James Bouler: My Muse

From 2009 to 2011, I have been tearing through ideas and activities at a breakneck speed.  In fact, I once told someone I felt like a hamster on a wheel, on fire.  Let's just say that mindset isn't the best for making art.  My mind was both tangled like spaghetti and yet void of anything creative.
Sensing a momentary break in the action, Louise Millmann turned to me and said, "Time to get back in the studio."  OK, sounds good, but what to say?  After a few abstract watercolors, just to see color and texture again, I had my inspiration:  James Bouler's 50th Birthday.

I've dabbled in collage over the years, usually to generate ideas for paintings, but with James facing a milestone, his life gave me inspiration. It started in Photoshop, using old photos to make invitations and signs for an upcoming celebration.  Once the ideas started, it was time to work with tactile objects. Using a map of Alabama for the first image, I pulled in an old photo, text, and geography, trying to create a poem about his youth in the South.  With Ray Johnson's film, How To Draw A Bunny playing in the background for inspiration, Jackson helped me cut and glue the pieces in place.  We moved on to the target, with a man and his son planting seeds-- a metaphor for James in so many ways-- with his younger self running into the collage.  The text, a piece by Kierkegaard about the lives we lead and our spiritual goals, seemed a perfect fit to our 'target'-- a life well-lived.