Stephen King “On Writing” and sculpture

In 2000, author Stephen King published “On Writing” which crystalized his knowledge of his craft. In my studio, I recently listened to the audio book read by the author. His thoughts about creating stories based on situations and characters are very similar to creating sculpture.

King explains, “Stories are found things like fossils in the ground… Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered, pre-existing world. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each fossil out of the ground intact as possible…

“Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice. The story which results from it is likely to feel artificial and labored. I lean more heavily on intuition and have been able to do that because my books have been based more on situation than story…

“The situation comes first. The characters, always flat and unfeatured to begin with, come next. Once these things are fixed in my mind, I begin to narrate. I often have an idea of what the outcome may be, but I have never demanded of a set of characters that they do things my way. On the contrary, I want them to do things their way. In some instances, the outcome is what I visualized. In most, however, it’s something I never expected. For a suspense novelist, this is a great thing.”

King’s mission, first and foremost, is to keep readers in a constant state on page-turning anxiety.

As a sculptor, my mission is to keep viewers in a constant state of curiosity. My initial idea is also based on a situation. The character evolves in response. I have ideas for my characters, but I don’t tell them how to respond. I modify their gestures to tell their story.

The art of creating a novel or a sculpture is the art of managing information. What does the audience need to know? When do they need to know it? An editor will tell you to remove anything that does not build character or advance the story. What you leave out creates more suspense than what you leave in. With sculpture, what you leave out is not gone. That space invites curiosity. It gives viewers room to wander, to wonder, to interject their own experience into the situation, and to be engaged in the story. If that experience uncovers some pre-existing world, the story becomes a timeless archetypal metaphor.

The art of reaching the next level

I was recently interviewed for the 8th quarterly issue of Subjectiv Journal, an anthology of Pacific Northwest artists and writers. It was an honor to be included among these extremely talented people.

The interview questions focused on my studio practices. I took the opportunity to discuss my challenge/solution process for generating ideas since that’s what I do in my studio. While it seems very natural to me, I forget that pattern-breaking, risk-taking and an appetite for potential failure is very foreign approach for many people.

The interview helped me to reflect, acknowledge and share all. Studio work is isolating. In one sense, it’s very safe because no one else sees the mistakes. On the other hand, many of the minor victories involved in creating a sculpture are not visible in the final piece.

I don’t have many rules in my studio. And those, I break constantly. There is one exception: Each piece must be significantly better than the last by some measure. If, at some point, I don’t see a piece reaching the next plateau, it’s time to step back and reevaluate. The “What if?” process is ongoing. When a solution surfaces that elevates the piece, I continue. Until then, I’ll observe, explore and reconsider. I may need to remove a head, an arm, restructure the gesture. Nothing is sacred except the goal.

This self-challenge/solution process is not something others see. They only see the result. The thing people regard as art is a simple record that this creative process happened. Art is in the making. It’s the process of coaxing, negotiating and wrestling an idea from ambiguous thought to tangible sculpture.

That’s what draws me to my studio every day. There’s always the promise of another challenge and the possibility of reaching the next plateau. It’s like running up stairs. When your rhythm is on, you reach a step or two at a time. You haven’t simply finished a piece, but reached a significant step above your last.

Interview in Subjectiv Journal

In October of 2022, Jubjectiv Journal included a feature “In The Studio: Chas Martin” The interview focuses on my creative process and studio habits. The article appears on pages 99 -106.

Portland Open Studios 2022

It’s Open Studio season with artists all over the city opening their doors to the public. I’ll be displaying many new pieces including sculptures, masks, paintings and sketches. Several works in progress will be on display as well.

Please join me and several other artists in my building between 10am and 5pm Saturday and Sunday, October 8 and 9.

Location is 7830 SW 40th Ave., Portland. Additional parking is available across the street at the Post Office after their business hours.

Additional artists include: Brenda Boylan and Don Brown.

The balance of Shadow and Ego

It is part of Western culture to consider the “shadow” as something dark, evil, dangerous or threatening. Jung saw it as is the portal to the Self. To pass through that doorway is to become who we really are. The shadow, when understood, is a source of renewal, revealing qualities unavailable to us through the ego alone.

Several of many sketches explored before the sculpture was created

It’s a concept that has resurfaced many times in my work and throughout my life. A numerologist once identified me as an eight. As such, I presumably have an ability to see and understand both sides of things. That ability served me well during my career as an art director where I had to see things through the eyes of the viewer. That perspective continues through painting and sculpture as well.

