Artbkpro by Debora Elizabeth Hill

Artbook Proposal

GODDESS COUNTRY VISIONS VISIONARY ARTISTS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Foreword: Norman Stiegelmeyer and Jess Collins Norman Stiegelmeyer was a Visionary Surrealist who died far too young, while his dream of bringing visionary art to the world was still in progress.

Sandra has collected a memorium to Stiegelmeyer by talking to his

students, friends, and his second wife, Ailene Sheriden, who is also included in this book.

Many consider Stiegelmeyer a better administrator, teacher,

and catalyst of visionary art than he was an artist in his own right, but wherever his major talent lay, he was instrumental in assisting the first visionaries in their quest for recognition.

We think he would like the

renewed interest in visionary art today, and the accomplishments his protegees have made, singly and together. Norman Stiegelmeyer was loved and admired by many of our contributors, too many to name each of them.

Ailene Sheridan holds his memory and his work

in very high esteem. "He was zany and whimsical, and I was very much drawn to that when I first met him.

He was a Scorpio, very organized, and had the ability to

organize other people. visionary art'.

In fact his obituary called him the `father of

I thought, `OK, how about Blake?', but it was fitting."

As far as visionary art on the west coast went, it certainly was true. He was an instructor at the San Francisco Art Institute, and his gentle influence was felt by many students.

He had a respectful style when it came

to critique, and never tried to force a student into a style that wasn't their own.

Even more importantly, he organized shows, got people involved

and just generally shared his profound dedication to artistic endeavor 1

Artbook Proposal wherever he went. He both painted and created three dimensional works; he wasn't limited as to style and that makes a concise description of his body of work difficult.

Suffice it to say that it was frequently mystical, and those

pieces I have seen seem to characterize the flow of life and spirit. On a lighter note, which I can only hope Mr. Stiegelmeyer would appreciate, Lois Anderson told me he was a `hunk', sexy and charming. had said he was attractive, but not with the verve of Ms. Anderson.

Others I gained

a very clear image of a vibrant, amusing man it would have been a pleasure to know. humor.

Anyone she was attracted to would have possessed a strong sense of It would be a mistake to solemnize such a person.

I can picture him

better now, entering a gallery, with many a female eye turned in his direction, and fully appreciating that fact.

Which makes it seem hard that

he left this world at the age of forty-seven, before Debora or I ever met him. Jess Collins, now in his eighth decade on the planet is one of the foremost Surrealist visionaries of our time.

Renowned long before the

California visionary existed, during the 1950's he was an innovator in the collage technique.

Due to his extremely reclusive nature and advanced age,

we were unable to interview Collins, but Via Davis, one of the younger visionary surrealists, had him as mentor and teacher during her formative years as an artist. Jess, known simply by his first name, was born Jess Collins in 1923, according to his official biography.

The first major retrospective of his

work was held at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, in 1994.

The

following is excerpted from the show program: The hermetic symbolism and meticulous craftsmanship that characterize the work of Jess is explored in Jess: a Grand Collage 1951-1993. 2

Informed by

Artbook Proposal a deep appreciation of myth, fantasy and allegory, Jess' work spans four decades and incorporates a wide variety of media.

Using painting, drawing,

and collage, Jess created works in groups: Paste-Ups are intricate collages; Translations are reproductions of photographs or engravings, or black-andwhite reproductions; Salvages are repainted versions of the artist's earlier abstract and semi-figurative paintings, and of some discarded works by amateur artists. General Introduction The Illuminists They call themselves The Illuminists, a term favored by gallery-owner Barbara Rogers for the first show at her Northern California gallery, Vision and Magick (August, 1992).

They have also been called Visionary, fantasy

artists and Cosmic Romantics.

Their work is based on pagan and religious

myth and the traditions of nature, and these artists are far from the ordinary.

In a time when men are castigated as being insensitive and out of

touch with their feelings, Richard Ward, Welton Rotz and Brian McGovern have managed to create a world of magic and light far removed from the mundane. Barbara Kahn and Josie Grant use the traditions of their Jewish heritage and their new beliefs in Buddhism and the Mother Goddess to create wondrous worlds of illusion and myth.

Mark Henson uses nature and the ways in which

man is misusing his world in order to create some strange and wonderful (sometimes horrifying) paintings of great magnitude.

So much of art has

become commercial and unreal, it seems almost otherworldly to see painting and sculpture that can capture the emotion and feeling of the world beyond the everyday. Warren Percell is a `shamanistic' visionary, painting and recording the myths and legends of the American Indian peoples. 3

Jeffrey Bedrick and Kevin

Artbook Proposal Kihn represent the newest generation of the Illuminists, who combine traditional myths with the technology and fantasy of the modern world, venturing into the realm of SuperHeroes and Heroines, and Science Fiction. San Francisco native Richard Ward studied at the California School of Art, the Jean Turner School of Commercial Art, and The Chicago Institute.

addition to Fantasy art, Ward is a renowned Plein-air painter, and attributes his amazing ability in portraying the `other world' to having viewed its' inhabitants for so many years. Sculptor Welton Rotz came to the bay area in 1963 to attend San Francisco Theological Seminary, where he soon abandoned his graduate work in favor of sculpting.

Now a professed lover of the `Great Earth Mother', Rotz

uses mythological subjects for many of his marble sculptures.

He studied

Celtic mythology in Ireland and the working of marble in Italy. Brian McGovern began his professional career at the age of twelve, when one of his paintings won a competition in a local mall and sold the same day. McGovern , who died in 1994 before he reached his fortieth birthday, considered his style of painting Cosmic Romanticism, and Sandra commented that The Illuminists `have a love affair with the universe'.

McGovern's

murals can be seen in the AT&T building in San Francisco; Harvey's Lake Tahoe; and in the Old Main Street Saloon in Sebastopol, California. One of California's first visionary painters, Barbara Kahn has been a professional artist for thirty years, since her graduation from The Rhode Island School of Design at the age of 21.

Her fantasy paintings are drawn

from visions and dreams, executed in watercolor and acrylic on canvas.

Her

subjects are strongly metaphysical and oriented towards the female principle in all of us. Marin County artist Josie Grant is a well-known muralist, part of the 4

Artbook Proposal Street Artist Advisory Board in San Francisco.

Before she was thirteen,

Grant had already won international poster awards from the Lathem Foundation, and at fifteen she began college-level courses at The San Francisco Art Institute. Warren Percell started out as a commercial artist, but his scope in the realm of fine arts, on which he has concentrated for the past ten years, is remarkable.

It is his marine paintings and 'Shaman Women' that place him in

the realm of the Illuminists, the latter in particular showing another view of the wild beauty of the Southwest. Mark Henson paints beautiful, erotic scenes of people who are frequently part of the landscape around them.

He also paints beautiful,

frightening pictures of technology and ecology run amok, set askew by man and rampaging over Mother Earth until she looks like a holocaust scenario. Jeffrey K. Bedrick is the youngest of the Illuminists, younger than Brian McGovern by five years.

