he can, as deadly as he can, as fast as he can, doing the most damage while the world turns its head.

Where are we today? Are we willing to watch a kid get killed on the street and do nothing? Are we as a global society ready to all stand by and watch, as the Mad Dog nut case who blows 747's out of the sky, is now bombing "his" people? Does he own these people he hold in his prison country? Are any people "here or there" at the whim of the Goon paying other Goons to go out and just kill the people? Are we really going to make no effort to stop the "Play Ground Bully" who has grown big on the land to the point that he is central to the world.

Excuse me folks, this is embarrassing, this is shameful for all of the world who will do nothing but whimper and wine about all they can't do. Folks we as a people ought to really think hard about all that we stand for. Do we really want watching thousands of people who ask only that the Troll/Goon/Thug/Criminal is gone from their lives and that they want freedom. And we don't understand that, and we are willing to say, "sorry folks" there is just nothing we can do. So we have decided to just watch you die. We really wish we could help but we just can't get involved, so you go ahead and kill who ever you want to and by the way, "how much for your oil?" Yea, just call us when you get this Death March over with.

World, I am ashamed of you. You gathered to watch the Arab Garden Bloom. You set by and watched the Arab Spring go dark and loose its blossom. This will come to haunt us all if we do indeed do nothing, how stupid and sad. We are at a turning point of the first magnitude, but the old males can not turn loose, can not let go, can not Give to Receive, they still rule the old way. And, we are still accepting it. What a serious bit of B S this is.

This is a sad time.

James Surls

Connections: A Tribute to Ted Pillsbury

2011-03-01T12:37:00.002-07:00

Here and there and yonder.

2011-01-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

Out over vast expanse of mountains, gullies, ravines and canyons, all covered with snow, a white landscape as far as the eye can see. Flying over western Colorado, Utah, Arizona and California where the land turns to the dark blue of the Pacific. We are on our way to an island sticking up out of the deep.

An island, the feel is that being on an island gives the sense of being centered on a spot on this earth, we are always on a spot on this planet, but on an island you focus on it. You know the longitude and the latitude, you are standing in the crossing of lines marking this place the here and now of "being in this moment".

We walk along the oceans edge, pressing weight deep in the sand for miles, we watch waves of patterns being formed before us, ever moment being made at once.

The horizon is jagged green strung out side ways below the blue above. Clouds billow big and roll toward their center, catching themselves, gathering in from their edges. Telling us we are here, we are all here. Same as days gone by, same as the night before, same as the morning after, same moment again and again, over and over. Here comes the sun again, here is the moon again, on the water again, as far as waves can stretch. Action begets action and vision begets vision, how many moments can we live again and again.

A dove walks across a pressed table cloth, around and among the wine glasses and silver ware. The dove knows freedom and flight. The rainbow knows moisture and light. The wave knows the moon and terrain and the weight and wash of moving mass over great distances to crash here in this place. I wash my feet in the deep grindings left by a world returning to world, going back into the dust and silt again and again,

We set high over the shine, waiting for the rise of a dark spot to show itself through the reflection, ever so brief and it is gone. I saw it out there and left it out there, it was and I say it so, a spot, a spot. Where did it go when the surface is still?

Back a few months, while at a formal gathering in New York, a young sculptor came up to me and ask, "do you touch your art"? At first I didn't really get the question so I just looked at her. I was baffled for a moment. The silence was broken by someone saying, "there are those who don't". Some do not touch their art, I thought and pictured all things touching. Today we stand where all things touch, and we witness the grinding of time. What seems the state of steady is in motion. To touch and retouch, the tide pool lives by the moon, we are touched and we touch.

Charmaine and I make our way in a line of people, moving toward a big boat, we are going for a ride from the south side of the island to the west side of the island. It starts smooth and we are thrilled to see up close turtles, dolphins and whales, but the farther we go the rougher the water. As we round a projecting beach and start for the west side of the island, the surface of the ocean turns to mountains, mountains of rolling water pushing to the shore line of black rock reaching thousands of feet up like giant spires of great cathedrals.

The beauty is broken by the reality of the mix of ocean and mountains, the open ocean brings water the size of rolling mountains and I loose the bottom, I loose the top, I loose the edges, there is no level in my ears. Up is gone, down is gone, I turn inside out, every thing is gone. I watch me dissipate into vapor.

