Remembering one of my art mentors today!

In college, i lived with an amazing Jewish artist from Argentina, Julio. In addition to just enjoying learning life from Julio, I also sort of became part of his creative family. We did all sorts of creative workshops together, and arts gathering at his amazing art house he made in Virginia. I lived in this arthouse for many years. It literally had a tree growing through the center! But more importantly he taught me to see the symbolic dimension of things around me. To not settle for the surface of things-“to see through” as he used to put it.

Julio taught me to see the symbolic level of things—the collage in everything. Every person can teach you things. He used to bring a little frame to the table and lay it down, and ask me where the composition was in the grain of wood on the table. He helped me find the art dimension in things, even once, putting a glass log he made in a normal stack of wood until i noticed the anamoly. He used to say you have to hunt art like a tiger in all that is around you. I still appreciate what he imparted to me. How to see art all around us in everything!

He has huge mobile sculpture works all over the east coast (and some in Argentina), and a great abstract Noah’s Ark piece as a permanent installation at a school. Interactive glass animals, which kids can spin around and interact with the ancient story, be active interpreters in the old tales etc. That was his way of teaching.

Great artist, as I said. At the end of his life he was working mostly with collage. We would look at his collages for hours, until i could see them. Some were found objects, he simply saw and framed, and rescued from the trash, so we could see, discover for ourselves, it’s inner potential treasure, as he would put it.

Trash is always potential treasure if seen well, as we all are. His was a redemptive view. Or, a vision of life which included hope for wholeness, if we could engage enough to discover it, call it forth by seeing it well, and become more ourselves in the process. “You can only see something, to the degree you are willing to engage and make it what it is.” That’s one i wrote down. “Everything implies an inner narrative!” was another! Some meaningful things stick with you.

But all of his art, required the viewer to make the imaginative leap of associations and to create or find, or become, or at best, be transformed by the inner narrative of the art.

His art forced engagement to know. “To discover life around us, we must engage actively in resurrection!” Was one way he put it. I still like the idea of resurrecting people, places and things around me, as part of my active stewardship or repairing or reconciling things to themselves. Making things more whole.

I still like collage and abstract art for that reason—it forces the viewer to engage their imagination in order to know and encounter the art. At it’s best, abstract art or collage like Miro’s, or Julio’s, teach us to find treasure all around us, even in the grain of a table, to find and form the narrative in collaboration with the art, and every day life. It engages our imagination as we encounter the art. We become collaborators in seeing! That’s one thing Julio taught me.

God set up the world to be collaborated with, into fruition. Part of stewardship is a active creative stance towards what’s or who is around us! To dance with things in order to bring them forth! To deeply encounter other in order to activate us both!

And, I still hear Julio’s voice offering me life advice: “You have too much balloon and not enough potato.” Although, i think I’ve come to balance the two better at this stage of my life. Thankful for older folks who took the time to invest in my heart and imagination over the years, and helped me see the loving layers of things.

When i did his funeral, i felt his mantel settle on my shoulders! Thanks for being generous with sight and heart..

He died of a brain tumor. Just weeks beforehand, he was making abstract sketches based on the X-rays of the tumor. That’s someone who can see the art in things! Thanks for teaching me that Julio. I still see art everywhere! Julio was one of my art parents. Just honoring him today, with no agenda but Love.

Honor your art parents, so that the creative flow may go well with you!