His background is an extraordinary one,

studying with the visionary masters from the time he was a boy and beginning his career while still in his teens.

He has something to say about visionary

art and some artists who categorize themselves as visionaries: "Gustave Klimt and some artists like him were called visionaries during the 1920's, but the true meaning of the word has to do with art that's inspired by a vision.

Almost a religious vision, a revelation.

artists who claim to be visionary can be very pretentious.

A lot of the

They claim to

have had some kind of a revelation, when all it really is is a unicorn in a poppy field." Kevin Kihn is the gentlest of the Illuminists, in that Brian McGovern and Mark Henson ventured over into the realm of horror with some of their work, mostly meant as a commentary on our world. 5

Kihn draws his alien

Artbook Proposal landscapes as escapes from that world, and they are ultimately peaceful and soothing, while bizarre and other-worldly.

His 'globe' process draws the

viewer into the work and makes him/her a part of the whole. The Goddess as Art The tradition is older than written history, and though suppressed for many years by patriarchal societies and religions, art inspired by goddesstraditions is enjoying a resurgence in the Western world.

Revived by men and

women tired of the rape of the planet, overpopulation and the repressive nature of traditional religions, goddess-inspired art exists in many forms. The second show at the Vision and Magick gallery (November, 1993) was a menage of multi-cultural art, inspired by and based on goddess traditions the world over.

'Adorning the Goddess' continued Barbara Rogers' work, begun

with 'The Illuminists', in presenting the unusual, beautiful, and magical in art.

Multi-media artists Motik, Katya, Joslin and Pamella Nesbit (along with

Illuminist painters Barbara Kahn and Josie Grant) put together a fabulous presentation of clothing, jewelry, paintings and sculptures incorporating their favorite theme. Motik's name is Hebrew, but her ancestry combines Christian, Hebrew and Arab roots.

Among her ancestors were many who strayed from the accepted path

to follow that of Wicca, the Old Religion.

each of her paintings is of a

different goddess archetype, and also included in the show were her exclusive `goddess silhouettes' painted on wood. Jewelry designer Katya works in sterling silver and gemstones, and also comes from a Hebrew tradition.

Katya was trained as a Metalsmith at the

University of California, Berkeley (something students can no longer do, she points out, since the Reagan budget cuts), and has been a professional artist for twenty years.

Abby Willowroot was the first contemporary Goddess jeweler 6

Artbook Proposal in America. In the late 1960's and 1970's she designed Goddess Jewelry with Crolyn Whitehorn and M'lou Brubaker.

She created and directed the Goddess

Project, that had over 20,000 folks making Goddess Art in 52 countries. Marin artist Joslin designs kimonos to `make a woman feel like a goddess' and woven necklaces to compliment her creations.

Her paintings are

water-color flowers in vibrant colors, or shadowed women who fit well with their landscape. Sonoma County fabric artist Pamella Nesbit has been doing fabric art for twenty years.

It was while traveling around the world with her husband,

during the early 1970's, that she began her fabric art.

She designs

tapestries and `shields'. Beth Ann Watt lives and works in the little town of Sonoma.

She works

in oil paint and achieves great fluidity in a style that she describes as `organic'.

By this she means that many of the shapes in her paintings are

reminiscent of the inner organs of the physical body.

She celebrates the

goddess in all of us. Jane Sipe and her now-renowned Jane Iris Designs take the jewelry of the Goddess (many aspects of her, actually) all over the world, where they are well-received. eye.

The designs are simple, and sleek, and pleasing to the

And Jane employs a team of women at her Sebastopol studio, making her

one of the most successful of the visionary designers. Lois Anderson made art out of what many people would consider junk, though she was by no means a 'junk' artist.

She was rather an embellishment

artist, who celebrated the goddess and all religions with her works and icons.

She received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1978 for her

largest and most famous work, 'Altar'.

Artbook Proposal The Transformatives They transform the world from the mundane to the delightful, the bizarre and unusual.

The Transformatives see reality differently, as if they

were peering through a transparent Kaleidoscope or into another dimension. Bonnie Bisbee and Cynthia Grace work on a grand scale, in bright, primitive colors.

Their people may be riding unicorns or sitting by purple waterfalls

-- they evoke the child in all of us, longing for a gayer, brighter world. Ceramic sculptor Victoria Whitehand uses animals and the symbology of Eastern myth and religion in her delightful figures.

Marilyn Watkins paints

`healing' images of nature, animals and angels -- she particularly favors black angels, which she uses as symbols of great healing power.

Both began

their careers in other areas totally unrelated to art, but were drawn to create, taken over by their art until they finally devoted themselves to it. Bronze sculptor Ron Rodgers is unusual in that he creates works of astonishing beauty and amazing eclecticism.

His life-sized bronzes grace

shopping centers, hotels and corporate buildings all over the world.

His

smaller `fractured' bronzes show his own vision of transforming reality into a series of fragmented and twisted images which are still somehow empathetic. Linda Ross Larson is part of the new generation of California visionaries, working in different media and attempting to give their paintings and creations a strange, otherworldly appeal. Ailene Sheridan of Petaluma works in a variety of mediums - oils, pastels, pen and ink and much more.

Her series `Ballcarrier and Beast' is a

monotype pastel - an intriguing type of print. artist, Ailene is what we mean.

When we talk of a mixed-media

She's even managed to find a use for dryer

dust ... Bill Martin is the most commercially successful of the early 8

Artbook Proposal visionaries, and it is easy to see why.

His paintings are calm, and

soothing, but at the same time they are miracles of adaption...using nature as we see it all around us, he adds another ingredient so it is like stepping through a gateway into another dimension, one a few degrees off from ours. Christine DeCamp is a painter and sculpture who captures the wimsical and magical in her work, through the use of bright colors, primitive images and more than a little tongue-in-cheek humor.

From her life-sized mermaid

sculpture complete with a necklace of beads to her 'under the ocean chair', it's certain that a piece of Christine's art in your house will become a starter of stimulating conversations. The Surrealists The original Surrealists believed that art, like life, should reflect ugliness and chaos.

Visionary Surrealists certainly believe in the last part

of that dictum, though nobody could say they create anything ugly. certainly -- bizarre, probably.

But beautiful?

Unusual,

Definitely.

Sharyn Desideri is a woman who wishes she had been born a dragon (or perhaps remembers that she was one, in another life). the `other' to everything she creates.

She brings a sense of

These include paintings and

sculptures, and some other pieces that are difficult to define.

Mostly self-

taught, she inhabits her own private Twilight Zone that produces some curious and awe-inspiring art. Caroline Ferris is one of the artists who illustrated Timothy Leary's 1994 book, Cyberpleasures and Politics.

Her early work comprised what she

terms her `mosaics', paintings consisting of people, animals, even landscapes done in a mosaic of colors that boggled the mind and the imagination. turned in a slightly different direction in 1994, beginning a series of

Ferris

surrealistic erotic paintings. 9

Artbook Proposal Collage is Via Davis' form, and her work brings new depth to the art form.

The images have more to say and the viewer is more involved than is

usual with the form.

