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, 1887–198), sight is grounded in close observation Francis Bacon (British, 1909–1992), of his surroundings on the Oregon Odilon Redon (French, 180–1916), coast and in understanding that which and Horst Janssen (German, 1929– is not immediately obvious: the pres- 199). 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 196. 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, California, 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 6 OHQ vol. 107, no. 3 Dobkins, Tears and Rain 7 the chaos left in its wake are sources OR Portland, Courtesy ofGallery, Froelick 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 Lillian Pitt and Joe Feddersen, 199, 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 199, 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 (200) 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 8 OHQ vol. 107, no. 3 Dobkins, Tears and Rain 9 work alludes to the feathers. By doing some OR Portland, Courtesy ofGallery, Froelick 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.