Morris Graves and Machine Age Noise

Spring with Machine Age Noise No. 4, Morris Graves, Tempra on Paper, 1957

Days getting long, sun shining, windows open and by the deafening assault on the senses you might  well believe the Apocalypse is at hand. Power mowers roar against the high piercing scream of weed eaters only pausing for the rare moment to remind you that a bird can still sing before they rev up again... ah, the sounds of the machine age. Here in this tourist town even the screaming massacre of the grass is regularly overwhelmed by the constant traffic of small aircraft overhead. Is there no peace? In my last post I wrote about David Hockney's embrace of the latest technology in his art. But to critique the darker side of the machine age we turn to the one and only Morris Graves.

 Machine Age Noise No. 2, Morris Graves, Ink on Paper, 1957

Morris Graves, renowned Northwest artist and the original Northwest Mystic appreciated peace and quiet to a high degree. Here are his responses to machine age noise. In the Sumi painting Machine Age Noise No. 2 Graves used a broom for a brush giving it an energetic thwack.

Morris Graves at The Lake

Happy 100th Birthday Morris Graves

August 28th 2010

Morris Graves in His Leek Garden 

by Imogen Cunningham, Silver gelatin print, 1973

I owe Morris Graves a deep debt of gratitude. Before Graves died in 2001 he set up a foundation to provide artists with a residency in his studio at the home he called "The Lake". Secluded in a forested area of Northern California, Graves home during the last 30 years of his life almost floats on the edge of a small private lake. In 2004 I was awarded a residency and spent a month living and working in Graves own studio.  These are two of the paintings that I made at The Lake.

Each day at the lake  I went for a walk to a labyrinth built by another resident artist. In the center of the labyrinth was a prayer pole. That, and a painting by Graves that was in his studio, inspired the painting Prayer Pole. The painting, Ikon was inspired by Graves sculptures, Instruments for a New Navigation.

Morris Graves Studio, Seattle Times Magazine

The Morris Graves Centenary Invitational Art Exhibition & Seance

Morris Graves in his Leek Garden by Imogen Cunningham, Silver gelatin print, 1973

This month Morris Graves would have turned 100 years old. In his honor the Mystic Sons of Morris Graves, Seattle Lodge 93 will host the Morris Graves Centenary Invitational Art Exhibition & Seance. The exhibition will include works by members and friends of the fraternal order including homages to Graves as well as rare works created by Graves especially for the Seattle Lodge. 

The exhibition will begin tomorrow, August 5th, with a reception during Seattle's Pioneer Square First Thursdays from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at the Tashiro Kaplan artists cooperative. The exhibition will be open to the public on Saturdays through August 28th. On the 28th, Morris Graves 100th birthday, members of the Lodge will conduct a seance accompanied by Ajar West playing the Theremin.

Graves, my personal hero and role model, was a Seattle native and artist who came to international  renown in 1953 when a feature article in LIFE magazine, titled Mystic Painters of the Northwest, portrayed Graves as central to a group of Northwest artists inspired by Asian arts and philosophies and the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest.