JULYAN DAVIS | American Ghosts

American Ghosts: An interview with Julyan Davis

‘American Ghosts’ seems a novel idea. What’s the concept?

It’s just that: a novel made up of images, inspired by the thirty years I’ve spent recording America’s landscape, history, and folklore. It’s an allegory of westward expansion, one that will reference the darkest episodes; the environmental damage, the Indian Removal Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act etc., but one that also aims, by setting a very particular tone- part wistful, part satire- to be healing rather than divisive. It’s also a study in America’s personality. I’m aiming for poetry, a kind of poetry that works because its nailed down by hard facts. The ghosts travel through a century (1850-1950) as witnesses to the past.

Has this been done before? Painting a story rather than illustrating an existing text?

William Hogarth painted ‘The Rake’s Progress’ and other satires in the 18th century, but the idea of telling a story in paintings, without following any pre-existing text is rare. When I write fiction I begin with strong characters, a mood, and an end in mind. That’s all. No real plotting. This approach is very similar. The paintings need to surprise me. If they have that mystery, they will engage the audience the same way.

In one way, my kindred spirit in today’s art world is my fellow Bristolian, British artist Banksy. We are both outraged moralists at heart! Both choosing satire to sugar the medicine and reach a broader audience. The lighter work sets a tone of innocence and this gives considerable force to the interspersed paintings that tell harder truths.

Lost, Again, oil on canvas, 30” x 42”.

Why the little wagon?

The series began with the idea of the wagon. It’s a nod to those vintage toys of childhood. Also, the fact Betsy is persuaded by her fiancé to haul everything is a bit of satire, referring to the hard lot of the pioneer woman. All three ghosts have symbolic toys. Nancy briefly pulls her little circus wagon, before it’s lost in a dust storm. Belle has a toy buggy with a toy horse (to tote all her weapons!) She’s too grand to push it herself, of course.

Who are the characters, and why are they three white women?

The main characters, the three ‘ghosts’ embody three key moments of American history. My first key inspiration, Betsy, was based on the old traditional song from the Gold Rush, ‘Sweet Betsy from Pike’, an Irish tune adapted for the music halls. She represents the fortitude and optimism of the Eastern pioneer in general, but also the speculation inherent to westward expansion.

‘American Ghosts’ unifies my past narratives. So the inspiration for the second ‘ghost’, Belle, came from a series I did based on Drew Gilpin Faust’s work and her book ‘This Republic of Suffering’. There was a Confederate women’s militia in Georgia, and thus Belle doubly provides the most difficult, thought-provoking character from America’s past. In this election year we see that American women do not comprise a single, unified body. Belle speaks to that also.

No Dust Storm could Spoil their Reunion, oil on panel, 16” x 20”.

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I needed a foil to Belle. Nancy, the circus strongwoman from the Texas dustbowl, provided just that. She stands in for the socialist vigor of FDR’s New Deal- a sort of Rosie the Riveter, eager to fix everything for everyone. Belle and Nancy represent the two, often conflicting, faces of American character: individual liberty vs. the pursuit of the common good.

As three white American types from the past, they seemed well-suited for their journey of gradual recognition; to the value of nature, to recognizing the rights of other cultures, to recognizing the need for less. A key theme of the story is the 19th c. notion of ‘seeking one’s competency’. A competency meant just enough; enough to raise a family and leave a little behind for one’s children. It is the forgotten counter-philosophy to the excesses of the gilded age.

My son Finn at the age of seven is a character, along with his friend Cece. Cece, the girl who escapes slavery in Alabama to join them, comes from another series of mine, a collaboration with the poet Glenis Redmond. Finn and Cece are true innocents. I imagine they will encounter other migrant children on their way- Hispanic, Native American, Chinese. America is full of ghosts. There’s ‘the Australian’, who represents the ultimate immigrant: a boxing kangaroo that Nancy has rescued from the ring. He turns out to be a good desert guide.

They Shielded His Eyes, oil on canvas, 36” x 44”.

Recently they have picked up the last, lonely buffalo. Other emblematic outliers will join the procession across time and place. Of the whole entourage, only Finn is not a ghost. I like to think of ‘American Ghosts’ being his own encounter with America, through a long and epic dream.

And the chicken?

Alongside the image of the wagon, ‘American Ghosts’ began with an old book. Many of my narratives begin with forgotten books. I found a first edition from the 1850’s about the ‘Hen Fever’- a speculative bubble of that period, where Americans lost fortunes betting on the value of ornamental chickens from China. The song ‘Sweet Betsy from Pike’ mentions a ‘tall Shanghai rooster’. It seemed perfect that Betsy would be caught up in all that.

People have said the story feels like ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and indeed Frank L. Baum hid an allegory of the Gilded Age and the Populist movement within his book. What I only learned recently is that the young Baum also tried his hand at chicken speculation!

Is there a timeline? How do the three women interact?

