OHS EXHIBITS

Tears and Rain One Artist’s View from Sea Level by Rebecca J. Dobkins

RICK BARTOW’S WORK AFFIRMS categorization as a “Native American the power of close observation and the artist.” In addition to many contem- interconnectedness of humanity with porary indigenous artists, he counts all forms of life. Accepting his invita- as influences European artists who tion to see more carefully and to feel work expressionistically with human connections more deeply brings us a and animal forms and who explore the greater understanding of this place we fantastic and the emotional, including now call Oregon. Bartow’s source of Marc Chagall (Russian, 1887–1985), sight is grounded in close observation Francis Bacon (British, 1909–1992), of his surroundings on the Oregon (French, 1840–1916), coast and in understanding that which and Horst Janssen (German, 1929– is not immediately obvious: the pres- 1995). Ultimately, however, Bartow’s ence of the past, the impact of change, work has its genesis in the land and the stories that lurk within every crea- light of his home place. ture and corner. Bartow was born in Newport, Bartow’s work is provocative, insis- Oregon, in 1946. His family has been tent, and engaging. For some, the mul- in Oregon nearly a hundred years. tiple layers of significance in his images In 1911, his grandfather John Bartow may be ambiguous or hard to read. But walked over three hundred miles from careful looking rewards viewers, who McKinleyville, , to Lincoln are invited to recognize their place in City. The Bartow family eventually the network of human-animal kin settled in South Beach, Oregon, and relations that Bartow reveals. Bartow’s homesteaded a plot of land near a embrace of aesthetic traditions across slough along Idaho Point Road. John time and place leaves open an invita- Bartow was of Wiyot tribal heritage, tion for the viewer to meet his work though for many years the Bartow at various intersections. He draws on family believed him to be Yurok, his Native heritage but defies simple a neighboring tribe in northwest-

© 2006 Oregon Historical Society Dobkins, Tears and Rain  ties. John Bartow and his family developed bonds with the local Indian community at the Siletz Reservation, itself made up of di- verse tribal groups from western and southern Oregon and northwest- ern California. Rick still nurtures those bonds. John Bartow and his wife Jessie had six chil- dren, including Rick’s father Richard, who married a non-Indian neighbor, Mabel Nel- son. When Rick was just five years old, his father Richard died, and Rich- ard’s twin Bob played Rick Bartow, Seeking the Medicine, 2005, wood, 25” x 26" x 16” (Courtesy of an important role as Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR) mentor and surviving link to Rick’s paternal lineage and Native heri- In many ways, Bartow’s childhood art competition that brought him to tage. Rick’s uncle was and early youth in Newport were much the attention of Hal Chambers. At the closely connected to like that of any other small-town kid, time, Chambers was chair of the art the land, and shared particularly after his mother married department at Western Oregon State with him observations Andrew Mekemson, who Bartow con- College (now Western Oregon Uni- of — and conversations siders a beloved second father. From versity) in Monmouth, where Bartow with — creatures in the an early age, he had been drawn to art, eventually enrolled to study secondary slough and near the and that tendency was encouraged by art education. shore where the Bartow his parents and paternal aunt. In high Bartow was married by the time he Rick Bartow, Guardian, 2005, pastel, mixed family lived. Rick and school, he began playing the guitar graduated from college in 1969, after media. 10” x 4” x 4” (Courtesy of Froelick his family (son Booker, and bongos, discovering the music which he was quickly drafted into the Gallery, Portland, OR) daughter Lilly, and wife that remains an important part of his army. As for many in his generation, Karla Malcolm) still call life as an accomplished blues musi- Vietnam was profoundly life altering. ern California. Such misidentifica- that land home. Hawk, eagle, elk, and cian. He made important connections Bartow was in Vietnam from 1969-1971 tion is not uncommon in families deer teem around the nearby Yaquina with art instructors by going to what and, along with his duties as a teletype with Indian heritage, because of the Bay mudflats, even as encroaching is now Southern Oregon University in operator, his talents as a musician were complex history of displacement development displaces them, pushing Ashland, Oregon, to take a workshop put to work. He played with a band and relocation of Native communi- them closer to the Bartow front door. with Joseph Magnani and winning an that first appeared in officers’ clubs but