It's hard to say how she does it, but somehow it is

easy to get lost in her collages. Gage Taylor was one of the best-known of the early visionaries, one of the same group as Martin, Watt, Kahn, Grant...you get the idea.

Known for

his surrealistic landscapes during the 1970's; when he met ex-wife Uriel Dana his whole perspective changed, and Taylor/Dana art, while still in the school of Visionary Surrealism, was something rich and rare, and changed slightly with each new series. Uriel Dana began her professional life as an engineer, and saw Gage Taylor's work before she ever met him. and her husband for ten years. friends.

He was her inspiration as an artist,

Though now divorced, they continue as good

Her solo work has gone more in a Goddess-central direction.

Paul Nicholson leans more towards the Surrealistic side of visionary than some of the other artists we've interviewed, and is a definite crossover in the fantasy vein.

Living in the woods of Sonoma County, Nicholson

incorporates many of the commercial and mundane symbols of everyday life in the 1990's into his work, and somehow makes them all seem fantastic in the extreme. Dario Campenile is a native of Italy, transplanted to California in his early twenties.

He painted the incredible new logo for Paramount Pictures --

check it out next time you see one of their movies.

The surrealistic element

is evident, but perhaps more subtle than some of his other, less commercial work. Clayton Anderson is also a transplant to California, first from Louisville, Kentucky and then from Philadelphia, where he first made his 10

Artbook Proposal name. Much of his work is more in the line of Abstract Surrealism than any of our other artists, but it still has the rich, evocative content and texture needed for a true visionary. A discussion of psychedelic and surrealist visionary art (and, some would argue, all visionary art) wouldn't be complete without the mention of drugs and the role they played in the process of the early visionaries. Josie Grant discusses this ... "I think it's important to mention the use of psychedelics in the visionary process.

Although I myself limited its' use to say once a year or

so, I would use something to look at my paintings and to become closer to the spirit and the god/goddess source.

I had very gracious connections, so I

never had a `bad' trip, as it were ... but I must emphasize that I believe my paintings as well as those of my contemporaries, if not all art are really in a state of frozen animation, and truly take on a life of their own when the doors of perception are opened with the use of psychedelics. I believe that these tools, when used by people of conscience, opened up a beautiful and spiritual reality, and that we as painters are putting these feelings of vision through the palette into a material realm. This is important to explore and document in terms of `visionary' art, and here is where the argument between `drug' induced or `alcohol' induced art (as in the abstractionists) came into play in the graduate seminars (at The Art Institute during the 1960's)."

Artbook Proposal

GODDESS COUNTRY VISIONS Visionary Artists of Northern California Chapter One: The Illuminists Introduction I can't believe all the years I spent as an art appreciator without discovering `fantasy' art.

As an avid fan of fantasy literature and films, I

was thrilled to be introduced to the works of Richard Ward and Brian McGovern. They and sculptor Welton Rotz were the first visionaries whose work I saw, in the Vision and Magick gallery in Petaluma, California.

They were the

first Sandra and I interviewed, one afternoon in August at Richard Ward's house in Bloomfield. Bloomfield is the proper setting for Ward, as eclectic a person as he is a talented painter.

The town itself is somewhat nonexistent now, save for

one tavern and a lot of houses that lie in a limbo zone between Petaluma, Marshall and Two Rock.

But at one time Bloomfield was a thriving town, back

in the early days of Northern California.

It existed before Petaluma; indeed

before most of the other towns that survive in this area.

It contained a

luxury hotel and was home to a number of people who came west with their families and built a sort of resort out there where now there isn't much except a road to the sea.

Only the Bloomfield tavern remains.

On the way to Ward's house we stopped to pick up Brian McGovern.

that time he lived on the outskirts of Petaluma, in a small, incredibly tidy apartment.

His office was the second bedroom, though there was no evidence

of a studio which would have needed to be large, judging from the size of some of his paintings.

That day, the living room wall was dominated by an

enormous round painting entitled All Saints' Day. which would become part of 12

Artbook Proposal the Illuminist exhibit. Ward's house was as different from McGovern's as could possibly be imagined.

A converted stagecoach station, abandoned when the

stages stopped running through Bloomfield, it is filled with eclectic objects and antique toys.

We were joined there by the sculptor, Welton Rotz, who

rounded out this committee of three Illuminists nicely. Since that first day in Bloomfield, Sandra and I have discovered with growing delight a whole new artistic world in `fantasy' or `illuminist' art. When I was younger I studied classical and impressionist art, which are still favorites but are now joined by this new love.

During my years in England I

also viewed a lot of modern and abstract art, which will never be a favorite of mine, though I do appreciate some of the forms (particularly modern sculpture).

But Illuminist art is a continuing delight, with its' myriad

forms and colors, textures and ideas that run riot over the canvas and lead the viewer into unknown realms, be they dream or nightmare ... Barbara Kahn is too easy to like.

That, combined with the fact that

Sandra and I adored her work the first time we went to her house in Inverness made up for the fact that no one in their right mind would try to find a house in those hills by the ocean -- it was actually worth it. She uses fabulous images, where animals and flowers interweave and create the illusion of being something entirely new.

From observing Pat, one

of the next generation of art appreciators at Vision and Magick, Kahn's vision speaks to men as well as women; is, in fact, universal. Josie Grant lives in Fairfax, in a tiny house dominated by enormous paintings.

There's an old carriage house out in back, which has been

converted into a studio.

It all has vines crawling over it, and a large dog

that wants to sit in my lap.

I have no objection except that the kitchen 13

Artbook Proposal chair I'm sitting in only has room for one.

It would be difficult not to

admire Grant, who came from a life of privilege and intellectual superiority but chose to raise her daughter herself, with no assistance, and pursue a career in art as well.

She succeeded so well at both that in addition to

being a renowned visionary, she is now the mother of a university student with grants to study printmaking in Florence. Warren Percell is a friend of Richard Ward's, and his studio is located in an old service station in Petaluma.

A perfect location, he catches

everyone going to or from the beach, who can't really miss the giant blue whale's tail on the roof of the studio.

As friendly and genial as Ward, and

of the same generation of all-round artists who use many different styles, it was Warren who first told us about Ailene Sheridan, second wife of visionary catalyst Norman Stiegelmeyer, and was the only visionary who didn't really care for him. Mark Henson lives and works in Santa Cruz, which should be an ideal location for an artist.

Except that his paintings are considered too erotic

for that up-tight little town, and despite his obvious talent and vision, he's had some problems getting galleries interested in his work.

We hope he

isn't one of those artists who only become famous and successful after they're dead.

His politically-oriented paintings are fascinating in their

sheer array and technicality, whether or not you agree with his views (lucky us; we do!). Jeff Bedrick has an amazing talent, but in his early thirties he stalled in a commercial art miasma, producing too many paintings that looked alike because that's what his agent wanted from him.

He is now selling a lot

of art in Japan, and those paintings all contain the same vapid-looking, tall, thin blond woman.

