Artist’s Statement

 The historian, Paul Johnson, states that the Romans were reluctant to use labor saving methods, even when available, for fear of unemployment and discontent.  For the most part human energy was the chief source of power. Of course the Black Death did away with that and technology took its place, giving rise to the third estate and the discovery of the New World.  I mention this because these works exhibited are the result of my own gut level instincts and human power. When you work with symbols, as I do, spontaneity is the compass of method and little regard is given to the restrictive demands of the estates, first, second or third.  What then could be my purpose? To whose patronage should I appeal?  Thomas Merton said of the symbol, as defined by the ancient tradition, that it (symbol) does not teach or point to, but is. In the quest for the “is”, he adds, you can be any kind of S.O.B., but to find it, don’t be successful. In other words to spontaneously and honestly dredge up the symbolic image one must avoid the super-ego demands of success and be willing to deny employment for the sake of contentment. This romantic adaptation is, of course, somewhat foolish and is the result, I must confess, of my all too human ego and energy and the obsession to find an essence that is non-reductive.  To achieve this foolish goal is, for me, a redemptive act.

 The search for an honest pictorial illusion that gives substance to that which exists but may not have form has for me resulted in a kind of alchemy. This hermetic soup comes from the following facts and visual encounters.

I was born in 1939 and have therefore been marked by Plastic Man, Black Hawks, Donald Duck and Friends, Mad Comics and Pogo Possum, seasoned by the literary mazes of the Bible, Edgar Allen Poe, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemmingway and Flannery O’Connor.  All of this has been garnished over the years by the violent and mysterious images depicted in certain holy cards such Saint Sebastian and Saint Lucy, not to mention the Crucifix.  Add to this mix a host of Virgin Mary images and cap it off with June Bugs on the church steps with the oil wells chug chugging the tune of high tech energy.  Stir up this broth of passion and what you have is the mystification of the past.

 The reoccurring theme in my work is the conflict between observed biological facts and certain metaphysical models of paradise, or the reality of death and concept of immortality. Herein lies the source of the drive and scuffle of the pursuit of my imagination.  This transformation in symbolism, though lacking any labor saving virtues, accommodates the search for a surface upon which to place flesh and blood, providing a lever against existential fears. Besides drawing has become a habit. 

This mystification of the past finds it framework and rationalization in the WWII “good guy versus bad guy” segue that takes the force of the antique.  The antique firearm or dining room table that has been passed down from generation to generation is not made up of just their materials, oak and steel, but contain within themselves the past and are open to the eyes of the future.  Look closely at one of my drawings and you will find traces of the Great Cosmic Rift served up as a main course like a dish of St. Lucy’s eyes. Per istam santam……..per visum deliquisti.

Back in the last century in the Uffizi, while looking at Botticelli’s  “Birth of Venus”, the movie “Blood Simple” came to mind. In this movie, the private detective’s monologue in the opening scene goes something like this, “ In Russia everyone pulls together.  That’s the theory anyway. Down here in Texas, you’re on your own.”

 I am on my own. Trying to teach student artists all those years, we figured out how to make images.  How clever can you get? How human can you be?  “Yes,” Botticelli says “We worship the same muse, you in your way, and I in hers.” Blood has flowed; the crisis has passed.

               Lee Baxter Davis

               Greenville, Texas

               2006