Discovering Phillip Payne of Santa Fe, New Mexico

Posted on 24.07.2015 by Garth

Phillip Payne: Visions of an Iron Horse

For a man in love with the Old West I astound myself sometimes with what I don’t know about it! I was completely unaware of ‘Western Art’ until, by happy accident, I was funnelled off Interstate 25 into the heart of New Mexico’s capital, Santa Fe, during a nine week, solo road trip across The West earlier this year. But for this, I would have driven past the World’s second largest art market after NYC and missed discovering this genre. As I intend to write more about it in Talking Beautiful Stuff, I will concentrate here on the man who introduced me to it.

Phillip Payne at work on: Quanah Parker, the Battle of Blanco Canyon.

For two days I explored the downtown streets of this small, attractive, unusual and classy city lying in the heart of one of America’s most remote, arid and empty regions. Native American pottery and turquoise jewellery of the highest quality filled exquisite emporiums. Galleries by the hundred purveyed every kind of art imaginable and with this sophistication and wealth came comparable coffee houses, restaurants and gift shops. However, having this lifelong fascination for The Old West, I was drawn to the galleries that displayed bronzes and paintings of cowboys, Indians, buffalo and horses and awe-inspiring western landscapes. In one of these I met the gallery director Phillip Payne. His welcome to a road-weary scruff, who clearly couldn’t afford any of the wonders offered in his extremely classy gallery, was a delight that many gallery directors could take a lesson from. We fell into good conversation. At this point I had no idea who I was talking to. I soon discovered that Phillip is also a sculptor, creating powerful bronzes of many subjects including those with a ‘western’ theme. As an extra attraction to the gallery for browsing visitors, he works on an on-going piece using an oily clay.

Phillip Payne: Beethoven: Feeling the Music

He showed me his bronze: “Beethoven: Feeling the Music.” He read out the words of Beethoven engraved into the piano lid: “Had I not read somewhere that a man should not quit this life so long as he can still perform a good deed, I would have left this Earth long ago and by my own hand at that. I can’t imagine leaving this World without taking the art God has placed in my soul and putting it to pen for others to hear.” This clearly echoed his own feelings as I saw him gulp with emotion. Here was a man who appeared profoundly involved with his creations and it was at this point that I decided that the readers of Talking Beautiful Stuff should know of him. I was privileged to be allowed an interview. In the half hour or so that we talked we both found ourselves close to tears as we discussed the influence of our deceased fathers upon us. It was a moving experience for me. I found Phillip to be completely without pretension and very sincere about the reason for and the philosophy surrounding his creative talent.

Phillip Payne: Breaking Camp

If you visit Phillip’s website you are greeted with his words: ‘To create art is to bare your soul in the hopes that you will find a kindred spirit in the hearts of others’. This declaration is close to his answer to my question, “Why do you create?” He told me something along the lines of his desire to share with others the things that move him and better his life but unfortunately, over my travels, I lost my notes of our interview where I recorded his words verbatim. However, I well remember how unusually selfless his personal philosophy was and also my scepticism about this as it doesn’t fit with my ideas about creative people! By the end of the interview though, I was convinced that here was an extremely rare being – a truly altruistic artist.

Phillip Payne: Canyon Sanctuary

I was now aware that Phillip’s father was Ken Payne, sadly deceased, but not yet aware of Ken’s stature in America as a sculptor. Phillip spoke fondly, with some emotion, of his tutelage under the kind and patient eye of his father and showed me his influence upon him as a sculptor. Phillip likes to create moments from western history that have importance to him and to bring awareness to others of the greatness of some of the leaders in the Native American struggle against white Manifest Destiny such as Quanah Parker of the Comanche Nation.

Having said farewell to Phillip I visited other galleries and discovered that I had fallen upon the mother lode of creators in bronze, a veritable ‘ant nest’ of brilliance. Ken Payne, his sons Vic and Phillip Payne and Vic’s son Dustin are all celebrated and tremendous sculptors within the genre of what I now recognised as ‘Western Art’. Vic’s daughter Jordyn is a painter of the most vibrant and gorgeous, western landscapes. What a family! The artistic gene proves its existence!

Phillip Payne: If it ain’t got that swing

As I journeyed on I saw many ‘Paynes’ creating wonderful moments as they graced the streets, parks, museums and galleries of The West’s towns and cities. I confess to relishing the change in attitude displayed by ‘Western Art’ gallery directors when I mentioned that I had interviewed Phillip Payne! The Payne family commands enormous respect in America.

Phillip Payne is a very young man and is already an accomplished and acclaimed sculptor. I believe that he has a glittering career ahead of him that can only blossom when fuelled by such a kind and unselfish philosophy towards his creative nature.

