The Keeper and Other Jars –– Encapsulating Time

"The Keeper", our piece of the week here at Fifty Two Pieces, and the "In Crowd"and "The Inside", John Buck's other jars, all have objects we know and make associations with –– current times, times we're looking forward to, times in the past. People, places, ideas, connections but each and every image invoking time for me. All of this and I start to hear Jim Croce. Take a moment and listen to "Time in a Bottle". Watch Croce, his wife Ingrid and their son AJ. Lyrics included.

A beautiful song, words and music, strung like pearls on the thread of life. John Buck's jars will never be the same for me.

What I Feel When I Look at The Keeper

John Buck has a whole series of jars, the one seen here is called The Inside.
For me, The Keeper, is about the things we keep to ourselves. The things we let others see, but not touch. Memory, sex, marriage- all pieces of ourselves the world see's but at the same time, these pieces are out of reach to everyone.
The high heels, are they about being sexy, or about being powerful? Probably both. The diamond- is it about being married, being kept? Keeping another? The knife in the hand, is this about pain and what we remember? What is it to keep something in the hand?
The dragonfly is about the jar, it interprets the jar, it reminds me of the things I use the jar for- to trap. Trapping, how is trapping and keeping the same thing and how is it different? with sex, with marriage with keeping pain through memory of pain.
The jar, below, is called the In Crowd. The titles of the jars describe in very simple terms the meaning of the piece, The In crowd The Inside. I think John Buck wants us to interpret the work for ourselves, to feel something, to explore what these symbols constructed in this way, mean to us.

The Keeper ~ A Leaf, A Shoe

I took the challenge of viewing "The Keeper" from a mere photo on the internet. It's much more compelling in person. John Buck carved each of the elements you see from jelutong wood. Starting on the left is a ethereal leaf, almost as if it could be fluttering as the dragonfly rests momentarily on what seems like a lid. Behind that is the outline of what appears to be an incised globe, perhaps the earth. All of this seems to be held up by a mannequin in a seated position. Visual symbols that independently may seem disconnected but as you let your mind go, you can perhaps feel how ephemeral our lives are and why John Buck may have wanted to preserve them. And what better way than in a glass jar, still visible but shielded.

Oh yes, there's an outline of a shoe there; perhaps I can see it because I know it's there from a previous visit to see "The Keeper" in person. But a shoe nonetheless and in this photo you see a front view of its high heeled style. The Portland Art Museum owns two other larger pieces, including "The Hawk and the Dove", shown below. Look carefully and you'll find some of the same elements of "The Keeper" repeated in "...The Dove". And for an even more intense visual experience you could head to Lewis and Clark College here in Portland where 18 foot bronze versions of these two other pieces are on permanent display.

John Buck ~ The Keeper

The Keeper by John Buck sits in an alcove on the fourth floor of the Hoffman Wing of the Belluschi Building. Children and adults are both drawn to it. Like moths to lights they must see what's inside this jar. Walk around it and they see objects that they can identify but then they also realize that the objects are connected in such a way that they see or think of other objects. Look and see how many you can find.

After that initial fascination, most people begin to talk about why John Buck put this sculpture in a jar. Most of his work is quite large whether it's wood or bronze. Here he seems to be protecting his work much like the artists who build ships in glass jars. The jar itself reminds others of home canning where families preserve the summer's bounty for eating later in the winter. We'll explore more about John Buck and The Keeper here at Fifty Two Pieces as the week goes on.

Dzunuk'wa, Dzunuk'wa, Dzunuk'wa

Look at this Wild Woman of the Woods. She is strong enough to rip a tree out of the ground. She carries a basket on her back, to put bad children into. She wanders the woods like sasquatch. The Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw)were vibrant storytellers, and hosts of amazing feasts. One of their sayings sums up the spirit of day for which the Feast Bowl would have been used:
"When one's heart is glad, he gives away gifts. Our Creator gave it to us, to be our way of doing things, to be our way of rejoicing, we who are Indian. The potlatch was given to us to be our way of expressing joy."

The potlatch was a time to feed, and also give presents, to your guests. To wear your best clothing, Chilkat robes, to sing and drum and wear the masks. To show your neighbors and those whose totem differ from yours, that you have had good fortune. What a way to share good fortune, and to ensure good fortune to come.

Dzunuk'wa - Dreams and Numbers

Yesterday Amy mentioned dreams along with story-telling. Being a better dreamer than story-teller, I went to bed last night thinking of my flight back to PDX. Evidently Dzunuk'wa was still on my mind because as I awakened images of not food but numbers were floating out of the feast bowl. They weren't exactly like the ones in the image above but close enough for the sake of this post. So while some of us feast on food and others on words, others of us relish numbers.

Alfred Maurer was not at all pleased that I hadn't followed up on at least one communal meal from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a result, I'm also including Peter Bruegel, the Elder's The Harvesters in today's post. Here we can see a group of workers, some of them taking a break from their hard work to eat a meal together. Others are resting after the work and the food.

To show his adventurous spirit Maurer is anxiously looking forward to seeing the Native American Collection at the Portland Art Museum, especially after reading Frommer's review of it ..." the best reason to visit is to see the extensive collection of Native American art and artifacts".

Stories

The more I study to become a docent the more I realize the importance of story. Not just the story of the artist, or the story of the painting or object, but how communication through story works. Not only does a story bring the art to life, but the story brings the storyteller to life. What might have been explained in long sentences laying fact on fact like a solid brick wall can be told on a meandering path where words and sentences act as rungs on a ladder leading you to somewhere else, high above the place where you started. Ultimately you end up in a tree fort above a forest, instead on if a house made of brick- unless of course the story is the one of the three little pigs.
So I have been writing tours in story, and telling my own stories, and because of this I have been dreaming in story.
No other people were more tied to story than the Native Americans. I am guessing that some of their magnificant tales began in dreams. Last night I dreamed a story so real, with plot and character and arc, and outcome that I woke up and vowed to commit the whole thing to memory. As I recalled the dream I searched for the deeper meaning, because no story would be worth telling if it didn't have something meaningful to share.
This is another thing about the stories of this gallery, they have more than one meaning, you can search for new meanings and find them- and realize that there are meanings you will never know for sure, and some you might only recognize ten years from now when you are older and wiser.
Pick any animal, and google that animal and the words Native American Story, and share it here, in the comment box. So I will have more stories.

Dzunuk'wa - Another View

Looking around the internet, I discovered this image of Dzunuk'wa, the Portland Art Museum's potlatch feast bowl. From this bird's eye view, the bowl looks even more like a canoe or boat. Peeking inside you find not one, not two, but three serving bowls, plus the two on the top of the legs. An added plus to this image is that in the lower left corner you can see one of the masks Amy mentioned in her earlier posts. In addition, the bottom part of William Morris' "Artifact Panel" (399 pieces of hand blown glass spanning 3 stories) peeks out from the upper left.

The thought of Dzunuk'wa feast bowl as a boat reminded me of
Renoir's The Luncheon of the Boating Party. Eating should be enjoyed with others whether as part of a traditional ceremony or for the joy of being together. And in my mind a meal taken outside with friends is even better.