Old Soldier Assemblage Sculpture

"...an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty."
The last soldiers of the First World War have left us now. The 100th anniversary of the outbreak of that war will be in August this year, and with that in mind a few recent finds called my imagination to create assemblage art. A modern television set color cap became a helmet, an old light bulb fixture from a now demolished building became the form of a soldier, his eyes staring with dazed rings created from antique Parcheesi game pieces -- glue and etched markings on the light bulb glass resemble gently falling tears. With a plastic toy gun the soldier stands at the ready in a field of daisy like upholstery tacks which, though surrounded by fencing made of metal nails representing the dangers of barbed wire in the field, has not yet turned to become the life sucking mud of the First World War trenches. There is hope. He will fight. He will win the battles that life sets before him and thus always remain a soldier.

 Though from a different war, the light bulb and theme of a soldier then called to my mind a famous phrase used by General Douglas McArthur in his farewell speech, "old soldiers never die". Around the wood base of the assemblage sculpture are those words pieced together from magazine cut-out letters pasted into place.

"I am closing my 52 years of military service. When I joined the Army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all of my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that "old soldiers never die; they just fade away."

 And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty."

-- General Douglas McArthur in his farewell speech to Congress

►First World War Centenary http://www.1914.org/why_remember/

►Check availability of this artwork by clicking HERE.


*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt T. E. Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use please.

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Dot Line and Scribble

This new painting is an impression of imagery inspired by the 1965 Jazz musical animation short, "The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics" (MGM), which was inspired by a book that Norton Juster had written a few years earlier. The painting was begun just before the passing of influential animator and producer of the cartoon, Chuck Jones, and was just recently finished to a point where I feel good when I stand in front of it. I enjoy what the layers of paint do in the light, in addition to the somewhat whimsical theme. This is one of those instances where I don't care very much whether or not a viewer "gets it". Usually I care a great deal about the final imagery when dealing with art that is Conceptual and/or Representational especially, but when I began this painting I was feeling the unhindered abandon of "Scribble". I'd found a copy of the original book which of course brought to mind the cartoon that had jazzed me up so much as a kid (big Tom and Jerry watcher here), and that was plenty to get the inspirational fires burning for fun. Overall I supposed this painting is/was about self gratification and experimentation... mine as well as the characters in the story.


"Dot Line and Scribble" by Tree Pruitt, 30" x 20" oil painting on canvas.

I wanted to not just paint but to see what the paint would do. The paint rests on the canvas in several layers. At the time I'd begun I was working often with dark under-paintings, so I knew I wanted to play with something bright that time. In some of the lightest areas the gesso of the canvas prime shows through as a matte white. Strokes of slick Titanium White feather over that and into a warm mix of colors with overlapping strokes. This allows the light in a room to pass through those textured layers, giving a sense of vibration. In my photos it seems to look blotchy and dingy rather than shimmery because, though I may photograph a lot of things well, photographing my canvas art is something I've not mastered. At the bottom of the painting a muted green was scraped via pallet knife over the bright layers while they were still slightly tacky to the touch so that they smeared and mixed a bit.

One of the reasons it's taken so long for this painting to feel finished has to do with some of the methods I used. I wanted to be sure of the paintings soundness (no music pun intended there) before calling it as finished. The thick line that passes through the middle (Indian Red) was forced to crackle. Without having an over-the-counter crackle medium at hand I experimented with using a medium that improves paint adhesion, and I also removed some of the oil from the paint (via setting it on absorbent paper) for a fluid mixture. I applied that over the old layer of paint with a higher fat content, then waited for that to set-up. After a few months the line did indeed crackle! After a few more months passed I scrapped at the line with a razor blade to remove any flakes of paint that had cracked up and to reveal the lighter colors underneath randomly. I like the effect. The final touches that were added included a thin solid black line over top of the thicker crackled line. This line of Lamp Black paint was given a high amount of oil (fat) to a mixture of the same adhesion medium. In theory it should not crack, but should remain solid for the life of the painting (knock on wood).

Always a beloved inspiration theme, a bit of a tribute to a beloved artist, and a fun project that I think worked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dot_and_the_Line

"Dot Line and Scribble" 2012 by Tree Pruitt, 30" x 20" oil painting on canvas. *Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to use.

