The Bull Thistle Gallery has been running a Summit Challenge series, a kind of a Monthly Create for area artists. I’ve been interested in participating, but haven’t had the time, expertise or persistence to make any of my ideas work. The April challenge is Local Lore and Legends. As one who is not really local to my current area, I’m not up on lore and legends, but there has been an individual who posts cryptic handwritten signs on telephone poles and bridge supports and other public spaces. His work caught my eye soon after I moved here, and from what I gather few people have seen him and even fewer know who he is. On social media he is referred to as the Triple Cities Prophet, and photos of his work, some of which I have contributed, can be found on Instagram.
I spoke with someone who said he had photos of the Prophet’s work going back to the 2000s. That’s an impressive level of commitment. It made me think of the idea of persistence versus impermanence, in that he keeps doing it and his work keeps getting torn down, destroyed or lost to the weather. So I came up with a list of rhymes for persist and impermanence, made phrases for several and assembled them into an impressionistic poem-type thing. I played with typographic arrangement and design, printed it out, ripped it up and affixed pieces to a pair of canvases. I searched Hobbes’ Leviathan and Whitman’s November Boughs for variations of the word prophet and printed some of the pages. I tried to get an aged look by crumpling, soaking, baking and staining the paper, and was largely unsuccessful, but added portions to the mix anyway. I also stencilled in some brick work. At this point I’m not sure where to go with it, but am planning to add some fine details, as yet to be determined, to draw viewers in for a closer look.
Yesterday participants in the challenge had a meetup to share ideas and works-in-progress. I received polite positive response, including one person who knew immediately what the works were about. The gallery director said framed pieces are more likely to sell, so I will see if I can make frames. I don’t know that people buy works like these. I’ve done similar collages in the past and people have found them intimidating. One guy has one proudly displayed in his home, but he goes by the name Death Weasel, so make of that what you will.