 OHQ vol. 107, no. 3 Dobkins, Tears and Rain  the chaos left in its wake are sources Froelick Courtesy of Gallery, Portland, OR of the powerful emotions expressed in Bartow’s work, though not the only ones. Through all the struggles of the 1970s, Bartow continued to draw, pri- marily with black graphite on paper. Bartow says that creating art at that time was therapeutic; in fact, he says it remains so and that doing the work is Courtesy of Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR Portland, Courtesy ofGallery, Froelick what keeps him at peace.

IN THE MID 1980S, BARTOW’S drawings came to the attention of William Jamison and Jeffrey Thomas, owners of what was then the most prominent art gallery in Portland, the Jamison Thomas Gallery. Jamison Rick Bartow, Crow Ghost, 2006, wood and metal, 25” x 204” x 7” and Thomas began representing Bar- tow in their galleries in Portland and New York, and Jamison in particular in an important exhibition organized Fellowship for Native American Fine developed a close and trusting rela- by the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Art and the Flintridge Foundation Rick Bartow working on Crow Ghost, tionship with Bartow. Bartow admired Arizona, in 1991, Shared Visions: Native Award for Visual Artists. 2006, wood and metal, 25” x 204” x 7” Jamison’s judgment and vision, and American Painters and Sculptors in the felt supported by Jamison to pursue his Twentieth Century, which traveled to BARTOW’S WORK STEMS FROM not easily characterized work. During New Zealand. As a result, he was in- his family’s homestead near Yaquina was later sent to perform at a military that period, he developed friendships vited to an international gathering of Bay — and often is literally of that hospital to boost morale. There, Bar- with other Pacific Northwest artists indigenous artists in New Zealand in place through the incorporation of tow was overwhelmed by seeing the such as and Joe Feddersen, 1995, an experience that exponentially found objects — but is not regional in wounded and dying. who were also of Native heritage, and enlarged his sphere of personal and a way that is limiting. As Bartow puts it, Bartow earned a Bronze Star for his abstract artist Drake Deknatel. aesthetic influences. he is looking at things “right here” and service in Vietnam, but carried more By 1987, Bartow’s career was es- Since the mid 1990s, Bartow has responding to them. That response is than that honor home from the war. tablished enough that he was able to continued to win national and inter- informed by his knowledge of a wide He has been very frank about the way leave his job as an educational aide in national recognition. With the help of array of art historical moments and he felt after leaving Vietnam. Survivor’s the Lincoln County schools and create Charles Froelick, Bartow’s dealer since cultural heritages. He addresses the guilt followed him home, and his world art full-time. His world was expand- William Jamison died from complica- predicament and opportunity of the fell apart. He had nightmares, went ing through increased contact with tions of AIDS in 1995, his work is now contemporary human condition, one through a divorce, took a series of odd other artists and through international part of many important collections, in which the world is full of intersec- jobs, and lost control of his drinking. travel, and he worked to integrate including the Smithsonian’s National tions and disjunctures. Today, we identify the condition he and those new influences with his personal Museum of the American Indian. In The carving Seeking the Medicine many other veterans suffered through vision. In the early 1990s, Bartow trav- 2001, Bartow’s career reached a new (2005) illuminates all this. It began as as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The eled to Germany and Japan, where he pinnacle with the award of two impor- a hollow log that Bartow dragged up rawness of the Vietnam experience and had solo shows. His work was included tant national fellowships, the Eiteljorg from the beach and that sat outside his

