As I thumb through my bank of memories, I find this creative energy that is part of me has been there, at times latent but always there, tugging, coaxing, ready to co-create. In my youth I liked to draw, mostly copying photos, and I painted a few rural Texas scenes. I took some courses in commercial art but none of these things really appealed to me.
About the same time I visited art museums in Dallas and Ft. Worth. It was there that I encountered the abstract expressionists, Hans Hoffman, Franz Kline, Mark Tobey, Larry Poons and others. These works really made an impression on me and, of course, I wanted to try my hand at this. It was the early 70s and I began to work in the trades to supplement my painting activities. At that time I worked in oils and tried selling my paintings at sidewalk shows in rural Texas. Generally speaking however, I don’t believe the people I encountered in these areas had the same appreciation for abstract art that I did.
The realization that I’d have to go into larger cities to sell my work, sent me off to Florida, Houston and Dallas. I had some success with my paintings in Houston so I moved there. I continued working in the trades to supplement my creative drive. After spending a couple of years in Houston, as enjoyable as it was, I didn’t see it as being tenable so I moved to Oklahoma and continued working in the trades. It was during this time I had a crazy idea of building birdhouses as an art form. Could this keep me in the creative process and pay the bills? I had been reading Carlos Casteneda’s books and one of the things Don Juan said that impressed me was “Find a path with heart and follow it to its end.”
I had an older brother who lived in east Texas and eventually I moved there. It was with his help and genius that the tools necessary to create what became Arbor Castle Birdhouses were developed. I continued in the trades in east Texas for several more years and worked on the birdhouse idea.
In 1999 I quit my job as a contractor and began showing my birdhouses in Canton, Texas, Arbor 3. I displayed my work there for about six months but it seemed every 1st Monday Weekend, it rained. I didn’t see Canton working out for me so I started doing art shows. At a small show in Tyler, I was told of a building in Edom that was available to rent which led me to come here in December of 1999 and I have been here ever since, building bird castles.
Returning to Abstract Expressionism
I found through the course of my life that events one might consider negative or discouraging can turn out to be a universal high five. Painting had not been a part of my thinking for a very long time. The first of a series of events that led me back to painting started in July 2022 when I managed to seriously cut my fingers on my predominant hand. This greatly interfered with my bird castle building. Fortunately I had enough inventory to carry me through. I really hadn’t thought much about painting until the second event. During the Edom Art Festival of 2022 a lady approached me and said “I’ve been looking for you for fifty years.” And I said, “Well, you have found me.” At once she took out her phone and showed me pictures of three paintings she had purchased from me at The Old Market Square in Houston, Texas, in the early 70s. She asked if I was painting and I said “No, I have been building bird castles for the past 23 years.” And she said “Well, you should paint.” The third event that put me back on the road to painting was seeing two of them hanging on the wall at my son’s house. I hadn’t seen them before because he had them loaned out. They had recently been returned to him and I was seeing them for the first time since the mid nineties, which was probably the last time I had thought about painting. It awakened something in me.
Since January of 2023 I’ve been traveling a new road, one that includes canvas and paint and the joy of getting back to abstract expressionism. Yes!
Yet another path with heart. And I will follow it to its end.