LANNY GARLANDThe Alchemist |
"I know I have been an artist. This talent is my gift and I have been fortunate to have good teachers to nurture and encourage its development. With the gift of artistic talent comes a responsibility to use it, share it, and to pass it along.
This is my passion."
Studies in art and design in California and Mexico provided a background for my first paid position in retail advertising and visual merchandising. Graphics created for Pasadena Playhouse led to set design and construction for Theatre Americana and from there to CBS Studios in Hollywood as a scenic artist (IATSE).
Theatre changed my life forever and dramatically influenced my work. the discipline to meet deadlines and the "instant feedback" from my peers strengthened my resolve to pursue projects that recognize hard work and reward excellence.
After more than thirty years as a freelance designer, I have completed a wide range of projects for local, national, and international clients. Being an independent fine artist and designer/craftsman, I am able to choose my projects and divide my time between my own art and volunteer work in the area of arts education and cultural exchange. As a founding member of the Kunming Committee of Denver Sister Cities International, I produced several cultural exchange programs in the arts. These led to "Visiting Artist" programs for the Denver School of the Arts. Among these projects were:
The Tabor Center Jazz/DSA Show
The National Christmas tree Pageant for Peace
DSA/Pirate Gallery "Dia de los Muertos" Show
Chair of the Visual Arts for the Boulder Philharmonic Summer Arts Camp
"Art reach" National Student Arts program
Since Moving to Patzccuaro, Michoacán I have continued doing design work; painting murals, installing interiors, creating site-specific works for a number of clients, as well as creating original pieces in my studio.
The turbulent times of the turn of the century brought about many changes in the world, one of which was certainly the way in which artists and their audiences looked at Art. Picasso and Braque were in Paris at the same time and were independently working on what was to become known as Cubism. Of the three accepted categories of Cubism: primitive, analytic and synthetic, it is the latter that is of the most interest to us for the sake of setting the stage for the works of this show. Both Picasso and Braque began using actual textures in their collages. these were obtained from such diverse elements as rope, oil cloth, newspaper and other elements. This was one of the humble beginnings of what was to become known as "Found Object" Art.
Another practitioner of "found Object" work was Marcel DuChamp with what he called "Ready Mades". Possibly his most famous work in that area was the urinal which he turned upside down and placed on the wall declaring that it was indeed art because he recognized it as such and therefore it simply "was", existing for its own sake.
With some understanding of such beginnings we start our appreciation of the sensitive nature of the works in this show. As viewers, we may well recognize certain elements of many of the pieces but that amuses us for only a short while before we are led to focus on the surface texture, combination of shapes and forms and the skillful juxtapositioning of the dissimilar elements that bring about the obvious wit, charm and talent evident throughout the entire show.
Garland's works take form from such diverse events as his sets for the television production "Laugh-In" and more recent work in set design for contemporary movie productions. These experiences help explain his extraordinary ability to breathe life into straw mats, cardboard cartons, and rust covered elements that most all of us have either thrown away or else have walked past, around or even over and were not conscious of. Now that we see these elements in this "new light" our vision can be forever transformed if we simply accept what we see for its own sake and smile when, later, we see elements of one art work or another patiently waiting for our recognition. They hide out on street corners, walkways, alleys, backyards, etc. They need only our recognition as players in a "Garland Production" and we are transported , for however short a time, back to this show and its effect on us. Is this not one of the main duties of Art, to transport us back to the initial doing of the piece, the "dance" between the material and the artist? The galleries and museums of the world hold the physical evidence that Art occurred, all we, as viewers, must do is validate "the dance" by allowing ourselves to be transported back to the scene of the creation and then we too have fulfilled our part of what Marcel DuChamp described in this statement:
"The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the
work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner
qualifications and thus adds his (or her) contribution to the creative act."
It is my hope that the viewers of this show will indeed decipher and interpret inner qualifications of each piece and at the same time smile at their familiar and yet somehow new appearance. They have experienced a gentle collision with genius, talent and wit from which they are forever changed. May it be so for the viewers as well.
Artlog 0001
11-15-98 LR