I am ready, a new reality is close at hand.

Gyroscope

2010-12-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

If today were last night, I would fold my pillow a little different so my head would have been laying a little softer against the night, I would not have woke up in the middle of the night, I would not have looked out the window at the circle rainbow glow around the moon and wondered of the world. I would not have thought about how stupid some of the things humans do really are. It seems to me that keeping the human race upright with sails open to the heart is a constant concern. We have to work at it. Sometimes we are like a living gyroscope on the whip side of a hurricane, tilted to the extreme under the prevailing pressure of passage. We are not dead yet, but caution is needed in making ready the up right. There are those among us who state, "I did not do it, I had nothing to do with any of it, so don't expect me to help get the ship upright in the storm". OK, I don't expect those people to help, but some one has to pull on the pulley or the load want shift.

On Being and On Being Home

2010-12-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

Big changes coming, the holidays bring Christmas and the new year, children will drive in and fly in and our house will be full. Charmaine has started to wrap small and large boxes and then pack them into larger boxes with bubble wrap, tape them up and UPS them off to children and grand kids on the far side of the mountains. It is snowing and our kitchen smells like all the good stuff that makes a house a home. I love being here.

It was just a week ago that I drove in through an icy Leadville to get back before the sun set. A day or two to rest and get ready for the exhibition up at Anderson Ranch. I was pleased but most pleased to be back in the studio. I had been down in Athens, Texas visiting my relatives. I also had a reception over in Tyler, Texas. I had installed a commission called, "All Flowers" on a great wall in an office building. My first show in an art museum was in Tyler, that was back in 1974. The director at the time was Ron Gleason. Ron is not the director any more and has not been for a long time, but he was there. It was so nice to see him. Ron has been a friend of the Texas Art Scene for as long as I can remember, and has facilitated more on the grass roots level than any one I know. I love the guy, and it was really nice to shake his hand and say hello.

Tyler is not a big town any more, it is a serious small city, with all that goes with the word "city". It is just 30 miles from where I grew up, and it was the place every one went when they needed something. It still is.

As I was driving back home to Colorado, I went through Abilene to pick up some sculpture for Charmaine, Tai and Laura and one of my own. That only took a short while and soon I was back dreaming my way across West Texas, where pick up trucks, vast distances of cotton fields and wind generators, cattle and oil field pumps ruled the horizon. I listened to the FLATLANDERS and thought of all those guys from Lubbock that write music and sing. It makes no difference where you are, or what kind of terrain you are plowing through, music just rumbles its way to the surface. Terry Allen, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, man they are as good as it gets. Jimmie Dale is at the top of any list I ever make of the great singers. That boy can sing.

All those big ass wind generators start to take on a certain field of play, they start to turning into something else other than what they are. There were two lone ones sitting out about a half mile on a little ridge that ran around a curve. One of them turned into Dave Hickey ware-ing his Ass Hole Suit, he was bobbling and shaking his arms at the other big wind generator, that had turned into a giant Jesus laughing and mooning him. It made the drive through Lubbock a lot easier for me. Sometimes it is painful seeing all those sale barns that have been turned into cowboy churches, and all those seriously ugly prefab building that meld into each other to the point that you can't tell the difference between a welding shop, a honky tonk and Babtist church, except that some of the Babtist churches have a mail ordered steeple stuck on them. Now there is a distinguishing factor, other wise how would you know. Thank you big Mooning Jesus for all that creative capital that goes to make up the Singer Song Writers out there on the high plains.

It was nice to see the Rockies rising on the horizon, snow capped and calling. I am going home through Leadville, this time of year that is slow going. It is always snowing up there, so no need to get in a hurry. I just take it easy and dream my way to the house.

I am here, I am all here.

Drawing on the wall for an upcoming exhibit at Anderson Ranch Arts Center

2010-12-01T16:43:00.001-07:00

I spent most of the day today up at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO, drawing on the wall for an upcoming show.

James Surls: The Black Arts
Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, CO
December 14, 2010
5 - 6:30pm
This exhibition will feature drawings and large-scale sculpture and commemorates the 20th anniversary of Surls’s groundbreaking wall drawing, To Touch the Center, created at Anderson Ranch. On view December 6, 2010 - February 25, 2011 in the Patton-Malott Gallery.