He explained that he was waiting for a new level, a 14

Artbook Proposal new revelation, to come upon him...apparently it did, when he established his website. Kevin Kihn lives in a sprawling railroad flat above Market Street in San Francisco, not what many would consider an ideal location for a visionary.

As a gay activist he spends many hours immersed in a very real

and sometimes heartbreaking world, and his art is gorgeously escapist -- to a time and place of childhood dreams and peaceful visions.

As the last artist

interviewed for the book, Kihn had to be supremely unique to fit the qualifications left.

His three-dimensional, spherical paintings fit our

bill, and we can see he has a place coming up in the artistic hall of innovative design. Josie Grant She thinks on a grand scale, this diminutive woman who lives in a little house in Marin County, California.

The house itself is filled with

her oversized canvases; in fact, she's run out of room and some of them are in the carriage house, which serves as a studio/office.

But these paintings

are minor compared with her murals, for which she paints from scaffolding, assisted by her daughter, Abra Brayman.

Not a bad life for a woman, you say?

Maybe not, but Josie Grant's path to success has been a long and convoluted one, despite her early start. "I started attending The Art Institute (SF) when I was fifteen.

They

had classes on Saturdays for high school students, but I had already learned so much about painting and art that they allowed me into the regular classes. I was going to school with people who were about ten years older than I was. I met Nick Hyde in 1966 at the Institute, during my senior year in high school. I began going to the Institute full time when I was seventeen.

felt so at home -- I would've been a high school dropout if I'd had to stay 15

Artbook Proposal another minute. "Nick, Bonnie Bisbee and I were at graduate school together -- Bill Martin was a little ahead of us. he was the Registrar.

When I registered for the school full time,

Gage Taylor was also there, and Norman Steigelmeyer,

the original `Fantastic Realist', was teaching and opened a door to our work with glee!

And he was the only one, as well -- he later curated many

visionary shows.

We were the original `visionaries'.

Our graduate seminar

was divided between the dope smokers (that was us), and the alcoholics who were abstract minimalists -- New York bound.

They were the most

argumentative lot you could ever meet ... we never wanted to argue; we were very supportive of one another.

There were some really beautiful things

being done, but those abstract expressionists and minimalists thought we were really dorky.

They said our work was in essence pathetic, and they wanted us

to argue about it, and we wouldn't.

They did stuff where they took a big,

giant canvas and ran over it with a roller a couple of times in different colors, or even the same color over and over!" Josie was still younger than most of her contemporaries when she completed her Master's Degree and moved into a warehouse at Gough and Market with a lot of other artists.

What else would a young artist do during the

1970's but meditate at The Zen Center, have a child and wind up a single mother with a baby to support?

This might have derailed a lot of women, but

Josie was still determined to have her dream, and with characteristic ingenuity and invention, she went about getting it. "In 1975 it was announced that there was going to be a project called CETA, produced by the Art Commission in San Francisco.

We had already been

involved with the Art Commission because my ex and I always participated in the yearly art festivals at the Civic Center. 16

With the support of sculptor

Artbook Proposal Elio Benvenuto I taught Printmaking at The De Young Museum until 1975, then I decided I wanted to do some murals.

I went to the Art Commission, but they

told me I had to figure out where I wanted to do them, and then get the materials myself, but my salary would be paid by a CETA grant.

The building

across from The Zen Center was owned by these lawyers -- one worked for rock groups, one for The Black Panthers; they were pretty radical.

So I went and

asked them if they wanted a mural, and they said they'd always wanted one, and agreed to buy the materials. "From there I went to paint murals in Chinatown, and they kept me on for eight years. recipient. me.

Good thing too, otherwise I would've been a welfare

Most of the people who remained on CETA were single parents, like

I did one job at the Hall of Justice -- I call it the Hall of Injustice,

though -- it was during the Dan White trial, and I made my mural like a giant jigsaw puzzle with a Missing Piece (the name, appropriately enough).

They

painted it out eventually, unfortunately (the bane of most muralists)." Grant has a lot of commissions now; for houses, restaurants, and public buildings, and calls her business `Up Against the Wall'.

But she continues

her work in visionary art, for this was her first and lasting love, and even the terrific money involved in trompe l'oeil and mural work won't turn her away from it.

She has been listed in `Who's Who of Women Artists' for

several years, and in Thomas Albright's 'Definitive Bay Area Artists'.

Also,

she is so heavily involved in Eastern Mysticism and studies of comparative religions that she will always use the outlet of her art to express those innermost feelings, on an almost instinctual level. "Everything that I do as an artist is intuitive. intuitive.

palette is

I listen to space music, rock `n' roll, ethnic, classicial...all

kinds of music when I paint; I think about what I'm going to do, but it's 17

Artbook Proposal more of a visualization process; I don't really think about what I need to do to achieve the result.

My main thinking is organizational; in these big jobs

I do I have to be certain I have all the supplies and tools that I need.

I'm doing a mural I may already have designed something and have it laid out, and the trompe l'oeil murals have the darks and lights laid down first, then I start glazing on top of that.

When I was in high school I did a lot of

experimentation with glazing, the way they used to paint in the Renaissance. When I got into art school that was pooh-poohed, but I like that transparent effect.

At The Institute they were into thick paint and big brushes, and I

was into more refined stuff.

Actually, they didn't teach us anything at The

Art Institute; we were taught nothing.

But consequently we learned to work

on our own, which promotes self-criticism, so growth is individualized and success strictly based on this motivation.

It was great if you didn't want

anybody to tell you what or how to do anything. wanted to.

You could do whatever you

I consider The Art Institute the 'Summerhill' of art education."

She did whatever she wanted to do then, and she has ever since.

And

it's all fabulous. To see more of Josie Grant's work, go to: http://sites/netscape.net/jozgrant/upagainstthewall To tell her how much you liked her art in this book send her an e-mail message to: jo-zgran@PacBell.net Chapter Two: The Goddess as Art Introduction The worship of the Goddess has been a long time returning, but has now begun.

For Debora and me it began with the interview of an author, more than

a year before this art project was born. growing group of goddess-worshippers.

She was a priestess in a fast-

And we found ourselves drawn to this 18

Artbook Proposal school of thought.

There were, however, very few images to back it up.

is only natural that a new school of artists should have sprung up to impress their vision upon the event. favorite artistic subject.

Religions, or belief systems, have long been a It is this fact which has given us evidence of

goddess worship in times before written history came upon the scene. The time was ripe for us to find artists who presented the image of the goddess.

There is more than a hint of that image in the work of The

Illuminists, but it wasn't quite enough. to the sea in Marin County, we saw it.

Then, one day, on a twisting road Not just the vision people see as the

goddess, but women out there painting their (her) power, showing it in artifacts such as jewelry and standing wooden figures.

Some of these women

are as much craftswomen as artists, handcrafting images for the public. fills a desperate need.

For with images like these we cannot ignore the

essential creativity of womankind. The women we discovered that afternoon and in the intervening months were all quite different from one another.

Motik (Marie Laura Crespo) was a

wild forest creature, who sat on the floor and kept her hands and mouth moving the entire time we were with her.