Ai WeiWei says “Think Different”

Posted on 20.07.2015 by Isaac

OpenArt in Örebro, Sweden is the 2008 brainchild of locals Mats Nilsson and Lars Jonsson. They dreamed of cutting-edge “art” on display in public locations. And guess what? Their dream came true…. and rapidly. Now in 2015, it is the biggest such event in Scandinavia. This year includes a focus on Chinese artists so no surprise that it features a major work by Ai Weiwei. It blows in the wind and blows me away!!

Ai WeiWei is known for confronting – and being arrested by – Chinese authorities. He questions everything about the culture of imposed conformity of his own country. This work, “Think different (How to hang workers’ uniforms)” consists of 375 coveralls in six different colours hung well above head height along Köpmangatan, an Örebro street. These are workers’ uniforms used in China in the massive electronics and computing manufacturing industries. The coveralls flap and flicker in the wind casting disconcerting shadows on the street below. Western people stroll beneath. I wonder if they are thinking differently.

So who is Ai WeiWei telling to think differently? Is it me, the Western viewer? Is it Chinese people? Is it the Chinese authorities? In fact, thinking about it, “Think Differently (How to hang workers’ uniforms)” does make me think differently. Here are some questions that run through my head when I look up at these rows of coveralls. I am reminded of assembly lines. How many Chinese people work to make products destined for the western world? Are they paid well? Are they aware of workers’ rights? What are they interested in? What are their home lives like? Or is Ai WeiWei telling me that the real price of western consumerism is paid by Chinese workers? This work is brilliant and provocative. I’m pleased I went back to Örebro!

Another Place… near Liverpool

Posted on 18.06.2015 by Robin

Liverpool is a great place to visit. I love its strong sense of civic pride. In a previous era, this vibrant city on the north-west coast of England was a giant hub for shipping and global trade. Now, it’s more famous for two football teams and the Beatles. I have an hour or two to spare and head for Crosby sands on the Mersey estuary. I am going to Another Place… for the second time.

Antony Gormley‘s “Another Place” is one of the UK’s most famous and recognisable public sculptures. It even has its own visitor’s parking! When I arrive, the tide is out. From the concrete sea-wall I survey the miles of open sand-flats on which stand widely spaced upright human figures. They are still, vigilant and uniformly determined. Some are way out on the water’s edge. They all stare defiantly out to the horizon. Another Place comprises one hundred life-size iron figures each of which weighs 650kg and is cast from a mould of Gormley’s own naked body. It is impossible to capture it’s beauty, scope and genius in one photograph.

The Iron Men – as they are called around here – make sure the ships reach port safely.

Those furthest out on the flats watch the turbines turn on the Crosby wind farm. As the tide comes in, the waves break over and then submerge these hardy sentinels.

Sir Antony Gormley was born in Yorkshire in 1950. He came from a privileged background being educated at Ampleforth College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He went on to study fine arts at St. Martins and the Slade in London. His sparkling but unconventional career in sculpture and theatre set-design has brought him awards, prizes, fellowships and honours galore. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2014 for services to the arts. Quite some guy!

The Iron Men were constructed in 1997. Before coming to Crosby in 2005, they had spent time on beaches in Germany, Belgium and Denmark. In 2007, a controversial decision by the local council ensured that Another Place has a permanent home here.

I first visited Another Place in 2009 when this photo was taken. The January wind chilled to the bone. The tide was not far out. At an individual level, the Iron Men did not really inspire. Some were waist deep in water. Some, with only their heads above the waves, looked like brave winter swimmers. They held no promise of reflection or emotion. I did not stay long. If I am honest, I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. I felt only a flicker of curiosity but, fortunately, enough to ensure my return.

Now, in 2015, I see only staggering originality. When describing Another Place, Gormley says: “In this work, human life is tested against planetary time. This sculpture exposes to light and time the nakedness of a particular and peculiar body; no hero, no ideal, just the industrially reproduced body of a middle-aged man trying to remain standing and trying to breathe, facing a horizon busy with ships moving materials and manufactured things around the planet.” I wonder if his notion of time, reinforced through the local council’s decision about the Iron Men’s permanence, would allow him to predict that these figures not only confront and battle the elements but also become their own little sea-side eco-systems.

The further out to sea the Iron Men are, the more encrusted with barnacles, mussels and sea-weed they become. They are no longer industrial reproductions of their creator; each has developed its own tidal personality.

So much for the “who,” the “what,” the “when,” the “where,” and the “how” of the Talking Beautiful Stuff formula; but what about the “… and what does it mean for me?” Curiosity took me back to see Another Place. The conditions were different the second time. I found something that is not only beautiful in its totality but also something hugely admirable both in its concept and in the civic broad-mindedness that makes such an installation possible. Above all, I found the experience of strolling over Crosby sands from one from Iron Man to another totally uplifting.

If you visit Liverpool, do not go to Another Place just because you have an hour or two to spare. Make an hour or two to go to Another Place.

Talking Beautiful Stuff

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Category Archives: Sculpture & installations

Discovering Phillip Payne of Santa Fe, New Mexico

Ai WeiWei says “Think Different”

Another Place… near Liverpool