 OHQ vol. 107, no. 3 Dobkins, Tears and Rain  work alludes to the feathers. By doing some Froelick Courtesy of Gallery, Portland, OR cycle of death and life, research, he learned that with the man’s wings a small percentage of referencing the flight to crows have white mark- the next world and the ings. These wings refer- scroll at top cryptically ence that white crow and alluding to water, the the ghostliness of such life-giver. The outsized a creature. As Bartow proportion of crow puts it, the crow’s job, Courtesy of Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR Portland, Courtesy ofGallery, Froelick to man is a reminder as told in much Native of the dimensions of mythology, is to pass the environment and between what was and the spiritual universe; what is; in legend, the there is something crow can go places we greater than us. The cannot and can return carving reflects Bar- to where we are. Crow tow’s familiarity with Ghost is reflective of this Northwest coast carv- spiritual and physical ing traditions — the passage. Its monumental human/animal ico- scale — seventeen feet in nography, the use of breadth — speaks to the red and black on cedar, power of that journey, and the location of the and its distressed surface human figure within gives additional dimen- the mouth of the bird sion to the work. — yet is clearly not Crow’s job is also to Rick Bartow, Crow Rattle, 2000, wood and metal, derivative of those irritate, to humble, to 16” x 12” x 4” traditions in a simple trail after and torment. way. The work springs With its metal disks clacking, Crow then use them in sweathouse or other from Bartow’s experi- Rattle has the voice of Crow, crassly ceremonies. The rattles have a living Rick Bartow, Predator’s Dream, 2004, pastel, 40” x 26” ence and choices, not calling out, heckling, drowning out voice; they are meant to be in motion directly from design other sounds. Bartow talks about and make sound. Their forms are in- studio for several years. Eventually, he conventions of Northwest coast art. this piece as something related to spired by found objects and sticks and realized he could carve a notch in it, Crow Ghost extends the conversa- the sweathouse he is part of at Siletz by Mexican folk art rattles made out and the V would become a beak. The tion about what is to be learned from and the lessons he has learned in of colorful soda bottle caps. crow holds inside his open beak a man close observation. It, too, is a way of ceremonies there. He speaks about In many of his mixed media pieces, who is himself birdlike, with wings and Bartow articulating what he sees in the sweathouse as the place where his Bartow animates or, sometimes, reani- a beaked forehead. Birds are indicator the place he dwells within and mak- experience as a veteran and his gifts as mates found objects. A few years ago, species, and their abundant presence ing his understanding manifest in an artist were first honored. Over the he acquired old museum mounts of signals a healthy environment. Thus, order to share it with viewers. During years, he has made many rattles, just animal skeletons. Bartow connects the medicine sought is that which will frequent visits to a seriously ill friend, for the joy of making them, and has the skulls with other found objects lead to a thriving environment. The Bartow kept seeing a crow with white passed them on to others, who may — sticks, bones, yarn, buttons, claws