The energy bounced off the walls of

the small apartment she shared with her musician/photographer husband, Rover. No lurking behind trees for this woman of the woods. something else again.

Joslin was

Large and boisterous and just a little bit shy, in an

odd sort of way.

Her home is elegant and serene and she admits visitors with

some reluctance.

You are in her haven and she's willing to be friendly, but

wants to get to know you before she lets you all the way in.

Once admitted

you are overwhelmed by the breadth of her vision and creativity. her personality on everything from clothing to paintings. or large and strong, the images speak womanhood. 19

She stamps

Sad and withdrawn

Artbook Proposal We didn't meet all the women presented here on that day, but that was the beginning. jewelry.

We found more at Vision and Magick later on.

Katya and her

During the years we have known her, Katya's star has risen to

prominence, and her 'goddess' pendants are sweeping the country and hopefully soon the planet.

Years later we met her protegee and colleague Abby

Willowroot, whose jewelry designs are more heavily based in Paganism and the old religions. Pamella Nesbit and her weavings and shields.

Pamella has also expanded

her horizons since we first met, and is working with Judy Chicago on her new multi-media project, 'Resolutions for the Millennium'. has been doing visionary work since the seventies.

Ailene Sheridan, who

She has this idea that,

for a very long time indeed, women have been carrying the ball.

One can

hardly fail to agree; women carry the ball in relationships, in keeping the planet running smoothly, at least as much as men, and her Ball Carrier series is worth seeing. The most successful goddess artist in this book is jewelry designer Jane Sipe, whose Jane Iris Designs are sold all around the world.

She

employs ten women at her Graton, California manufactory/studio, where they execute her designs in a variety of metals and stones. Christine DeCamp is the most 'pop' art of our artists, and her designs are whimsical and absolutely delightful.

When we went to her little house in

Mill Valley, it was during one of those delightful California rainstorms that threaten to blow you right off the road, and it was wonderful to take haven in her art filled living room and drink tea. Lois Anderson, the last of the goddess artists in this book, is also the one who has been around the longest.

She hung out with beat poets on the

streets of North Beach, and one of her ornamented chests is part of a 20

Artbook Proposal permanent collection on 1960's art at The Oakland Museum.

Now retired from

her job as a librarian, Lois concentrates on her art and her enormous collection of flea market memorabilia, which has converted her Mill Valley house into a kind of museum.

She has one entire bedroom devoted to hats,

handbags and shoes! These are some of the women who will be helping to build the picture of a nurturing goddess.

Of the loving earth that has given us what she had.

The female image is out there, and represented more often than we thought. Now that our eyes are open, we see it everywhere.

War-torn and ragged or

strong and beautiful, woman, goddess-like, is struggling to regain her place. There's no need to toss out the gorgeous and powerful male images that preside over our written history.

Michelangelo and his host of artisans will

always be creators of great visions. image of man and his strength?

Who can forget the heavily muscled

He's there in the Sistine chapel in all his

glory; he and his friends will always be around. boys, and give the old gal some hip room.

Just slide over a bit, my

She gave birth to you, after all,

and she'd like to have her picture taken. Lois Anderson She has been a bohemian, a beatnik and a hippie, in that order.

She

found her own muse late in life, and until she did, she was a self-described artist's 'madonna', keeping them in socks and cereal while they did their life's work.

This might give you a hint that Lois Anderson is one of the

older visionaries, but her spirit is as young as if that muse just tapped her on the shoulder yesterday. "I was an art 'madonna'; I fed artists and paid the rent, co-habited with a painter for many years.

We lived in New York and hung out with

Bohemians and then Beatniks and finally hippies; they were all artists, but I 21

Artbook Proposal was waiting for the right thing to come along. "Dickens Bascome and Larry Fuente were two of the original glue artists in this area.

In the early 1970's, Dickens lived in Larkspur, and

made a sculpture out of a car by gluing objects all over it.

I saw it and

thought it was amazing, and suddenly I realized that I had to do this, too. I started collecting junk and made my first piece. "After one or two small pieces that were admittedly rather awkward, I made a dresser which wound up in The Oakland Museum.

I made it in 1972; in

1984, when The Oakland Museum redid their second floor American History exhibit, there was a different space for each decade of this century.

They

were looking for the ultimate hippie, psychedelic art object for their 1960's exhibit, and at the time the dresser was in The Old Unknown Museum.

curator came over from the museum to see it, asked me what I wanted for it, and I made up a figure.

They bought it, and now it's there forever."

Anderson is the only artist in this book who has the distinction of having received an N.E.A. grant.

That was in 1978, and it was lucky for her

the rules were a little more lax then, with more understanding for artists. Because The Altar, Anderson's triumphal piece, the one she received the grant to do, took three-and-a-half years to complete, and the idea is to finish your grant piece in one -- the year you receive the grant!

Every year

Anderson wrote the N.E.A. committee to say the piece wasn't quite finished, but it was well worth the effort in the end, because it has been shown in many places.

A difficult task since it must be disassembled to be

transported, and then put back together again.

Anderson explains what 'The

Altar' is meant to be... "On the altar I tried to use icons from all the world religions, but you know I couldn't get them all.

When the altar is in an exhibition, they 22

Artbook Proposal put a plaque on the wall about the artist and where he/she got the inspiration for the piece.

I put in that this is my homage to world

religions, and somebody always walks up to me and says, 'You don't have Ubangis here', or something like that." Why and how does the choose her materials, particularly her icons? They reflect cultures and world religions, the bizarre and the mundane.

use the matter of the world (cast-offs, mix-matches, discards) to bring about a resplendency.

The end result can be an amalgam of the sacred, the

humorous, the cultural, the folkloric, the sardonic or the profane, dependent upon the wide variety of objects I use in my mosaic forms.

The objects used

(beads, jewelry, statues, icons, etc.) can also reflect religious, classical, or pop art influences. "My intention is to give a new vision of matter and breathe new life into already existing concepts as they take on another form." She has lived a life full to overflowing, and she's far from finished yet.

Like most artists, she has supported herself in other ways; mostly as a

librarian.

She grew up in Milwaukee and took a degree in Education from

Wisconsin State College.

She went to New York to study dance under Martha

Graham, and finally arrived in California. For nearly thirty years she has scoured flea markets and garage sales for supplies, with the result that her house is the repository for the most wonderful finds -- she even has a small room just for vintage clothing, hats, shoes and other goodies.

Along with her signature art pieces, it makes for a

treasure that is the perfect setting for such an eclectic woman. Only one insult stays with her -- when she was interviewed for an article that wound up in a tabloid called The National Examiner.

It wasn't

that they said Lois used 'trash' to create her art rather than the beads, 23

Artbook Proposal icons and jewels she painstakingly collects that annoyed her...it was that the interviewer called her a 'housewife'!

Out of all her roles, Anderson has

never been a housewife. What does the future hold for Anderson?

Plenty, you bet.

Several

years ago she was involved in a large group showing that was rather unusual... "Several years ago I participated in a big group show called 'The Breast Project', organized by two woman named Laura Lengyel and Sharry Rose. I don't have any blatantly breast pieces, but years ago I did this piece made out of old Maidenform brassiere forms from a department store, then put all these little baby dolls all over it.