A note from a daughter lead me to this...

2010-11-29T09:20:00.001-07:00

Cities, nations and empires have fallen through out history, but art has never brought one down, Art has only brought them to greatness. When there is a choice to be made, I will go with ART every time.

KHOU.com

Type in your name in the search box and you will get the news clip.

Today I return from the hill.

2010-11-29T09:17:00.001-07:00

I return from the hill with paradox as my being. "All I ever really wanted was to go home with you" a truth that happened and a dream that came true, but life is a moment by moment reality. I know the me in stability while being in paradox following the flow-line closely, reflecting on the space between body and soul. Body knows weights and lengths and is governed by the pull of the earth. Soul moves beyond the tides rush and knows no boundaries. Both are bound at the heart, but one is of flesh and blood, the other gives rise to beliefs governing the spirit of action, where by making the incorporeal the center of feelings and thoughts that measures vastness, distance to distance. Sometimes I stand alone between here and there and know that Wise Blood flows deep and gives me the gains from many. I gather close and stand ready on the joint bar, all the while tracking through the spin-drift of the horizon.

There are many things that fill the soul, questions that whelm the core of intuit, the living language from below all levels, under the outward-ness of the eye. Questions made of moments reduced from patterned waves washed from currants rushing, moments layered along the rise of log jams in bows, bends and banks. Maybe we all follow the flow of the minds river bed, where the rise and fall of edges marks our being with scarred reality giving proof of the processes of deeds done, transformed into mantels of belief. Art being the residue of lines drawn and boundaries set. The time is now to make the cut with deliberate intent and with full knowledge of how the hammer comes down and the axes deliverance being one to one with the specifics of goal. I gather the residue carefully and mold it into solidity with wood, steel and stone, objects that hinges us to the next order, I bond with the bones of history and seek the blood of forever as my truth. I don't ask, "whose truth", or "which truth" I except the vision as my on, I count me in. There are few who hold the hand of forever and come back to show the way of what is below the level as it is above the level, subconscious and conscious having a conversation. Me speaking with me, it is truth time with lots to cut away, lots to change and lots to release. It is not easy when the flow line rises and passes through each, there is a fight for survival and some are lost in the wash. Yes there are many things that fill the soul in personal battle and survival depends on the trust of the ignition, that set going moment when intuition takes the driving wheel and steers me on. I have a long way to travel today, I must be on my way.

James

James Drake at the Station in Houston, Texas

2010-11-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

The James Drake exhibition at "The Station" in Houston, Texas is just one more confirming look at one of the best artist of our time. This is the kind of show that Jim Harithas does at the Station, a no bull shit view of a artist who produces in the absolute. The big drawing of a bird nest, done in red is a convincing shot at being a true master piece. But so are some of the other works in the show. If you are in Houston, go to the Station and see the Drake show.

Walking Flower times the Power of Five

2010-11-12T09:47:00.001-07:00

Again this morning

2010-11-05T07:23:00.000-06:00

In the morning Charmaine and I will go to Houston to be front and center at the Orange Show Ball, this is a not to miss full blown good time. Houston is home to those who will risk the leap. My kind of city. Then I will fly on to Oklahoma City and spend time looking at a site for an out door sculpture. Then comes the good part, I get to go home and be in the studio for a stretch of time. Back to art and chicken soup. Mostly it is all I want to do. Just make sculpture and draw. I wonder what any thing I do or stand for has to do with fashion in Paris, or the click of runway heels, or of what is hot or not. Art world stuff is art world stuff, like a piece of dust is a piece of dust.

Some times I feel I am the flight feathers collectively pushing against the head winds of time, to rise through the down draft is no easy task, but being a free soul I have to ask "what is out there?" What is most important?

"Me and Rough God"

2010-11-04T06:49:00.002-06:00

I stood in the circle out beside the house this morning and tried to see the Big Dipper turning its handle counter clock wise in the northern sky, it is hard to perceive movement in star patterns, they only show movement in relation to something else, which means I have to be still, real still for a long period and use the silhouette of the pinons on the northern ridge line as markers, and be patient, the spin will show its self in time, each moment has its glory. So calm is this morning, before the sunrise, before breakfast, before the hand axe starts its steady rhythm of chop chop chopping, or before the rasp gnaws the surface to form, before the maul strikes the anvil. Each stroke gives meaning to wood, steel and stone. This is as old as human history, conjuring from what is, it is the acceptance of "Is" and knowing "I am" embedded deep in these moments, concluding only that the the bloom of the flower is no more than the cutting edges of broken stones, all having its day. It is "Me and the Rough God"

What is the relationship of what I do and who I am and what I represent on the path of our long walk in History. I look up from my breakfast bowl and see Blake and Thoreau. They give me comfort, knowing full well that God is as rough as any moment the Seeker will encounter. The path is long and I keep up the pace.

