How to choose artwork (the lasting legacy of art pieces)

 I often think about why I like to paint.  When painting feels impossible and my efforts to portray the imagery in my head on a canvas seem futile, it seems like a particularly wasteful way to spend my time.  But then I am reminded of the artwork that I was exposed to in my formative youth.

Most of the paintings hanging in our homes were works by my maternal grandfather, Robert Fiske Hightower. His family worked for the railroad in Helper, Utah for years before, and after, his birth. An architect by trade, painting was more of a passion hobby.  He passed before I was ever really able to know him, but I am quite stuck by how “real” a person he is to me because of these paintings that I saw every day. 

With this in mind, I have filled my own home with paintings that I feel have been particularly successful.  Pursuing a form of immortality through objects that will endure after my passing remains irresistibly appealing. 

Have you found fragments of the wild in your midst?

 

“Gully”

52 x 84

Most of my formative years were lived in different parts of Virginia. There, I often found myself retreating from a problematic childhood, alone or with siblings, to the "woods" which were residual strips of undeveloped forest, between the suburban houses, neighborhoods, and strip-malls. Everyone wants a house in the woods, but they also want a lawn so little strips of woods are left between each house and become byways for all kinds of wildlife.

I became fascinated by the architecture of these forest ruins, and noticed I felt a kinship with the fauna also struggling to live among the humans. I was mostly into adulthood before I began to understand that everyone's childhood was disappointing on some level, and that most of us are left feeling detached and apart. 

Have you found this true in your life?  Do you have a little patch of “wild” where you retreat?


-Tyler

The accident that was the mother of invention

Pigeons

50 x 60

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke a little about how I use bitumen in my artwork- but in the interest of keeping things under 30 seconds for an Instagram reel, I left out the part about how I discovered this unusual ingredient.  



Early in my career after finishing college, I acquired an interior house painting company to add to my business.  While we were working for a client, some roofing tar got on the wall near some cabinets. We tried quite a few products, but found it almost impossible to cover up the tar.  I was intrigued and spent some time figuring out what made it so indelible.  As I experimented with it, I found that it reminded me of all of the interesting things I loved about studying ceramic glazes in college.  I love the unusually strong, appealing, translucent color it produces. The rich ambers, vibrant blacks, and luscious chocolate browns  in my paintings are almost exclusively the result of the tar’s influence on a very limited number of other paint colors in any given piece.

How to make your kid an artist.

My early artwork 

painted on fabric and quilted

(age 7)

 Last week a studio visitor asked if any of my children are artists and I've been thinking about it ever since.  What makes an artist?  Most young children love to draw and paint.  When I look at my own artwork from my childhood, I'm not sure you could look at it and think it had any promise.  I think what really makes an artist is persistence.  Though the early attempts might not be exciting (even when compared with same age peers), if they have an unquenchable desire to keep trying- you might be raising an artist.  I firmly believe that anyone can become an artist if they are willing to keep trying long enough and grow a thick enough skin to take feedback and make the necessary changes to get better.  So if you think your child might be on this path, keep encouraging even their most simple attempts.  I'm ever grateful that my mom did. 

-Tyler

P.S. In case you are still reading (and wondering)- I have at least two children that are artists.