They all begin from their own specific time and place: Betsy, from the East, in 1849; Belle from the Deep South in 1863; Nancy from Depression-era Texas in 1935. But they are ghosts, too, and therefore unfettered by sequential time. They head West, aiming for California, visiting American history from 1850-1950, but showing up in much of my present-day subject matter; abandoned drive-in movie theaters, old diners, ghost towns, that sort of thing. Nancy and ‘the Australian’ will join Betsy’s entourage on the plains. Belle is more flighty. She has her separate quest and will cross paths only now and then with her fellow ghosts. The story has a surprising energy of its own.

Do people need to know the whole story?

From start to finish?

Not really. That’s what interesting about paintingsthey work more like poems. Most people just want a mysterious image to conjure their own stories. But other viewers are more literal. For the latter, I can always provide the backstory, the trajectory so far.

As for myself, I don’t need (or want) to know the entire plot. I just need the themes, the enduring vision. Each show hangs on a single, dominant narrative episode, however. This show’s ‘chapter’ relates to the American bison- it’s near-extinction, and its place in Native American culture.

The White Buffalo (Crossing the Rio Grande), oil on canvas 42” x 44”.

How do you tell the story without a script in mind? What’s the process?

A place that evokes a certain mystery begins each work. Discovering such places is greatly helped by my decades as a landscape painter. In this series I sometimes feel like a location scout for a movie, though, because I am also seeking a backdrop to suit the action to take place. I paint the landscape much as in the past- making any necessary changes to scale, light, and color to emphasize the mood. Now I switch roles from location scout to movie director! I have an idea of the action (let us say the characters want to cross the Rio Grande), but where in the painting should this happen to enricthe composition? The tricky part is to paint the landscape and the action all at once- I don’t want characters looking like cut-out transfers stuck on to a background! This is where my painting mimics my fiction writing. The placing of one figure inspires the next; not just the reaction of each character to the rest, but the shapes they make and the spaces between them. And I make a lot of changes- moving the ghosts around, sometimes changing the entire incident. Initially, the Rio Grande painting was just them stalled at crossing the river. Then it became about Nancy, with her WPA vigor, fixing the problem at the cost of the local trees. The white buffalo came last- a sudden notion, and a compositional focal point, turning the story into the ghosts’s first (culturally oblivious) attempt to find a companion for their bison.

Rained Warm Snow, oil on canvas, 38” x 42”.

What are those themes? What do you want people to get from ‘American Ghosts’? This is my most subjective art to date. A father talking to his American son, passing on what I’m learning myself. He’s along for the ride in the paintings. The ‘ghosts’ are witnesses to both history and the land herself. Their growing attention to the world is a key theme. They begin to feel for the land, to notice nature and other cultures, to get along with each other.

So enlightenment is a theme. Inclusion is a theme. Seeking only one’s competency is a theme. ‘American Ghosts’ is ambitious in scope, but I think it needs to be just that to achieve its aims- a long, sweeping narrative. Between challenging works, it is often playful and intentionally reminiscent of vintage children’s literature. I feel adults lose so much in leaving that place behind: a world where mystery is welcome, full of fables with an older, deeper connection to nature. I want each painting to be like an old song, wistful but often with a touch of humor, with enough unsaid for the viewer to join in the story and make it their own.

When I look around, I see America divided in how it sees, and teaches, its past. I’m reminded of bitter family divisions I’ve encountered: where one sibling, by nature, is unable to accept any fault in the family history; while the other, equally by their temperament, is eager to drag out every skeleton in the closet! Is it possible to tell a story to my son’s generation that addresses both sides? That’s my crazy hope with this project.

A Picnic with New Friends, oil on canvas, 12” x 24”.

They Were Not Alone, oil on canvas, 72” x 48”.

Farwell to the Old Place, oil on canvas, 30” x 38”.

An Old Fashioned Song, oil on panel, 26” x 42”. INQUIRE

The Man Who Built the Railroad, oil on panel, 18” x 18”.

What Had the Australian Seen?, oil on panel, 27.5” x 23.5”.

Nancy Knew What to Do, oil on panel, 27.5” x 23.5”.

A Charming Dugout (Life on the plains), oil on canvas, 36” x46”.

They Were Not Alone,oil on canvas, 72” x 48”. INQUIRE

The Long Walk, oil on panel, 18” x 24”.

The 6,000 Year-old Chairs God had Provided Them, conti crayon and wash on paper, 14” x 11”.

The Strange Stones Provided Them Chairs, oil on panel, 18” x 24”.

Belle Among the Aspens, oil on panel, 18” x 24”.

The Commanches Considered It Trespassing, oil on panel, 12” x 24”.

Surrounded, oil on canvas, 44” x 42”.

Ike Found a Detour, oil on panel, 26” x 22”.

The Old Apple Tree, oil on panel, 26” x 22”.

Nancy Knew What to Do, oil on panel, 27.5” x 23.5”.

Ike Stood in Awe of their Fortitude, conti crayon and wash on paper, 14” x 11”.

A Nap in the Bisti, Bisti Badlands Series, conti crayon and wash on paper, 14” x 11”.