It's called Mother Goddess.

My work

doesn't have what you would call 'naturalistic' breasts, but they asked me to participate anyway." And at the end of 1999, Lois was involved in her first showing at the new Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco.

Entitled "Far Out: Bay Area

Design From 1967-73", it ran from November 12, 1999 until February 20, 2000. The piece shown in the exhibition was The Throne.

The Altar is now on

permanent display at a gallery in North Beach called The Dreaming Room.

You

may visit it at: 245 Columbus Street in San Francisco. Visit Anderson's art at this website: www.sfaltarart@attbi.com Lois Anderson passed over in 2003, leaving behind an enormous legacy and a void in the hearts those who revered and loved her.

Somewhere on the

other side, she is gathering the 'junk' of the afterworld and constructing angels... Chapter Three: The Transformatives Introduction According to Webster's New World Dictionary, to `transform' implies a 24

Artbook Proposal change in function, either in external form or inner nature. artists do both these things.

Transformative

They transform the world through their art,

and they transform the very meanings of the objects they paint through their rendering.

Transformatives Bonnie Bisbee and Cynthia Grace are similar in

their style and theme (though no viewer could ever mistake one for the other), and were both part of the original group of visionaries at The San Francisco Art Institute during the 1960's. intense images.

They use bright colors and

Bisbee adorns her work with gilding and jewels, and uses

many children and animals, real and mythical.

They both favor Eastern

religious symbols and myths, particularly Grace, who is a student of both Buddhism and Hinduism.

They are the most likely of the visionaries to lift

the spirits of a depressed viewer, simply through a glimpse into their multihued world. Marilyn Watkins has a heavier, darker hand and corresponding imagery. It is telling that she uses the black angel symbol frequently; she sees black angels as the bearers of great power, where some viewers might see them as evil.

To visionaries, there is little that actually represents evil apart

from man himself; it is more likely that every image has its' own meaning unique to the artist. Sculptor Victoria Whitehand is also a devotee of Eastern mythology, and the lighter touch of whimsy.

Her figures dance and cavort, living lives

filled with a vision of beauty and spiritual contentment.

Whether they exist

in the dimension of Whitehand's imagination or a better world just beyond the range of the mundane is for the viewer to determine. Ron Rodgers is a sculptor, too, and we had a difficult time deciding which chapter he belongs in.

His bronze work covers such a range, all within

the visionary category, he jumps from the transformative into the surrealist. 25

Artbook Proposal Is his Daphne and Apollo lifesize sculpture transformative?

Are his little

men with the geometric shapes for heads or the twigs for limbs surrealist? Good question, and we're still not sure.

One thing we know for certain --

Rodgers is a terrific artist, one who deserves much more recognition and fame, no matter what you call his work (we call it fabulous). Linda Ross Larson lives in a little house in San Francisco, with a terrific view.

From the outside, it's easy to see which house belongs to her

and her computer-software designer husband, because it's the only one on the street painted in a rainbow of colors.

Inside, there are lots of colors

everywhere, too, and a sun porch filled with computer equipment.

Larson has

an unusual style and execution in her paintings, one that has earned her an early following and promises to garner her a large and appreciative audience in the years to come. Bill Martin, another member of the Art Institute club, has gained a considerable reputation for his landscapes.

The world he creates is

sometimes stark, but with a detail and delicacy of execution that reaches the viewer and draws them in.

Stark or clean and serene?

It's up to you to

judge. Ailene Sheridan, who has been doing visionary work since the seventies. She has this idea that, for a very long time indeed, women have been carrying the ball.

One can hardly fail to agree; women carry the ball in

relationships, in keeping the planet running smoothly, at least as much as men, and her Ball Carrier series is worth seeing. Christine DeCamp is the most 'pop' art of our artists, and her designs are whimsical and absolutely delightful.

When we went to her little house in

Mill Valley, it was during one of those delightful California rainstorms that threaten to blow you right off the road, and it was wonderful to take haven 26

Artbook Proposal in her art filled living room and drink tea.

In the late 1990's Christine

bought an old library building in Pt. Reyes Station and has turned it into Manfred's Books and Art.

Visit her there, and see her paintings and her

collection of art books from around the world. Now step into their world, and view your own through a slightly different lens... Bonnie Bisbee Her education in art was extensive and formal, proving she knows the basics of the art world even if she chooses to flaunt their conventions. Three years at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris; Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Fine Art from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Her one woman

shows have been set in such variant venues as Grace Cathedral and Johns Hopkins Medical Center.

She has participated in group showings at the

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, the Collins Gallery, Vision and Magick, the Galerie Houston-Brown and the Tournesol Galerie, both in Paris.

Her teaching

credentials range from Norwich University to John F. Kennedy University. is equally adept at teaching children and adults.

She

She is, in short, the

consummate artist...but acceptance in the world of fine art hasn't come easily or quickly. "My work has a similar goal as yoga: to yoke or unite seemingly disparate realities, and also cultures, showing the ultimate Oneness of the multi-layered cosmos we inhabit -- and its' essential sacredness, which has subtle implications of the wisdom of appreciation and responsibility.

Each

of my paintings is mean to be a sort of map, showing different aspects of this wisdom, hopefully leading the viewer to an altered sate that is basically ecstatic.

I believe that the heart of the universe is bliss and

love everlasting, which goes by many names in many cultures." 27

Artbook Proposal Sound a little heavy?

Not once you've seen her work.

Bonnie Bisbee's

paintings are vivid, clear and almost childlike; but executed with very adult skill and ability.

One is looking at a dream, or at a scene taken out of

some fantastic tale or legend, which is correct, as a little time spent with the artist makes clear. "Being a storyteller makes my work hard for people to understand.

write stories for children as well, but it's a very different kind of work from my painting.

It's another kind of storytelling...a painting has a story

in the same way a dream has a story.

You take the symbols from the dream and

you associate with them and that's the way my paintings are meant to be read." She has been accused of not being serious because her subjects would never have concerned Rembrandt, or Van Gogh.

Animals, jewels, glitter and

the stuff that dreams are made of aren't in the `serious' or `painterly' category, because that's what museum review boards say. seriously, paintings must be about serious subjects.

To be taken

She uses all of these

`lighthearted' subjects and techniques extensively. "Something important in beginning my art processes are early memories of Christmas trees and things sparkling. It really got to me, the color and the sparkle.

After art school, I started experimenting with jewels.

I had

to break through the prejudice against that, because in mainstream art that's considered pretty tacky.

I use glitter in the same way that children make

their Christmas cards with it.

In a way that was important -- to break

through the taboo -- through the forbidden zone.

When I went to art school

to paint animals was considered very sentimental -- a sentimental subject. lot of things I do are in spite of that. a metaphor for enlightenment." 28

Glitter and shiny jewels are to me

Artbook Proposal Bisbee is influenced by myths, religions and styles from around the globe; East Indian, South American Indian, etc.