All things Houston

2010-10-31T10:06:00.000-06:00

Last Wednesday (Nov 27th, 2010) I flew down to Houston to meet with Susie Kalil and Linda Clarke, and go over to the home of a couple who are having me put a major sculpture in their back yard. "Yes", this will be a beauty, it is due in March.

The next morning at 8 AM, I met with the grounds manager and a couple of other people to walk through moving the outdoor sculptures home. (then I worked with Rice students all day) The next morning bright and early we started loading the sculptures. There is always a loading issue when it comes to big sculpture, but we got it done and they are on their way home. Rice bought two of the pieces and the city bought one of the pieces. Again this is a major "Yes" for me, certainly I am happy about this.

I got home last night in a wind and rain storm, lightning in the Mountains is particularly beautiful. It is nice to be home, but it is back to the yard to grind some work from the minds eye. I love it.

Oct 19th through Oct 25th

2010-10-26T08:51:00.000-06:00

Charmaine and I had an easy drive to Boulder, picked up our daughter Eva and then went on to the airport, we landed in New York and went to dinner with friends. I think New York is measured from dinner to dinner. On the morning of the 20th we all took the train down to Grounds for Sculpture to look at their indoor space. I will show 6 major sculptures there in the spring. The show will have an opening on May 1, 2011. The indoor space is big and open and very nice. There is a Debra Butterfield show up now.

The Grounds are very beautiful and a pleasure to walk through, but like most sculpture parks, there is to much work. "To many notes", the question is "which ones do you take out". Now that is not for me to say. I just walk and look, I did enjoy it.

The next day Charmaine and I and Linda Clarke met with some New York City Parks people, and visited Museums and Galleries. But the best thing is that we went to the International Sculpture Center Gala on Friday night, it was like going to a family reunion. Lots of the people who were there that I have known for 30 or 40 years. It was nice to see them for a fact. When I saw Albert Paley from across the room, I went over to congratulate him on getting a major commission down at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. (One which I tried very hard to get and did not, Albert got it.) I can tell you for a fact there is a lot of work that goes into these things, so I was very surprised when Albert told me that after a 20 person art committee chose him and he went to work on it, the Provost of Texas Tech killed the project. Go figure. It certainly renders the decision of a group of people who had worked long and hard, kind of meaningless. Just another walk down the road to nothing. Welcome to the world of "fair and equal give every one a shot" art world.

We got home Sunday afternoon late, back to the mountains and cold and rain, by Monday morning it was snowing some serious white. I really love it because my studio is warm year round. I just eat chicken soup and work. I love being home and I love making sculpture. But as life would have it, in the morning I fly to Houston. Houston is my friend on an absolute level.

This trip to Houston will cover some territory, giving a lecture at Rice, working with students, and seeing what Jim Harithus is up to at the Station. (The Station is one of the best show places in the world, not because it is a great space, which it is, but because of the shows Jim puts together) The Station is a private museum, no board, no committees, Jim does not go to who is "hot" young and beautiful, nor who is in fashion, there is no trying to show what the in crowd shows, and there is no bull shit, just great shows. I also will be taking the work down from the Rice University Exhibition and bringing the last four home to the "here and now". It will be nice to see them out the kitchen window.

But maybe the best thing about going to Houston is that I will spend some time with Susie Kalil, Susie is one of the best art writers in the world (and there very few), spending time talking with her is like digging in a Diamond Mine, she is a psychological digging machine. She can go to the bottom of the well and keep going. She is as intense as it gets. But that is what makes her a great writer.

I will let you know how all this goes when I get home on Saturday night.

