Coming May 2015
The Artistic Abstract Adjective Beat Movement
By
Terry Rittenour
Two Shows In One:
"Meaning Within Meaning"- A world of ideas framed in words
"Abstract Realities"- Life really is all about how each individual perceives and interprets reality
Opening reception will be held Saturday, May 2, 2015 9am-7pm. Artist will be joining the gallery through out the day and giving artist talks at 2pm and 5pm. The show will run throughout the month of May during normal business hours. This show requires time to observe, read and take in so we invite everyone to spend an afternoon with us enjoying a glimpse into Terry's creative and thoughtful mind!!
ARTIST STATEMENT
Growing up, my two biggest heroes were my grandfather, Albert Rittenour, and his brother, Byron Cunningham. To me and many of the other family members, these men were legends. Veterans of the great depression and the second world war, both were skilled and brilliant mechanical and electrical engineers. They knew no limits to their creativeness. Their stories were every bit the movie “The Great Escape”. And their engineering ability set high standards in what was possible to achieve in life. I was always fascinated with their lives on the homestead, as well as their lives in the years that followed. I didn’t just want to know their story of life and where they were coming from, I wanted to know what made them who they were.
They taught me what life was like in their world, from the top upper elites to the bomber crew members, they, themselves, flying five miles high in their Boing B-17 Superfortes. From their stories of WWII, I was eager to learn about all of the notable individuals they spoke of. For me, I wasn’t just learning about the iconic individuals they spoke of but I was also collecting their iconic tanks, ships and planes in 1:72 and 1:24 plastic scale models.
I was interested in everyone from Gregory Boyington and the famous Black Sheep Squadron of VMF-214 to Patton and his Third Army, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and his infamous Africa Korps and Michel Whittman, with his legendary attack at Villers Bocage. After combing over the allied and the axis forces for people of interest, I made the questions that launched me into the next great area of focus. Who was the man in the black berate?
I would come to learn of a different portrayal of the human story in what you could say as Beat. I followed Che Guevara, starting with his motorcycle journeys of self-discovery, to his end as a professional revolutionary. And in it, I watched society paint a picture of him while he too painted on with the diaries and photos he kept.
And on a diverse spectrum, I also discovered the Beat writer Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson. The way they talked about how life was happening and how it was on the levels that no one wanted to talk about, I was hooked. Was life really as crazy as it was being portrayed by these Beat, and Gonzo writers? What were we really saying as individuals? What were we saying as a society? From that moment I started asking, where are the Beat and Gonzo writers of today, and what would they be saying? "
As a person who wants to be a part of everything and to be more than I could ever be in a dozen lives, I wondered how I was going to make that dream a reality. With the heroes that taught me anything is possible, proving it time and time again with the ideas that came to life off of their drawing boards, I arrived at the conclusion, Art.
To have and be everything I have ever wanted and to experience everything with great depth and intensity, Art was the answer.
By being an artist and painting the beat to my generation in my unique manner, I can be part of all the various mediums life has to offer. With each artist and their unique medium, I gain new insight and perspective without having to commit a lifestyle. The joy of witnessing and understanding others philosophies is to paint my understanding bigger and brighter and with greater depth and meaning."
From here, as an artist, my goal is to go out into the world and capture it as if it’s being seen for the first time. I want to start with a study of movement and space and our relation to individuals. Starting off with the natural Wyoming landscapes, both scenic and city, I begin to look at how the two relate to one another, and how that impacts us in our being. As for words and writing, I will continue to develop ways to interpret and fame the world. With the hope I might continue to gain a broader understanding when it comes to looking at the world and the individuals. Overall I seek, to push what words can express and what words can come to represent. -Terry Rittenour
The Artistic Abstract Adjective Beat Movement
The Artistic Abstract Adjective Beat Movement is geared towards understanding the fundamental behavior and development of individuals and society through an artistic interpretation. As each artists continues their personal journey down their own path, experiencing various Beat scenes of life, each artist's task is in capturing their part in society and societies role in them. Beyond the interpretation of society, artists also take an introspective look at themselves and their development, to ask the tough questions we all do in life.
Art, like poetry, is the expression of who we are, what we think and believe to be true.