Well studied in myths though

she is, she doesn't always learn about a symbol until after it's painted. She works from inspiration and frequently goes hunting for the meanings of her dreams after she's painted them. "I have a closeness with Native Americans, with their basic religion. East Indian religion has been influential; I do yoga so I'm involved with that.

Of course I've been reading about the ancient European cultures as

well, clear back to Crete and some of the Goddess cultures. the time; I'm interested in world history. the world is fascinating.

I'm reading all

To see the artwork of any part of

It all influences me to some extent.

I really

work from the unconscious, so that when I'm painting I'm not thinking intellectually; this is how my work started and how it still is. other hand my brain is always catching up with the work.

On the

In my reading I

often find out on an intellectual level what my paintings are all about." Bisbee paints her own vision, and although she loves compliments just like everyone else, she refuses to be influenced by them. "It was always nice when people responded to my work, but in a way it didn't touch what I was doing.

People have a definite bias toward realism in

this culture, so I usually got praised more for my drawings that were realistic than for my drawings of my own inner reality. doing them.

It didn't stop me

I did a lot of both kinds of drawings when I was a child.

way praise and blame never touched that part of me.

In a

It's a good thing

because there have been times as an adult when being an artist is very hard, so you better darn well like the process or quit." Recently, Bisbee has been experimenting even more, due to a machine called a 'photron'.

This machine strobes colored light into the brain via 29

Artbook Proposal the eyes, changing brain-waves and stirring up forgotten memories, some, according to Bisbee, from past lives.

She feels the use of the machine,

pioneered by a doctor in New Mexico named Sabine, has helped her personal growth and sense of color.

Like a number of other visionaries, Bisbee is made uncomfortable by our ongoing rape of our mother, Earth.

Her offering in the ecological vision

category is entitled Our Lady of the Dispossessed. thus:

She explains the painting

"One rather new, for me, kind of painting I finished not too long ago.

It deals directly with the ecological crisis we all face.

Showing a tearful

lady with animal angels (gods? guides?) above, while earthly animals run from city and destroyed forest habitat, across the painting to a waiting, idyllic spirit world.

Implying perhaps that the Lady helps them find refuge while

leaving us to live in the mess we're making; or possibly, that this spirit world is a vision of a probably, sometime-renewed Earth." Bisbee continues her study of world religions and myths, incorporating them all into her paintings.

Christian, Buddhist, Hindu...she finds beauty

and meaning in them all, and helps us to see it, too. See more of Bonnie Bisbee's artwork at this website: www.artheals.org. Chapter Four: The Surrealists

Introduction What would Rod Serling have been, if he was an artist instead of a writer? Surrealist, of course.

Most likely a visionary surrealist, because abstract

surrealism wouldn't offer the twisted, slightly askew vision of the world that Serling embraced.

Visionary surrealists see into another dimension,

without the assistance of films or books, but sometimes using hallucinatory drugs.

The use of those drugs was more popular during the years of the early 30

Artbook Proposal visionaries and their time at The San Francisco Art Institute -- many of the new generation of visionary surrealists need no more stimulation than the insanity of the world in which we live. Sharyn Desideri is a surrealist by virtue of background; she majored in Psychology in college and brings her extensive knowledge of human foibles and fantasies to canvas and sculpture.

Since she sometimes sees into other

dimensions after a particularly good painting session, perhaps one day she will disappear into one of them for good, and we'll lose a very talented and bizarre visionary. Carolyn Ferris lives in Marin, and looks the part. hair, pretty face, upscale, designer-hippy clothes.

Long, straight

But her art is a whole

different subject -- she's a surrealist who veers from the nearly abstract to the erotic, and it is in the latter area she is planning to work for now, since she feels there is far too much of the `sexploitation' type of art in America, and too little that is genuinely sensual. Via Davis is a follower of Jess, who was her mentor and directly influenced her work.

Her collage art is a true example of 'more than the sum

of its' parts', and while most collage art wouldn't be considered visionary, Via's couldn't be classified as anything else.

She now lives in a tiny town

in Anderson Valley, a culturally mixed and secluded part of California that also houses the legendary town of Boonville.

Her husband is a publisher and

editor of poetry books. Gage Taylor is one of the most successful and best-known of the early California visionaries.

His early work could best be classified as

'transformative', but his style has changed radically in the past ten years. For ten years he painted in collaboration with his ex-wife, Uriel Dana, and they are certainly foremost amongst the New Surrealists. 31

Their work in oil

Artbook Proposal is rich and evocative of a world between, something not quite right, but certainly not wrong -- something that might be seen out of the edge of sight, before the mind corrected the illusion. Paul Nicholson is of the same generation as the first California visionaries, but he got a late start in the field and is really part of the second generation, both in style and in the fact that he considers people like Gage Taylor and Bill Martin his inspiration.

He, too, has changed his

style over the past ten years -- during the 1980's he would have been considered a Goddess artist.

Now he has ventured far into the territory of

Surrealism, and his results are sometimes remarkable, and always pleasing. Dario Campinile is an Italian transplant to Northern California, but his work fits right in with the other Neo-Surrealists in this book.

Most of

it is beautiful, and soothing; the sight of a gorgeous woman (usually his wife, who would appear to have great strength of character in her face, unless he sees through the rose-tinted eyes of love) lying with a tiger...and some is more disturbing.

But all is evocative of a slightly different, more

romantic vision...the vision of a man who embraces both Italy and California as his inspiration. Clayton Anderson is a different kind of Surrealist; his work verges far more toward the abstract than any other artist in this book.

But he is most

definitely a visionary, in a complicated, most surreal way -- his paintings are crowded with imagery, some seemingly incongruous.

Like the best abstract

art, Anderson's work evokes a different response in every viewer.

But as

visionary art should do, it also transports the viewer to another place and possibly another time -- Anderson's world is just a little further over on the parallel continuum. Gage Taylor 32

Artbook Proposal Visionary Surrealist master Gage Taylor died of Cancer in 2001. work ran in cycles, like history.

His

In the 70's, he was a young, brash

California surrealist, setting out to blow the collective minds of art aficionados everywhere.

His works of oil and gouache have hung in galleries

and museums across the U.S. and a dozen other countries.

His paintings have

been turned into cards, calendars, book covers and posters; their pastoral beauty and whole-earth philosophy has led many a person into a dream of world peace. Having accomplished his own success with admirable aplomb, he went on to form a 15-year partnership with second wife Uriel Dana.

Now that

partnership has ended, and Taylor is once again moving on...but to what? Recently, he ventured into the realm of publishing with his children's book, Bears at Work.

It was, like all his ventures, successful, and has now

been released on a cd-rom with accompanying music.

The complete title of the

book is: Bears at Work: An A to Z of Bearable Jobs, and it was a monumental task for Taylor, who painted all the 26 illustrations himself. show bears busily doing things, in alphabetical order.

The paintings

Egyptologists,

Fortune Tellers, Golfers, Kings, Yoga Teachers and Zookeepers all get their turn.

