sources of creative artistic invention
TRANSCRIPT
7/15/2019 SOURCES of Creative Artistic Invention
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sources-of-creative-artistic-invention 1/5
SOURCES of creative artistic invention.LUIS JIMENEZ
Paul Henrickson, Ph.D. tm.© 2013
Even after many decades of very serious and profoundly thoughtful search I remain bewildered,
mystified and in awed respect of the sources of creative behaviour. I am still trying but the quarry is
a will o’ the wisp most especially when it comes to the work above which possesses a rather tenuous
contact with reality, that is, perceptible sensual reality like sky, earth, planets and the space
between the observer and the pictorial subject. It should be remembered, however, that that space
is a very special space that has its beginning not with the person doing the looking, but on the
surface of the paper and there is a major synapse between that surface and the interpretive mentaloperations which take place only in the mind of the observer.
Luis Jimenez, on the other hand, consistently offers strong imagery which attracts the mind to the
concept of the heroic which he achieves with informed draughtsmanship and the editorial talents of
a master story teller. Even the nature of his own bleeding death beneath a large commissioned work
(The Blue Mustang) which had accidently fallen , or, perhaps, so infused
with his spirit of power, given the animal by the sculptor himself, had attacked him as often, it is
said, (the artist’s spirit in addition to that transmitted by the artist to the image)those possessed by demonic
spirits become the victims of those spirits. It seems a strange and perilous world we travel.
In a more general sense it is quite nearly a truism that “artists express their feelings” and such
aphorisms becomes very nearly meaningless in the verbal expressions of those too intimidated by
the challenge to create more appropriate verbal expressions. That is difficult, but essential.
I have attempted to outline a potential creative spirit in a few artists such as Michael-Angelo da
Caravaggio, Paul Cezanne, John Marin, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Doris Cross, Louise Nevelsen, and
Chuzo Tamotzu as though what they did was, in some way, an exposition of their most psychic
needs. Jean Piaget had identified a similar motivation in the verbalizations of children in their sand-
box play as they retold. explained, or re-arranged puzzling events in their lives
7/15/2019 SOURCES of Creative Artistic Invention
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sources-of-creative-artistic-invention 2/5
And Jimenez is seen apparently giving someone, or some thing
the flip.......certainly a gesture many of us have given, or felt like giving when ambient events
seemed too much to bare. We may have a man here who is basically angry and his work seems
characterized by a collegiate of associated responses, danger, destruction, living on the edge and the
willing self sacrifice to another’s passionate hunger entitled “South western Pieta” the other side , it
might be said, of the Christian coin.
It is at this point one might ask whether if there are no problems being explored consciously or pre-
consciously on a subliminal level in an artist’s work will it be possible to affirm that the artist whose
work may be admirable in all pertinent formal considerations is basically devoid of creativity?
My first encounter with the work of Luis Jimenez was when, I believe, Geraldine Price had organized
an exhibition of his work for Hill’s Gallery which was located on the plaza. The following is a draft of
what I had written as a review and which had been published by the Santa Fe New Mexican,
STEP RIGHT UP FOLKS
“Although the New Mexican WatercolorExhibition which had been hanging in the second floor floor
gallery of The Fine Arts Museum has some very fine and some not so fine paintings with a very wide
variety of technical and aesthetic approaches it fails to hold an electric candle to the jazzy exhibition
of the fibreglass and epoxy sculpture of Luis Jimenez at Hill‘s Gallery.
This exhibition has spilled out on to a truck parked in front of San Francisco Street. What the truck
held was a very large (did I hear 100 ’?) commission intended for David Anderson at Roswell.
Even I had been misinformed about the dimensions of the piece, the impression I would have taken from the rest of his work would have carried over to that one and I would have had to have seen it
bigger than life...no matter what!.
This is one of the effects these giant, glitzy, glittery, smashingly colored, immense midway prises
produce.”
If any reader recalls the Cyrus Dallin work, with its tender Hiawatha romanticism thy might multiply
the effect by a 100 , make the horse white and provide a pair of vermillion collared glow balls for
eyes and the point may be understood
7/15/2019 SOURCES of Creative Artistic Invention
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sources-of-creative-artistic-invention 3/5
7/15/2019 SOURCES of Creative Artistic Invention
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sources-of-creative-artistic-invention 4/5
tt
The following in green and bold font is taken from a Boulder, Colorado news item
The big blue statue of a rearing mustang at Denver International Airport drew praise
and hatred from the very beginning.
"Mustang," the giant sculpture by Luis Jimenez, who was crushed by the horse during
its construction, turns 5 on Feb. 11, which is an important milestone for public art inDenver. Petitions to remove artworks aren't accepted for the first five years, a rule
meant to keep public art installations from being torn down rashly.
Standing on hind legs at the gateway to the airport, the towering horse makes an
aggressive first impression.
"He looks like he's going to kill me," Jennifer Newson said in the DIA terminal. "It's
not really settling when you're driving to get on a flight and then you see the 'demon
horse.' "
7/15/2019 SOURCES of Creative Artistic Invention
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sources-of-creative-artistic-invention 5/5
She's one of many who wouldn't mind giving the horse the boot for its fifth birthday.
Others are perfectly content to keep the horse around, saying they view it as a symbol of
the West.
"Keep it, please," said John Newman, who was visiting Colorado from Boston. "It's
part of the landscape. I like how the eyes light up."
The eyes. Oh, the eyes. That's the part the horse-haters hate most.
"Paint the eyes," Newson suggested. "Make him look like a friendly horse."
That may be unlikely since the eyes meant the world to the artist.
"His intent was to honor his father, who was a neon-sign maker," said Matt Chasansky,
who heads the art program at DIA.
The piece keeps people talking —
which is what public art is supposed to do, Chasansky
"Mustang," the giant sculpture by Luis Jimenez, who was crushed by the horse during
its construction, turns 5 on Feb. 11, which is an important milestone for public art in
Denver. Petitions to remove artworks aren't accepted for the first five years, a rule
meant to keep public art installations from being torn down rashly.
In any event, tearing it down is not going to quieten the spirit let loose. It is here now for the
rest of us to deal with.