So when the shadow finds its way into a sketch, I usually welcome the opportunity to explore the point and counterpoint of the shadow and ego. I also find working with two figures more exciting than only one. It offers more special prospects and complexity to the composition.

In “Breakthrough” the shadow’s arms are the portal through which the ego passes. Each is dependent on the other to make this transition possible. The evolution of this piece from sketch to final sculpture was an adventure. Finding the relationship and creating the complimentary gestures were interesting challenges.

I have explored this relationship through several of my most recent pieces as well as a couple of other significant pieces of the past 3 years. I am sure I will return to this theme again.

Prize of Hope Award at Dell'Arte International

On Saturday, June 25, I participated in the award ceremony for this year’s Prize of Hope in Blue Lake, CA. Hosted by Dell’Arte International and Aasen Teater, the Danish Institute for Popular Theater in Brødholtvej, Denmark, the 2022 Prize of Hope was awarded to the Zimbabwe Theater Academy. The evening festivities included a performance of the 2-person play, “Zandezi,” created and performed by Cadrick Msongwlwa and Ronald Sigeca under the direction of Lloyd Nyikadzino.

It was my honor as the commissioned artist for this year’s award which has traditionally taken the form of a mask. My process began viewing videos of the performance, reading the script, researching Zimbabwean mask styles and then producing about 50 sketches. After sharing my concept with Dell’Arte CEO, Alyssa Hughlett, I shaped the original mask in clay, created a silicon mold and cast there masks which were then painted. One mask was awarded to the group from Zimbabwe, one went to Denmark and the third is now in the Dell’Arte International collection.

The play (also performed several months ago at the Portland Playhouse here in Portland) has been described as a provocative, daring, and mind-blowing physical theater piece that challenges the criminal justice system. Zandezi is Zimbabwean slang for “prison.” The play questions if prison is for a rehabilitation or a place where innocent people become hardcore criminals.  

Dell’Arte Institute and the Danish Institute of Popular Theater both focus on physical theater, a genre of theatrical performance that encompasses storytelling primarily through physical movement. In Zimbabwe, where 14 languages are spoken, the language of motion connects all.

 Dell’Arte has been offering the Prize of Hope with the Danish Institute of Popular Theater since 2008; past recipients include Universes (2018), Cornerstone Theater (2016), Tim Robbins & the Actor’s Gang (2008), and many more!

 My connection to Dell’Arte came through Tony Fuemeller, a locally-based master mask maker, actor, puppeteer, director and instructor. Many thanks for the introduction!

The mask was inspired in part by traditional mask styles of the Zimbabwean culture. The elongated facial shape vaguely suggests a shield. While we can see the story through the eyes of the mask, the shield protects us from experiencing it directly.

Deep lines in the face are evidence of stress, worry, fear and unknowing – all emotions experienced by Philani. They also suggest tears. Upon further discovery, these lines symbolize the two actors. Their interaction is the story.

The mask includes two additional figures in the forehead. These two figures celebrate the physicality of the performance. Their arms appear in multiple positions at once. The implied motion of their uplifted arms suggests hope and resurrection. The color implies sunrise, a new dawn, another world where hope is real, where rehabilitation is supported, where justice can be served.

Creativity is Perseverance

I started college intending to study psychology. I was fascinated with the mind, how it works, how it perceives surroundings, and how it creates. I quickly realized I was more interested in being creative than studying creativity. I changed my major to art. Now I do both.

One instructor I encountered at Pratt Institute was Emil Dispenza. Emil was a young, rising star among the art director community of New York City. He taught one class a week. I was in it. Emil was fearless, unabashed and wise. His philosophy: If there’s nothing interesting going in, there won’t be anything unique coming out. He demanded we absorb unrelated information constantly exposing ourselves to books, films, music, experiences that did not align with anything else we were doing. I went along with the challenge. I soon had banked all kinds of reference points for comparison. A pattern that applied in one area may trigger a solution in another, unconnected area.

For years, Edward DeBono was a leader in the processes of creative thinking. He perfected several techniques including Lateral Thinking to expand idea generation into new spaces. He encouraged exploration of impractical ideas as you journeyed from problem to solution.

These two men and their audacious approaches to creativity impacted my own approach for generating unique ideas. The first part of the process is to challenge the problem. Is this the real problem? Through critical analysis, it may not be. Or it may simply need to be restated to ignite a creative direction. The next part is to force your brain to identify 50 alternate solutions. The first dozen ideas are obvious. Automatic. Comfortable. The next dozen are off center, illogical or just weird. After that, you’re in the realm of impossible, impractical, unreasonable. That’s where real creativity begins.