Monday morning - On Being Ready to be Born Again

2010-10-18T06:13:00.000-06:00

"On Being Ready to be Born Again", it is a good phrase to set the stage for another Monday. I start over each and all my days while walking with the Blue Angel. It is a slow rain that falls around me, steady cold comes to call me out in the open spaces between the Pinons and the big stones. I stand in silence to listen.

Soon the house will light up, and the smell of coffee will fill the kitchen, we will be cooking flapjacks the size of the bottom of the skillet and getting ready for a good bye. Chakaia Booker and Alston have been here for three days. On Friday night Charmaine and I had about 50 or so people for dinner. Jesus Morolas was our house guest on Friday night. Lots of conversation on the world at large, lots of laughing out loud, lots of eye to eye and lots of fun.

Jesus left on Saturday morning for somewhere and Chakaia and Alston leave this morning for New York. We will see them again next Friday night at the Fifty Year Anniversery Gala of the International Sculpture Center, which is being held in New York. The get together will be like a family reunion. Lots of friends will be there. I am ready, it is a new day.

Dreams of Snakes and Monkey Business

2010-10-17T06:53:00.001-06:00

I stand on a floor of jungle leaves, watching snakes move between the tree trunks and vines and over and under and through the covered ground. I see a friend from my child hood high in the canopy above, he is pretending to be a monkey. I tell him there are hats even higher up in the very tops where the branches are thin and small. He goes higher and retrieves one of the hats, but the small limb gives way and he falls, holding the brim with both hands, he uses the hat as a gliding wing and settles down in front of me. He hands me the hat, which I take in my left hand, in my right hand I am holding a soup spoon that has a flower pattern on the handle. The spoon belonged to my mother.

Are dreams a real dimension of collected memory projected in the minds eye? A Cobra or a Monkey or the Spoon, all bring signs and clues. I am the Spoon, feeding the snakes and the monkeys and the wolf, I feed the beasts, and rub there ears, I keep them close at all times, even when they snarl and give out low guttural growls that rattle my bones. I trust them to be true. They will not lie to me, nor will the wolf do me harm, so I look them all in the eye and do not turn away. They are my friends.

I need the Signs and I need the Clues, I leave the threads of chemical language, the scent of my being touching the stones on the way to the

                    "Overlook"

Broken lines mark the path from home.
Ways that pass again and again,
causes left in disregard, unconsidered
and let go with out notice.
I step over and through bridges and rivers,
going beyond a point, a degree, or a stage.

I lean into the wind on the highest mound,
uncensored and unchallenged,
while allowing and letting,
and breathing deep the air of history
complete and believed.

Who among us has found the way back home by following the broken lines, back home to the safe here and now. Safe with friends gathered from across the horizon. We all mill the kitchen floor waiting for the bread to rise, with bowl in hand we speak of children and future. We are all Spoons.

Through it All

2010-10-14T12:46:00.005-06:00

Through it All

Cut 1988 - Printed 2010

"In 1986 I cut a woodblock while working with Chip Elwell at Anderson Ranch Art Center, in Snowmass Village, Colorado. The block was called "Cut Hands, Hurt Eyes". Chip was going to hand spoon rub the entire edition of twenty of this block but, as reality would have it Chip died a week after the block was cut. This wood block was six foot by three foot and was the parent block for the one to come.

The second wood block that I cut came in early 1988, it was called "Through it All". This block was four feet by eight feet. A fine arts press in Houston tried to print it, but could not make it work, so the block went dormant and has been in storage for the last twentythree years. Some months back I partnered with John Smither on pulling this block from the back room.

John Smither from Huntsville, Texas is now the publisher and Flatbed Press in Austin, Texas is the Fine Arts Press, together we have brought this wood block back to life. We have done an edition of only twelve of these large-scale prints. The paper used is Kochi Mashi, a very heavy and raw paper from Japan. The paper size is 52 inches x 100 inches. I signed the prints by noting that the block was cut in 1988 and printed in 2010.

This is a very important work of art in my personal history. "Through it All" is always in the now of our existence and is as applicable today as it was twenty or more years ago."

Good Morning from the Mountains

2010-10-13T07:11:00.003-06:00

After months of work/work and more work, I am about to start writing on my "Thoughts from James Surls" again.

From the vault.

