Doug Calisch-ARTIST'S STATEMENTS (3rd of 3)
Artist's Statement | Collaboration | Professor's Gallery
Professor’s Gallery
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Visualized Epilogues
by Doug Calisch
Professor of Art, Wabash College
Eric Dean Gallery,
October—December 2001
As a five-year-old in Chicago during the late fifties, I read a
full-page color illustration in the comics called “The Wee Ones.” It
featured a village of miniature people adapting common objects for their
very diminutive purposes. I was mesmerized to see how matchbooks, forks,
envelopes, and feathers became beds, tables, boats, and ladders. The
idea that objects conform in time and place, carrying both a new and an
old identity, has returned to become a focus in my recent sculpture.
Several summers ago, I traveled around the Appalachian Mountains with
the sole intention of talking to folk artists. I have always admired the
directness of "outsider" art, and at a time when I questioned my own
artistic motivation, I yearned to understand the creative drive of these
untrained artists. I was captivated by the unencumbered quality of their
creative vision.
So I sat on porches, in kitchens, sheds, and trailers meeting
craftspeople and artists—sharing stories, trade secrets, and even
working side by side with a one legged ex-coal miner named Troy. The
trip was intensely clarifying. I discovered an uncomplicated beauty in
the work and manner of these artists—a playful but willful inventiveness
connected the painters, carvers, and potters. The integrity and honesty
of the "voice" was refreshing, and I felt a kinship to that pure
creative spirit. I responded most directly to the idea of “making
something out of nothing,” as artists often reused materials that had
outlasted there usefulness elsewhere. Aspects of what I learned have
filtered into my own creative process.
Since that experience, I have been lured to create sculpture almost
exclusively from found objects. My creative process centers around
collecting, exploring. and rescuing materials. Each collected detail
shows some sign of natural wear or past human activity, so each
sculpture has an expansive history beyond my involvement with the
materials. It’s a funny kind of collaboration—a collaboration with man,
with nature, and with time. I strive to preserve the histories of these
found objects that I assemble together, at the same time creating a new
way to look and think about the collection of forms presented. The work
becomes a celebration of human activity; my own and the acts previous to
mine.
The result is an exploration of the inherent beauty found in reclaimed
materials and a celebration of the rich histories that are visible in
each and every object. On a personal level, it’s also about growing up
and gaining perspective, about being middle-aged, being a parent, being
a husband, and being a teacher. The works acknowledge the passing of
time, forging new identities, and not losing the important connection to
the past. They honor resourcefulness, acknowledge the importance of
craft, and display a reverence to process. It is my intention to create
a harmony between textures, materials, color, and shape that suggest a
new visual beauty, one that is often overlooked.
Doug Calisch, Professor of Art
Question Comments
calischd@wabash.edu