Living in a Jar

Choosing a subject a week on 52 pieces sometimes causes me to filter other information through that lens. This week two people have emailed me the article recently published in Telegraph surrounding the claim that it was Gauguin who cut off Van Gogh's ear. I wonder if that's because we just received a painting by Gauguin and had the world's leading Gauguin expert, Richard Brettell, here to discuss it. When I thought of that ear I thought of the best way we could have preserved it, and of course that led me to thinking about John Buck's Jar.
Then my colleague Kate came home from AAM, a Museum Conference in Philadelphia she attended last weekend. One of her highlights was the solo journey she took to see the Mutter Museum, part of the college of physicians. The Mutter museum was constructed to educate doctors about anatomy, now it educates the public about the history of medicine. Kate says she saw the skeletons of siamese twins, a 45 pound colon, the body of a boy whose soft tissue turned to bone and a collection of things found in the throats of hundreds of humans.
Of course, that reminded me of a collection fit for jars. Jars, they're on my mind. My sister and mom both can things. They used to take their canned things (which are in jars, not in cans, so I don't know why they don't call the act jarring)to a fair, their banner said We Certainly Can. My mom moved out of the house where I grew up a few years ago, I never made it home one last time and wasn't there to help her move. She says she threw everything into boxes. Last weekend we were all together for a Mother's Day celebration. I said "Remember all those cupboards on the far side of the kitchen where stuff sat for years, like powdered milk and dry yeast, remember how I would look there for something to eat and those things were always there, but never edible."
My sister and mom and I laughed. My mom said "When I moved here I brought that stuff wtih me, I brought ten year old canned cherries! can you believe that?" I said "what did you do with them when you got here?"
"I finally threw them out," she said.
"No you didn't, they're in the gargage," said Howard, her husband.
That is the nature of a thing in a jar.

John Buck from Inside His Studio

Amy's link yesterday to ARTWORKS will give you an insight into John Buck, the man and how he came to be a word carver. All through school his sculptures had been made from found objects from other people's yards. During a semester abroad spent in England while he was in graduate school, Buck found that he was cut off from that source. As a result, he began to use the piles of wood the school provided him. He says it took him a while but he finally bonded with this new process and the rest is history so to speak. 

John Buck's own website John Buck Art opens with the image above, a look inside his studio. This and other photos from his spread in Montana would indicate that he has spent many years collecting tools and carving pieces that he can use in future assemblages. Here's another view of his studio. 

It's almost as if you can see the bones of the works he will create – a look inside John Buck's mind.

JOHN BUCK

JOHN BUCK , the man may not be nearly as dark and psychological as my last post suggested. In fact, the article which the title of this post links to, calls him the Saint Nick of the art world, constructing toys out of wood. And look at that smile.
Yes, once I read this article about his Montana life and his bootstraps childhood I changed my mind about that jar.

I started to think about jars, what they hold. Food, bugs and in the case of John Buck's studio- paint. Even though he doesn't use a lot of paint. The article mentions the jars of paint on the tables- it's not like he doesn't have access to it. So I wonder why he doesn't paint these objects, I know I would. I would and that would ruin them at times, and at times it would make them better.

Posted using ShareThis

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.