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Zenful Assemblage Art

Buddha Window Assemblage

This piece of assemblage art, "Buddha Window Assemblage", was made entirely of found objects that were collected, rescued, and reused to give old so-called garbage new life via a different form; I love to upcycle vintage treasures! It is true magic at work when such totally unrelated items can fit together in a way that feels unforced yet new! What I most enjoy about this piece is the ambiguity; depending upon how it's viewed, both figuratively and physically, the piece can either be of spiritual enlightenment or sociopolitical confinement -- happy or sad, mostly dependent upon how the viewer approaches the Buddha (again both figuratively and literally).

Click images to view enlarged.

The parts that make up the piece are few. The frame was saved after having tested a company's product where a tile fell out and broke; The frame was new, so why throw it away? The next layer of the piece is an uncommon one... a window that was never meant to be looked out. The white metal frame is a salesman's sample from a window manufacturing company, complete with black screen material and ribbed rubber seal. These mini windows were far too cool to allow them to get trashed, so it's great to use one here as what certainly must represent the industrial hand of mankind framing a spiritual perspective. Then from an antique pottery sake cup that was, sadly, broken emerges the Lord Buddha. From behind him is a bit of rusted railroad steel rising like flames. The metal Buddha figure has been cleaved off of a well loved, but totally worn out, incense burner. The left, or heart, side of the figures chest is missing. The heart hasn't been cut out but removed from the scene, perhaps for safe keeping or perhaps it was stolen somehow. No matter the frame of mind or perspective taken this piece offers a window for contemplation with clean lines, warm tones, and varied texture which I feel is a successful representation of zenful assemblage art.

Buddha Window by Tree Pruitt, 6" x 6" x 2" 2012-13

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*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use.

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Empty Faithful Painting

Empty Faithful, or Inanis Fidelia, is a 16 by 20 inch acrylic painting still life on thick gallery wrapped canvas just off of the easel. The thickness of the canvas support helps lend a feeling of depth to the three vases on a corner cabinet shelf.

Click image to open a larger version for viewing.

An image of an empty vase in iconography represents the human soul awaiting to be filled with spiritual energy and enlightenment, or assention even, and here the qualities of stoneware is a reflection of souls who have passed on returned to the Earth for a rebirthing of the Spirit. The title of the painting is written on the back side in both English and Latin too as, Inanis Fidelia. "Inanis" is the empty void of soul. The word "fidelia" means an earthenware pot or vase; I have perhaps taken artistic liscence in joining these words to fit my need. This painting has a great deal of texture and subtle color varitation that was hard to capture in a photograph, but I do hope visitors here will enjoy viewing it and the new owner will cherish the painting in her home.

-- Tree

Above; a closer view.

The above image shows the canvas edges that are thick and painted to resemble the rustic display cabinet that is holding the vases.    

*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use or for purchase information.

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Sociopolitical Goya

The Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) has been regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and as the first of the moderns. The subversive and subjective elements in his art provided a model for the work of later generations of artists, including Picasso. Known as a chronicler of history, Goya produced numerous thought provoking paintings, drawings, and etchings such as the one shown here.



The etching includes the title of "No se puede saber por que", which translates as "No one knows why", and it is one example of many sociopolitical artworks produced by Goya where the artist portrays the unexplainable horrors of war; indeed no one knows why such acts are performed by one human upon another of kind. A publication from 1914 further explains Goya on this matter...

"About the greatest of human illusions he has no illusion. In drawing after drawing he states without mincing matters his conviction that to fight is after all only to murder. I think that it is this insistence not merely upon strife but upon murder that gives these drawings a character of horror more emphatic than that of any other representations of warfare. And it is not only against the barbarousness of war that he utters his passionate protest, but also against its tragical illogicality. It is not the business of art to attempt to solve the problem of pain or to hazard guesses at the riddle of the universe, and that Goya showed a just sense of its limitations in preferring to exhibit slices of life rather than to attempt an interpretation of the whole. He tosses us these raw and palpitating fragments and leaves us to digest them as best we may."

See my Squidoo Lens, About Sociopolitical Art, to learn more about social and political expression in the arts.


*Francisco Goya. (2009, May 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:23, May 20, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Francisco_Goya&oldid=290994967

*The New York Public Library Digital Gallery
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1109956

*Goya - Disasters Of The War, originally published 1914
http://www.oldandsold.com/articles22/goya-13.shtml

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