2010-09-16T13:25:00.002-06:00

2010-08-11T15:11:00.000-06:00

"Me, Tree, Flower and Knot”

Arthur Roger Gallery
432 Julia Street
New Orleans, LA 70130

A Day at Rice University

2010-04-01T16:32:00.001-06:00

Seven Sculptures at Rice University, Houston, Texas

2010-02-23T20:05:00.001-07:00

Seven Surls sculptures to be exhibited in and around Rice...

The Rice campus will be transformed into a canvas this weekend for James Surls, an internationally recognized artist. Surls will install seven large sculptural works in and around campus near the Brochstein Pavilion, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business and the Shepherd School of Music. The artwork will be on campus for about six months.

The exhibition, "Magnificent Seven: Houston Celebrates Surls," is presented by Rice University, the Houston Arts Alliance and the city of Houston. It is a project of the Rice Public Art Program.

Sculpture For New Orleans 2010

2010-01-14T09:56:00.003-07:00

I am very proud to be a part of "Sculpture for New Orleans".

Artists Michael Manjarris and Peter Lundberg describe their New Orleans sculpture park project.

Sculpture For New Orleans 2010

Flatbed Press, Austin, Texas

2009-12-29T16:33:00.002-07:00

DOUGLAS BRITT article Houston Chronicle

2009-08-17T07:23:00.001-06:00

Book Signing

2009-06-23T21:52:00.016-06:00

I hope to see you all tomorrow!

Celebrating the Completion of the newest addition to the Blue Star Print Project and a Book Signing of James Surls: From the Heartland, published by The Grace Museum, on Wednesday, June 24th from 7 - 9 p.m. at 410 E. Aresnal.

Generously Hosted by Jerry Gore

Please RSVP to Giselle at giselle@bluestarart.org or at 210.227.6960

A signed copy of the new publication, James Surls: From the Heartland, is $65.00, a special Blue Star VIP price. $20 dollars of the price point goes directly to the ARTsmart education program. (Retail value $70.00)

Charles Cowles Gallery

2009-06-01T15:01:00.003-06:00

This has been a long week, I loaded up the sculptures for the Charles Cowles Gallery exhibition and left home on the morning of the May 24. By eleven o-clock or so I was out of Colorado, and running due west through Nebraska, all was green along the North Platte River bottom, just open road, green cotton woods, and blue sky. I made it past Omaha and shut down for the night. The next day took me through plowed field as far as the eye could see, and on into Ohio and Pennsylvania, beautiful country. The next morning it was New Jersey, and then the skyline of New York, I crossed over the George Washington Bridge and into the lion's throat. For the next hour I went 178th street on Broadway down town to 57th then over to 11th, and then down to 24th. Charles Cowles Gallery is on 24th between 10 Ave and 11th Ave. We unloaded the trailer and then I went across the East River to the Navy Yard, parked the rig, then went to my daughter Eva's place.

The next day (the 27th,) we hung the show. It looked real good, I was at that moment beaming like a new daddy. I felt really good, then Charley told me he was closing the gallery when the show came down. Mine will be the last show from a dealer who has showed some of the best for well over 35 years. Shit fire, now that was a dampener for sure, but after a few minutes, I just thought OK, now make the best of the day and move on, so I did.

The show opened on the 28th, and I must say it is one of the best I have ever done. It will be up for a month, please see it if you can. When it comes down, there will be a hole left, but life will go on and no one will even blink. Life is what it is, and it can turn on a dime or on the tone in the voice of a messenger. After the opening 24 of us walked down the street to Bottino's restaurant. Good food with good friends.

The next morning Eva and I loaded up her things and started backtracking our way west. We got to Boulder on Sunday afternoon, unloaded her things, and I said good bye to my new NYU graduate, and drove on home. God I love driving in over the mountains knowing it is where I live. I am home. James

It is about the Numbers

2009-05-17T09:26:00.002-06:00

I thought my morning through and through, about the difference between Five and Six. Odd and Even, each projecting a way towards and end. There is a big difference between these two numbers. I wonder if it has a greater or lesser difference between 5,285,000 and 4,582,361. What are the odds on an elephant falling on me. There was a "place", at one "time", where this could have happened to you. It is different with flowers, in that world the numbers meld. I meld, you meld, they meld, we all meld. Right in by giving and receiving, start to finish, end to end. Bodhisattvas all. We just lost Leonard Shlain, his was for us all. I know that some feminist friends disagreed with him. I never could figure out why. If any one out there wants to give it a shot on the "why" part, please let me know. May be that I should stick to 5 and 6.