The Artistic Journey looks at all societies and individuals iconic and not, to look through the different perspectives, almost like looking at the world through different lenses, in order to gain a new and fresh interpretation. Looking at life with a philosophical approach, puts the artist at the advantage to state reality in terms that are true, but in colorful ways that are deep and impacting. Combined with other artists interpretations, a larger picture of life is understood, a depth and complexity that is every bit the individual, as it is a portrait of all of us, and our society. For that given moment in time, we paint that picture together, that poetry as a whole and as an individual.
As each person captures the beautiful happenings of life, art captures the unique way we see, understand, interpret and justify our being. Through artistic interpretations, we can express feeling and emotion and know ideas by representing them in various mediums. Does not the sound of a symphony move us with passion? Does not a portrait frame an idea in which we might engage? As fellow artists, it should be our goal to share and relate art in deep and meaningful ways.
The goal to share and inspire is not just to inspire artists alike but to share with the world a constant and fresh way of looking at life. Each day is a constant inspiration to look and know yourself, with a certain depth and complexity, to go out and create art. Though we might not be able to share our feelings in words, or express our ideas in thought, we can share our feelings and thoughts with an interpretation and representation of art.
Meaning within meaning
Meaning Within Meaning is an attempt to look at reality by framing ideas into words. The iconic images represent a unique way of looking and interpreting others perception and understanding of themselves and the world. The idea of viewing the world and events through the lives of others; famous, infamous, known, and unknown, is not a new concept. By looking at the various lives and the way people took up action in their precarious situations, we gain new knowledge and wisdom as individuals. Looking at the metaphors and similes, we compare and contrast to formulate our approach based on the similar circumstances we face today.
People in comparison to cubes are not one sided, but complex and in-depth in nature. Where a cube has multiple sides, human beings have complex depth. It would be unfair to judge someone based on one opinion, just as it would be wrong to judge a cube based on one side of what you perceive.
Too often we fail to develop a depth of true understanding and properly assign meaning to circumstances and events that accurately describe our being and state of mind. Every individual internalizes the world and its abstract reality in ways unique to themselves. The ways in which individuals make sense of reality often leads to them expressing themselves in enigmatic ways.
When was the last time you went in your mind and gazed around looking and interpreting the various facets of reality you hold as true notions, with the same critique you use when criticizing others, and society?
This critique, how does it compare and contrast in differences and similarities with the critique and process in which artists go when they look and interpret the various pieces of work the world’s artists offer?"
Meaning Within Meaning begins by looking at what goes into making us who we are. By asking the thought provoking questions and pulling back the layers that lead us to the bigger picture. As we begin to unravel a greater truth, about ourselves, culture and society, we gain understanding as to why we see and vision the world in the way we do. We can know and see the poetry in which we think and believe ourselves to be. We can frame reality and draw from it the metaphors and similes that allow us to compare and contrast, to make inferences and objective observations. We can apply this new information within ourselves in ways that either inform, provide insight or inspire. - Terry Rittenour
Abstract Realities
Art is that medium that lets us break out of conformity by giving us the opportunity to express life in meaningful and heartfelt ways. With each stroke of the brush, we paint depth and context, giving a sense of place and direction. With each color added, the picture becomes clearer and the meaning understood.
From the various individuals and ideas framed, I have come to ask these great questions or developed these philosophies in brief a psychological introspective and philosophical journey.
“What then, not, when Atlas Shrugs, but what then, when Atlas walks away altogether. For Atlas can just as easily do not just as Atlas does.”
Life is about having ideas in which you hold as values worth preserving. You measure these values by the degree of virtue you naturally hold yourself accountable.
Do you know why you do the things you do in life? Because if you don’t know why you do what you do, and people do react to the things you do, then how do you expect anyone to be a part of anything you are?
Act and operate like as a professional . If you're unhappy with your quality of life, than compete at a higher level.
Have a dream you are willing to go all the way in reaching regardless of obstacles. That each day in your journey of pursuing your dream, you are one day closer to making the dream that much more recognizable in the world around us.
Be willing to let everything go to allow the dream to change and carry you.
Answers are only as important as the fraction of the moment in which they represent. I would much rather spend a single moment capturing the pure and amazing bliss of it’s random and perfect nature then try and make a single moment span a lifetime.
-Terry Rittenour