When he tells of painters, he says; `Painters use color on canvas or paper To show us how they really feel. Sometimes it's funny, Or drippy and runny, And sometimes it looks almost real.' Sometimes it looks almost real.

That could apply equally to the work

Taylor did with ex-wife Uriel Dana during their long collaboration.

They

travelled with the state department to various locations throughout the 33

Artbook Proposal world, but most particularly to those places where anti-American sentiment runs high. show.

You might describe what they did as an artist's traveling road

They tried to help other artists around the world learn how to make

their work support them, so the work can continue.

The art they took with

them had to be crated and framed, and displayed at each location, so they could get on with the real purpose of the trip.

It was their gift to the

universe. After his divorce from Dana, Taylor branched out.

He wrote a three-

volume adult fantasy series, which was unfortunately never completed.

termed it 'metaphysical historical adventure', about an old woman who travels in time.

And he was pursuing a hobby/career in music.

About the latter he

said, in early 2001, "Creative energy always manages to find an outlet.

If I

want to make something, and I don't want to paint, I pick up my guitar. Color and music can convey the same vibration; they just involve different sense organs.

Once a week I play with a band, just for the joy of playing.

We call ourselves

Lucky Us.

I've been writing a lot of songs, lately."

He is working on a series of short stories for children, about three animal friends, and an animated movie script...what he terms 'Bambi Meets the X-Files'.

He hopes to develop more ideas he has for childrens' books.

The work he did with Dana was less surreal than his early landscapes, but had a richness and almost luxurious texture, as if the viewer could enter this world just by putting a hand through the painting.

Taylor explains this:

"We're very, very careful about the colors we use, because color has a lot of power.

We try to orchestrate the color for the highest resulting

effect on the viewer." Taylor\Dana work is surrealistic in that the dreams and the realities are so mixed the observer cannot tell the difference.

They

have put their dreams and their research into their work and the result is 34

Artbook Proposal mystical and magical.

The techniques, however come from another era.

They

do not slap a little paint on the canvas and capture an image without investing a great deal of time, thought, and work. The symbols they used are the result of much study.

"We both have

studied the world's religions, mythologies, and symbolism extensively.

look for archetypes that repeat in the east, the middle east, and the west." So is their long collaboration over forever, or simply on hiatus? Though no longer married, Taylor and Dana remainedl close friends, and Gage felt there might be some refruiting of that tree in the future. diagnosed with cancer, he still said,

After he was

"I think Uri and I would collaborate

again, if a client commissioned a collaboration.

It would be different now,

as we have continued our solo work and gone in different directions.

always had our solo work, so the transition out of collaboration hasn't been difficult, though I do miss the Taylor/Dana work at times." The last thing Gage told us, six months before his death, was, believe I am doing some of the best paintings of my career right now.

"I do My

only plan these days is to keep my heart open and keep reaching with my work, both painting and writing. laugh,

I like the old saying, If you want to make God

tell him your plans."

Myriad fans can read more about the

Taylor/Dana years in a book entitled Living on the Edge: The Visionary Lives and Art of Gage Taylor and Uriel Dana, published in 1999 by Open Studios Press.

His last work can be tracked at his websites:

Artamerica.com/gagetaylor and www.marinweb.com/gallery.

For his work with

Uriel Dana, there is a website also: Artamerica.com/Taylor-Dana. Taylor leaves us with a few words to measure a visionary artist by. These words give expression to a feeling we have been developing through the course of this book.

It's hard to be a visionary without a vision. 35

Artbook Proposal "Some artists call themselves `visionary' painters, but have no greater vision in their work.

When you take the `vision' out of `visionary' all you

are left with is the `airy'."

The Taylor/Dana's fame as a team

continues to rise, equalling Taylor's early notoriety.

Taylor was one of the

masters of California Visionaries, a Renaissance man who can do so many things well, he makes the rest of us look pathetic.

He is included in the

Who's Who of American Artists, In America, In the West and Outstanding People of the 20th Century.

Now that he is embarked on the best painting of his

life, he is poised to inspire yet another generation of young artists. Check out Taylor's work, both with Dana and solo, at: Artamerica.com/Taylor-Dana Artamerica.com/gagetaylor

Illustrations

Forward Norman Stiegelmeyer

Birth Into the Floating Kingdom

Jess

General Introduction

Christine De Camp at Manfred's

Bookstore (print) 2.

Sharyn Desideri at work (large print)

Abby Willowroot with chalk drawing

Chapter One

Introduction 36

Artbook Proposal

Welton Rotz and 'Icarus' (black and

white print)

Richard Ward

The Pumpkin Thieves (large transparency

Welton Rotz

Brian McGovern

Barbara Kahn

Josie Grant

Warren Percell

The Monuments of Mu (print)

Arradia (print)

Persephone Returning (slide) 2.

Eternal Cycle (black and white print)

Moonlight (black and white print)

The Ecliptic of Omicron (slide) 2.

Gondola of Time (Slide)

Tibetan Goddess (slide)

Spirit Ascending (slide)

Wind Goddess (slide)

Cavern of the Ancient Ones (slide)

Secret Portrait (slide) 2.

Goddess Collage (slide)

Goddess Waves (slide)

Whale (slide) 2.

Wine Country (Slide) 37

Artbook Proposal 3.

Mark Henson

Jeffrey Bedrick

Kevin Kihn

Fragile Fishermen (Slide)

March of Progress (slide) 2.

Fast Food Chain (slide)

Sunset Sacrament (slide)

Angel in Blue (slide) 2.

Dream Flight (slide)

Threshold of Eternity (slide)

Seagazer (slide) 2.

From the Deep (slide)

Seadragon (slide)

Motik with the spirit dolls

Chapter Two

Introduction

(photograph) 2.

Pamella Nesbit (photograph)

Katya Miller (photograph)

Sun and Serpent (photograph)

Morgana (photograph)

Motik (Maria Laura Crespo)

Artbook Proposal

Pamella Nesbit

Janet Joslin

Katya Miller

Beth-Anne Watt

Isis (photograph)

The Reluctant Goddess (slide)

Chris' shield (slide)

Many Faces of the Goddess (slide)

Hand painted silk robe (slide)

Abalone Impressions (slide)

Dancing Callas (slide)

Goddess Pendants (slide)

Shekina in Bronze (slide)

Angela the Protectress (slide)

Passion's Goddess (large transparency) 2.

Bay Window on Steiner Street (Large

Transparency) 3.

Ailene Sheridan

Untitled (slide) 2. 3.

Christine de Camp

Lilith's Mom (Large Transparency)

Old Woman with Butterfly (slide) Blue Women (slide)

Water Bearer (slide) 2.

Guardian (slide)

The Offering (slide) 39

Artbook Proposal

Jane Sipe

Lois Anderson

Abby Willowroot

Spiral Dreamer Pendant

Spirit Healer Candlesticks

Embrace Pendant and Earrings

Venus de Milo (slide)

Mother Goddess (slide)

Altar (slide)

Goddess in Repose sculpture (print) 2.

Spiral Goddesses (print) or alternate: Spiral Goddess and Tree of Life Goddess (print)