 OHQ vol. 107, no. 3 Dobkins, Tears and Rain  — to construct a sculpture that hon- and powerful gestures of Ursa Major Bartow works in interlocking layers. his interpretation of his ancestral his- ors something that was once living. speak to the fierce gentleness of the His gestural drawings give evidence tory. He said recently that the thrust Guardian is one of what Bartow calls mythical bear. of hard strokes, erasure, reworking, of his work is to find ways to speak his “little challenges;” the problem Another drawing, Predator’s Dream, and pigment-filled fingerprints and to the environmental and existential he is trying to solve is how to honor is a visceral image that directly ar- handprints. His constructions and predicament humanity finds itself in: the creature’s spirit. These pieces are ticulates the interrelationship between sculptures set back into motion objects “We are not above the situation; we sometimes hard for viewers to under- humans and animals and the cycle of that had earlier lives; their distressed are an active part of the situation.” We stand. Most of us are so carefully but predator and prey. Who is the preda- surfaces suggest sedimentary layers are enmeshed in a world that we have artificially separated from evidence of tor here? Who is dreaming? The image lying beneath. All his work is made troubled. Bartow looks around in it death that we may be taken aback. But invites us to reflect, to relate, to see how possible by, but cannot be reduced to, and responds with creations that help Bartow’s aim is to create what he calls we might be both predator and prey in his cumulative life experiences and discern a path to healing. a “macabre dignity” for the creatures the larger scheme of the natural world, who were once alive. In this way, the without which we have no social ex- This essay is based upon conversations with Rick Bartow beginning in 1998 and continuing work is therapeutic, both for him and istence. The still visage of Crow con- most recently in July 2006. Some material is also adapted from Dobkins, Rick Bartow: My Eye for the spirit of the animals who were trasts with the open-mouthed alarm (2002). I wish to thank Rick for his astonishing generosity and patience over the years. I also wish to thank Charles Froelick for his extraordinary professionalism and good humor. slain and displayed. The pieces can be of the human figure, and the cobalt read as a statement about treatment blue of the background conjures up of the animals and, by extension, the the dark of nighttime dreams. RECOMMENDED READING treatment of the environment by hu- Throughout his career, Bartow has mans. These mixed media pieces are, experimented with self-portraiture, Archuleta, Margaret, and Rennard Rushing, W. Jackson, III, ed. After the as Bartow puts it, the “purest thing I and many such images involve a con- Strickland, eds. Shared Visions: Storm: The Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, do.” About the potential for misinter- nection with Coyote, the trickster and Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Cen- 2001. Indianapolis, Ind.: Eiteljorg pretation by viewers, Bartow says: “It creator figure in much Native Ameri- tury. Phoenix, Ariz.: The Heard Museum of American Indians is medicine. If it bothers you, don’t can mythology. Coyote is not neutral. Museum, 1991. and Western Art in association look at it.” Coyote teases, rejoices in human Dobkins, Rebecca J. Rick Bartow: My with the Bartow’s early artistic development foibles, stumbles on his own hubris Eye, with a foreword by Barry Press, 2001. was established on a foundation of and, through his adventures, creates Lopez. Salem, Ore.: Hallie Ford ––– ed. Native American Art in the drawing, particularly portrait draw- much of what we know of the land- Museum of Art, Willamette Uni- Twentieth Century: Makers, Mean- ing. While he now works in many scape. Self Coyote/Segyp is an excellent versity, in association with the ings, and Histories. London: Rout- media, including painting, printing, example of the artist’s connection with University of Washington Press, ledge Publishing Company, 2005. sculpture, ceramics, and glass, he re- Coyote. In it, Bartow poses as Coyote, 2002. The Evergreen State College Long- mains a master of drawing. Ursa Major with mischievous grin and piercing McFadden, David Revere, and Ellen house Education and Cultural is a portrait of Bear — a recurring gaze. Bartow seems to be making a Taubman, eds. Changing Hands: Center. Hiteemlkiliiksix: “Within 2 the Circle of the Rim”: Nations figure in Bartow’s imagery. The bear dual statement about the impossibil- Art Without Reservation : Con- temporary Native North American Gathering on Common Ground. refers back to an elder’s story, told in ity of escaping the humbling effects of Art from the West, Northwest and Olympia, Wash.: The Evergreen the sweathouse, about a flying bear Coyote: he cannot, and we cannot. The Pacific. New York: Museum of Arts State College Longhouse Educa- and its association with the constel- muddy red field in the center left of and Design, 2005. tion and Cultural Center, 2002. lation Ursa major. The bear mother Self Coyote/Segyp links the snout of the An exhibit of Bartow’s work, Tears and Rain: One Artist’s View from Sea of myth is both tender with her cubs figure with the armless human chest, Level, will be at the Oregon Historical Society from October 6, 2006, to and ferociously protective when they making the human/coyote connection January 13, 2007. are threatened. The luminous colors with color as well as form.

 OHQ vol. 107, no. 3 Dobkins, Tears and Rain 