James on May 17th,

A word on an all black sculpture

2009-05-14T20:40:00.003-06:00

I have made another all black sculpture, it is figurative in nature, with a very large head, this head is made up of a "wading up or knotting up " steel rod to look as though it were thread, with this thread running through the eye of a four foot long steel fabricated needle, all coming from a split neck, the other head is a large flower, both are growing out from a burned torso made from a root off of a large spruce tree that washed down from the mountain into lake Rudi. This sculpture reads as a silhouette for it is black in its entirety. This sculpture is called "Me, the Black Flower and the Knot and threaded Needle", This sculpture hangs from a cable and is about 8 feet tall, and it will also be in the May 28th exhibition at the Charles Cowles Gallery on 24th in Chelsea.

May 14th, 2009

2009-05-14T17:50:00.002-06:00

A Knife, a Tree, and a Morning Glory. One title or three? As all three, I will say the knife is blood red, and cut from a mahogany heart, once it was sucking life in the Amazon, now it lives again and rests on it point, and is life size, tall as me. From its handle grows a bronze Pinion Pine, and a stainless steel Morning Glory, side by side, each as big as the other. Bottom up, it stands 9 feet, the Knife is 6 feet and the Tree and Morning Glory are three foot high and across. This sculpture stands on the point of the knife. I am going to drill a hole in the floor of Charles Cowles Gallery and stand this piece by inserting a one inch stainless steel rod 18 inches up through the knife blade and 5 inches sticking out of the point of the knife that can be stuck down into the one inch hole in Charles Cowles Gallery. The show opens on May 28th. This is but one of the 7 pieces in the show.

2009-05-07T05:52:00.003-06:00

It is Thursday, May 7, just before sun rise, spring is in the Rockies and buds and birds show themselves. Charmaine and I have been home for a few days. We have been down in Texas where I had a show at the Grace Museum in Abilene. It was great fun being there, they rolled out the Red Carpet for us. On opening night the place was packed with people, all kinds of people from all over the country. It sure made me feel good to see so many old friends and so many new faces.

After the opening about 350 of us walked down the street a couple of blocks to have diner in the court yard of a "cowboy museum" called Frontier Land. There was a stage set up for a group called the The FLATLANDERS, they have just released a new CD called "Hills And Valleys, I got to chose who I wanted to play that night and this group made up of Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock and Joe Ely was my first choice. Charmaine and I danced every dance, and loved every minute of it. These guys are really great.

My time in Abilene, Texas was the best, I loved it. And the fact that they published a beautiful book called "JAMES SURLS / From the Heartland" sure made me happy. I have had several books done on my work, but this one is on new work, 28 drawings with an essay by Susie Kalil that is the best essay on my drawing ever. There are also 27 sculptures in the book, with a great essay by Patterson Sims. Folks, this is a good one. I will post how you can get it a little latter.

But back to now, today I work in the yard, back to birds and buds and water in the irrigation ditch. It is a good time to be alive. In a month or so we will have flowers all around our house with bees and humming birds sounding off and looking good.

The Seven works on Park Ave, New York City

2009-04-20T20:12:00.002-06:00

The Seven works on Park Ave, New York City

2009-04-20T19:46:00.002-06:00

2009-04-14T04:52:00.002-06:00

Picture of "Star Flower" in the reflection pool in front of the Irving Art Center, in Irving Texas. "Star Flower" is 13'x13'x13' and is made of bronze and stainless steel. The bronze was cast down at the Shidoni Foundry in New Mexico. I made an edition of 5 smaller ones that are about 16 inches tall. I am very pleased with this piece.

2009-04-10T07:43:00.001-06:00

2009-04-10T06:45:00.002-06:00

The posted page on the left is a full page ad for the May issue of Art News. There are many things going on in my life as I write this, I will have a show of small works at the Gerald Peters Gallery at 24 east 78th street in New York on April 23rd. That is only in a couple of weeks. This show opens at 6 PM till 8 PM. It is also to celebrate the fact that I have 7 large scale works on Park Ave. These sculptures start on 50th and run up to 57th. I am very proud of this, and can't wait till the tulips bloom.

I have much more to tell you and will come back on this week end to add much more to this Blog.

Thanks, James Surls.