Lanouette Scarecrow/Yardman Gallery
Begin Tour		This presentation features part of a series of thirty-six 18 by 18 inch oil paintings of a constructed scarecrow completed between 1976 and 1981. Throughout the years, at various times of day and night, I would be compelled to portray the scarecrow. The two sided head is carved 2" x 12" planking (originally made for the Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater production of MacBeth in 1976) and was incorporated onto a body constructed of found wood, dressed in cast off clothes and erected in my garden that year. The paintings were often painted after a full day in the studio, using the colors I had been immersed in throughout the studio session. The small canvases offered quick resolution to the design problem and atmosphereic interpretations of the landscape before me. The ease of expression is obvious. A day of painting would hone my skills. Unleashing those skills through the Scarecrow became fulfilling exercises in freedom. The Scarecrow stands alone in the elements. It is mute but not silent, a visual expression of the feelings evoked in the moment of the season, the loneliness of creativity, and the exalted state of being in the moment. The mask hides the maker and then reveals him as an empowered entity. Losing all weaknesses in the transformation into the being of the mask, the man becomes less the artist as he becomes more the creation. It is as the scarecrow that the elements of the earth are felt. It is as the artist that the elements of the paintings emerge. The beautiful duality of creating is experienced. The paintings are the trail left by the transformation.