The Kansas Landmark Series: Blog1
For More Blog: GO TO:
http://jamielavinphoenixgallerytopeka.blogspot.com/
OR
http://artistjamielavin.blogspot.com/
For More Blog: GO TO:
http://jamielavinphoenixgallerytopeka.blogspot.com/
OR
http://artistjamielavin.blogspot.com/
To readers of this blog,
This is the first blog in the words of the artist Jamie Lavin, where he recants to Kyle Garcia, Phoenix Gallery Topeka, and Prairie Renaissance Arts, Inc., his hopes and dreams for the project. He also gives the reader insight into how the project began.
Our mission for this blog is several fold. We want this experience to be an art-in-educational journey for the viewer. You will be front row; on the trek will all of us. We will not only let you inside the mind of an artist as he begins a very important, if not, an historic, body of works, depicting breathtaking Kansas Landmarks, but you will be behind the scenes inside the workings of a renowned art gallery.
You will be allowed to share in the process. To my knowledge this type of art-in- educational tool by way of a blog, which unveils a specific project and corporate art collection is unprecedented in Kansas.
You will be allowed to share in the process of building a solid corporate art collection, a cohesive body of art works and the process of marketing the artist, and the collection. All that I have learned as an art dealer and art-in-education specialist will unfold in this blog.
I sincerely hope you will learn about Kansas landmarks, creating art, the role of the artist in society and the role of a good art dealer/gallery, which is largely a mystery to most people.
So, here we go…let’s have fun, take off the veil and show you Kansas art through The Kansas Landmark Series!
Warmest Regards,
Kyle Garcia
March 7, 2008
Dear Kyle,
Given the opportunity of a lifetime, to get to be a part of something greater, to stretch the limits of my skill sets, to have so many believe in my abilities far more than I even thought possible; this is the legacy of the Landmark Bank Series: Landmarks of Kansas.
Staring into the cold rain on a bluff near Strong City, buffeted by the northwest winds, I ached to paint Kansas and her landscapes. I felt a deep and special resonance that has inspired each painting I've done.
I heard the drone of the wind like a symphonic piece of music, a natural crescendo that came with the training of the storms that afternoon. The clouds were constantly in motion; it was as if I were back in New York, watching the yellow taxis from my hotel balcony ebb and flow through the intersections; every light change being a new group of them, except watching above me.
The clouds' personalities rattled the landscape with their own brand of thunder, distinct in their own voices and the occasional lightning strike came to remind me of their awkward fury. It was at this moment, I grabbed my drawing pad and began to work. I worked feverishly; so much so I disregarded the rain and wind entirely, except as an inspiration. Over and over, the sky's dynamic changed; the clouds rolled on and transformed as they went.
I came home after about two hours in the rain; raced into the studio and began a series for the Mulvane Art Show, and exhibit at Phoenix Gallery Topeka, held in the first week in June. Those nine works I named "Thunderstorms in the Flint Hills" sold out by the first day; the success of the initial works and encouragement by Kyle Garcia, gallery owner, gave me an incredible rush to do larger, even more significant works that featured the subtle beauty and grandeur that is Kansas.
I accomplished several major works for the exhibit, including a beautiful scenic piece of the Atchison River, purchased by art patron Beth Fagar, of CoreFirst Banks. More on art champion, Beth Fagar, later. Two of the largest pieces I painted were a sweeping vista of the Oregon Trail, and a gorgeous Scenic Flint Hills panoramic.
At the first One Man Exhibit at Phoenix Gallery Topeka, Kyle Garcia introduced me to Pat Alexander, CFO of Landmark Banks. Kyle had been spending about a year building a regional corporate art collection for their new headquarters in Topeka Kansas. When Pat walked in the room, he was immediately drawn to the largest of my new paintings, Scenic Flint Hills. He purchased the work and it became the focal point of the collection. More on the collection later.
The Journey: Coming home from a successful show in Denver, I vowed to see the places I'd only heard of along I-70. A Kansas State Trooper was friendly enough to "correct" my pronunciation of "Arikaree" Breaks at the first Kansas Travel Center, and to help point out St. Francis, Quinter, and other places I "had to see" if I was indeed a fine artist and wanted to paint the landscape.
I spent the first night in Hays, gradually working my way home. I detoured so much I had a time finding my way back to I-70, lost in a great appreciation for all the places I visited. I garnered tales to tell (like nearly falling from the Butte that anchors Castle Rock) and film to develop. I shot more than thirty rolls, and found and developed one just recently!) and unwittingly began a project like no other.
I wanted to paint Landmarks in Kansas; now all I wanted was a patron, a sponsor, someone I could contribute my work to the greater good.
I determined Kansas needed a new spokesman; a native possessing a new way of looking at the marvels that are KANSAS! I expressed my feelings to Kyle. She agreed, she felt that since she was working already with Pat and that he had a connection with my work that he may just be the individual, and the venue where this type of series would be of value to the collection and the community at large.