In my first ad agency job in Boston, the head art director was a creative genius named Dick Wilkins. He taught me that you can temper an insane idea to get something workable. You cannot take a mediocre idea and make it great. He demonstrated this in meetings with clients. Dick was famous for presenting an idea to a client that was so outrageous, they were relieved when he then presented the tempered version he wanted them to approve. They usually did. Dick was another great inspiration and guide.

All my teachers and all my studies have led me to this conclusion. Creativity is a constant challenge. How you successfully solved a problem yesterday is not the process to solve a problem today. Every creative opportunity demands that you alter your steps, change pace, reverse your perspective, ignore logic and most importantly, value a wrong idea as legitimate steppingstone to a righter right. Judgement and creativity are competing processes. You do one or the other, never both at once.

Aristotle’s logic is the foundation for our education system. If something isn’t right, it’s wrong. Sorry, Aristotle, you get no points for creativity! Between the extremes of right and wrong is an infinite number of possibilities. This is the primordial soup of creative ideas where anything IS possible. It takes courage to challenge logic. But once you get the hang of it, it’s pure freedom. For years, as an art director and creative director, I was constantly selling the invisible to clients. My role was to imagine something never seen before and convince clients it was possible. I had to plant a visual in their imagination so they could also see beyond the obvious or anticipated to accept the unbelievable.

A unique idea is a visualization. To achieve realization, there are countless unforeseen obstacles and plenty of resistance. Perseverance is the path that turns visualization into realization – idea to reality. Perseverance is the path that rejects mediocrity and safety to achieve something truly memorable. Creativity is risky territory. Everything could go wrong. So what? You learn and grow from mistakes. You become more creative with every attempt.

Wisdom from a fortune cookie: You never know until you try…..then you know.

Leap

The act of springing free from the past, from the comfortable, from as if from the tangible into the unknown. That is the risk creative people take every day. That is the constant act of courage to create anything new.

It’s the act of passing from one state to another. Leaping into a new reality.

See more images of Leap.

Revelation - When truth overcomes illusion

Among the many practices I find interesting is numerology. I was once told I am a number 8 - able to see both sides of the story, able to see balance, confident that patience will be rewarded.

My work explores illusion to discover the underlying truth. The archetype. The quality or experience that connects us rather than divides us.

“Revelation” is a statement about the realization of the truth. When disinformation or projected beliefs are eliminated, what’s left is that incredible “ah-ha” moment when everything is seen with fresh eyes.

Science historian, author, and television producer James Burke, in his series “The Day the Universe Changed” offered countless examples of how society’s view of the universe has been impacted by revelations. What we perceive as true is an illusion held together by current knowledge which can be overturned by scientific proof and/or direct experience. How the truth is revealed is not my point. When the veils of misinformation, political agendas, or any other form of illusion are pulled aside, what remains is undeniable. It can be unsettling, destabilizing and disruptive.

The truth shifts balance from what we once believed to what we now know.

Speaking in Symbols

Symbolism, according to art historians, was a movement that began around 1880 and ended in the 1920s. If you are into boundaries and barriers, that definition works just fine. I’m not. It doesn’t.

As opposed to Impressionism, with its commitment to the reality of the surface, Symbolism was a more holistic view as an artistic and a literary movement. It suggested ideas through symbols and emphasized the meaning behind the forms. Symbolism was a precursor of modernism. It developed fresh, abstract expression of psychological truth suggesting that behind the physical world lay a spiritual reality. Symbolists could take the ineffable, such as a dream or vision, and give it form.

“Underlying Truth” is about illusion – What we believe. What we see. And how that eclipses the foundational truth.

Symbolism is not limited to a movement. It is an enduring method of communication. Jung explains that through exploration of symbols one will eventually discover its fundamental archetype. That succinctly summarizes my path from sketch to sculpture. Art is a process of discovery through query and response. The object created is a summary of that process. The real art is the doing.

Communicating through symbols isn’t a conscious decision for me. Symbols have always been a comfortable vehicle for me to absorb and transmit information. They invite many levels of interpretation. The message can be suggestive, timeless, universal, grand.

I use visual metaphors as a form of poetry expressed in multiple languages at once. The symbols I use are gestural – human, animal and combinations of the two.

The infinite variations of gesture are the root of story telling. Abstracting the form, like editing text, is a process of eliminating anything that doesn’t contribute to the story. What’s left invites viewers to explore and encounter their own archetypes.