Ship of Fools

Title: Ship of Fools
LC Subject: Painting Pastel drawing Art, Abstract painting (image-making) pastels (visual works) paintings (visual works)
Creator: Bartow, Rick, 1946-
Description: Unfortunately, we currently do not have an image of this artwork. The Oregon State University Valley Library, building site for the piece, offers a website where it can be viewed, along with Bartow's artist statement. http://osulibrary.orst.edu/libraries_and_collection The piece is a surrealistic line drawing that appears to include a man with a bird's head, at least one other human figure, a head with a shovel positioned over the forehead, and a wheel form. The frailty of life on this planet and the need to recognize the interconnectedness of all species are common threads that weave through Bartow's work. His Yurok Indian heritage and his experiences in Vietnam are the source of these feelings and nurture his imagery. Crow/raven and a pantheon of other animals, including man, figure prominently in his work. He reanimates the ancient myths of Northwest peoples into his visual language. Once the symbol of rebirth and the spirit of all life, crow is a ghost-like figure in this monotype who knows "he" is no longer central to our lives. (OAC documentation, 1990). A Vietnam veteran and a Yurok tribal member, he addresses grief and fear in his work as means to dismantling them. His work is represented by Froelick Gallery and Stonington Gallery. (Data provided at http://www.npr.org/programs/talkingplants/features/2003/bartow/index.html. Reviewed on 04/09/07.) The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Linn-Benton Arts. You may view their website at: http://www.artcentric.org/
Location: The Valley Library >> Benton County >> Oregon >> United States Benton County >> Oregon >> United States
Street Address: 121 The Valley Library, Corvallis Oregon
Date: 1975/2012
Identifier: 1995_osu_valley-library_05_a01
Accession Number: 1995_osu_valley-library_05_a01
Rights: In Copyright
Dc Rights Holder: Bartow, Rick
Type: Image
Format: image/jpeg
Measurements: 26 x 40 inches
Material: Painting; pastel on paper
Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Primary Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Relation: 1995 - 1997 Biiennium Valley Library Oregon State University, Corvallis Oregon 1995_osu_valley-library
Has Version: digital files; JPEG; color
Institution: Oregon Arts Commission University of Oregon
Note: To view a map of the artwork location in context to Oregon State University, see http://oregonstate.edu/cw_tools/campusmap/locations.php 2nd floor
Color Space: RGB
Biographical Information: I work in an expressionistic manner using what I refer to as transformational images, which have evolved from work done in 1979, when I began drawing figures with masks either begin removed or falling off the face. These images, I find, coincide with my having stopped drinking, obviously a cathartic period in my life. It was also at this period that I began dealing with personal problems and my Viet Nam experience. The effects of these experiences will in some ways probably always have an effect on how I view things. Masks of my own were falling away, which enabled me to begin to see the masks of others and realize for the first time that I was not the only one who had problems; that I no longer had to be afraid. At a time when my peers already had families, I was just learning to look at myself in the mirror and see myself. I was speaking my own name without discomfort. I was beginning to look at others and recall see them. The work, though admittedly strange, told many stories that I myself was blind to for quite a few years. After six years of sobriety, and some major changes in how live and how I perceive the world around me, the work has changed. The change has been a slow evolution. Color took three years to begin to work. The rich inky blackness of graphite began to diminish in proportion to the first subtle colors I applied, until 1983 when at last the light out-shown the darkness and the graphite line delineated only areas of color. When I returned from Viet Nam, I, like so many others was a bit twisted. I was a house filled with irrational fears, beliefs, and symbols. Wind-blown paper would send me running' crows became many things; I never remembered dreams and detested the wind; I wore bells on my wrists so I could hear my parts when they moved; I slept in clothes so I'd be ready to go nowhere at all. And I once recall answering when asked my name and where I was from, 'Nobody. Nowhere.' I must have been a wonderful companion. During this time I found a huge pad of newsprint and began to draw, trying to exercise the demons that had made me strange to myself. My work has never stopped being therapy. With the help of family, friends, and my work, I have drawn myself straight, though some might argue to the contrary after looking at some of my more outside work…(Bartow, 1995)