Kyle Garcia presented to Pat Alexander a concept collection. The name of his banks, Landmark Bank was a natural candidate to begin a series that would not only be a wonderful and important collection of works, but also a marketing tool, to promote the image of the bank with it’s clients and the art community.
Pat Alexander became smitten with the Kansas Landmark painting that I was producing. He purchased several for his home and Kyle presented to him a proposal for a large commission piece of Monument Rock, a Kansas landmark that I was dying to paint.
After Pat began collecting my work; I had hung a piece one evening for him, I mentioned that I had seen a branch of Landmark Bank in Louisburg, and told him about the Little Round House in Louisburg, and how residents iconified the structure and how it had recently been restored and moved into the City park. I offered to paint it for their branch.
After a lot of thoughtful discussion with Kyle Garcia, the owner of Phoenix gallery of Topeka, and Pat, his right hand Joe Kennedy, and other staff members affiliated with the bank, the Landmark series was born.
My good friend and painting buddy, Joe Bucher, a long-time resident of Louisburg, helped me gather reference of the Little Round House and for Cheyenne Bottoms, a place he frequents during duck season. After Kyle researched quite thoroughly all the branch locations, she put together a list of options of the local draws to paint for each branch. The contracts were signed and the paintings have begun.
Kyle drew up a plan and a project outline where I would be painting one or two landmarks from each location where Landmark Bank had banks. Each landmark was chosen as to the importance to the area and the hearts of the locals. She also convinced Pat and Joe that we should also produce prints of each painting that could be used as marketing vehicles for the banks. She also put together a plan to have a large exhibit at the series completion beginning at Landmark Banks headquarters in Topeka, and possibly a traveling exhibit of the works. Her staff at Prairie Renaissance Art in Education, Inc. also proposed that the series could be used as the basis for educational programs in local schools and programmed tours at the bank facility.
We definitely began to think big. We all realized that this was an unprecedented opportunity to make a mark in Kansas art history…Kyle Garcia as always was up to the challenge. The more the project has come together, the more we realize how important this collection will become. We have been so very impressed with Pat Alexander’s openness to new ideas and eagerness to share our vision for the series. He has become a true champion of the arts!
The Series:
Each piece has been a unique experience. The Little Round House, for example, has a stunning history and has been moved several times and been put to all kinds of uses! Here is essentially a "porch", originally from a home in Payola, Kansas that has found it's way along the Southeast part of our State, from the time of our Statehood until now, where it resides in a revered splendor facing the west.
"Morning in Cheyenne Bottoms" tells the tale of a small group of mallards that are dropping in for a rest after the sun has begun to rise. The morning is cloudy and the north wind is prevalent; the water is wispy and full of the reflection of the morning sky, the cattails forming the only breaks in a virtually endless lake.
Since Kansas has the most beautiful skies I've ever seen, I can't resist rendering one that tells the viewer the speed and presence of a Thunderhead looming over the Post-Rock Country. I was graciously drive all over the Post Rock Country one day by a patron who regularly purchases my work, shot another enormous amount of film and came away with how the posts are broken, shaped an anchored into the dry, Kansas clay.
We of Kansas Build from what we have.
When asked to do the Capitol Building in Topeka for this series, I began on the inside of the Rotunda, and gradually studied to the outside. So many interesting details await those who tour the building. The majesty of the Greco-Fortress, imposing upon all who dare enter, is prevalent in every detail. I have never entered a more elegant building in all of my travels, although just as the Capitol Building makes one proud to be a Kansan, so to does the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. make one proud to be an American. Seeing the Trumbull painting there gives weight and measure to the Curry murals I came to pay so much more attention to, every chance I get to stop in, many times with my girls, and just look at all the incredible paintings that adorn our walls.
I don't recall keeping score of the miles I walked around the State House to elicit an opinion on which side to paint, but there were a few driven as well. Sundays are great for just pulling up and looking at the architecture; wondering how Mr. Mix would feel today to see his building finished. The inspired pleasure of knowing what Holiday might have envisioned, upon his gift of the land. Concerning ourselves with the events and trials of this modern time, how prominent and meaningful the Great Seal's Latin message is for all of us today, and how come we never put it on the South Façade, as had been planned
All these thoughts and many, many more play into my concept for the painting that will be displayed in the Great Room of Landmark Bank in Topeka. I wanted the building's ominous and voluminous structure to make proud those who reside here and for everyone else to think they should. I would want all who enter to be proud to view the image and let it testify to all the good work for the people of Kansas.
I want to render the trees as the Guardians of the building, and as an afterthought, just knowing the statue of Lincoln, who dwells upon the grounds in high contemplation, compels us all by his words from so long ago and yet resonate today with such a fresh and humble truth. The painting, when complete, will draw in the viewer's mind, the same feelings I had being given the privilege to have been asked to paint it. It will hang in a bank that arguably represents those same values.
