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Operated by the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society Harry Kiyooka on R. Gyo-Zo Spickett |
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Home Writings:
"Artist
is something
"I
think that Ron's spiritual quest began between the prairie and the
ocean - who later - as an artist - explored the language (styles)
of painting ranging from Neo-Futurism to Abstract Expressionism,
Mexican Muralists and oriental art."
"...1957
- the act of painting was by this time truly Zen based as a search
for inner and outer harmonic continued."
"Occasionally
visiting Ron during the early 70's, I can recall the quietude and
the colour of the space in the Zendo. April Rain still evokes the
place of his spiritual awakening - to a life harmonious with the
understanding."
"Sumiye
artists chose these materials so as to transfer the line onto the
paper as rapidly as the brush allowed with no deliberation, no erasing,
no repetition, no 'doctoring', no building up."
"...his mind's eye determining the ultimate
form as it moves across the wet, primal surface of the paper..."
"...the
figures in Spickett's drawings become part of the mesmerizing, fragmented
dance of life/death."
"Ron's
ability to charge the physical/material dimensions of the moving
line with a psychic energy transforms the line's singular function
of describing form to that of conveying state of mind and body." |
April
Rain Ron was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan - a prairie boy from the flat land province. His father was Welsh, came to Saskatchewan pre WW! intent on farming, enlisted in the army and met his future wife back in England. Married, they returned to Regina after the war where they settled and raised Ron and sister Gwen. Spickett was artistically inclined from early childhood and by his early teens worked as an editorial cartoonist for the Regina Leader Post.
Early interest in Zen Buddhism In recent conversation with Gyo-Zo I asked when he came to study Zen. He replied that at the art school he was predisposed to oriental art and philosophy - that he was familiar with Automatism via Jock MacDonald and Marion Nicoll (instructors in his first year) - the Northwest school of painters and writers: H. Benoit, C. Humphreys, D.T. Suzuki, etc, who were early advocates of Zen in the west. I think that Ron's spiritual quest began between the prairie and the ocean - who later - as an artist - explored the language (styles) of painting ranging from Neo-Futurism to Abstract Expressionism, Mexican Muralists and oriental art. This period was one of family, work, travel, study and painting - the learning and experiencing of life and other cultures - the shaping of his creative impulses. In a letter to C. Varley - he stated: "Inner motivations in Art, as you well know, are many, and it may be said that I came to Art at the conclusion of the Was largely for Religio-Philosophic reasons and, although the groping was awkward for many years, the clarity of the activity as a Way or Do was firmly established by the early fifties. 1957 - the act of painting was by this time truly Zen based as a search for inner and outer harmonic continued." (1) Ron's more serious practice of Zen can be traced to his first trip to Japan in 1963 - founding April Rain in 1970 - Kyoto again in 1976. 1984 - he received his Zaike Tokkudo precepts at the Bushhinji Temple (Soto Zen Order) Los Angeles and assumed the Dharma name of Gyo-Zo. His spiritual odyssey led to the "way" and the contemplative life.
By 1963 he had mastered the stylistic language that would enable him to embark on two major cycles of paintings - semi-figurative, large scale work that dealt with the mythic life of the cowboy and biblical themes. Later he stated "My work, for some years, has focused on the presentation of the figure image as a symbol of the constant and transient human condition." In another review in 1969 he stated that "These paintings represent the continuation of a basic theme: facets of human activity, conditions and mystery strung onto a set of symbols. They are not intended as assessments, but rather as a focus on these familiar states and their underlying determination." (3) The public paintings with their symbolic imagery can be understood as the vehicle for his personal search to understand his own place in the community of man - his use of the phrase "human condition" echoes the sentiments of Existentialism and the post war generation, of which he was very much a part. April Rain Occasionally visiting Ron during the early 70's, I can recall the quietude and the colour of the space in the Zendo. April Rain still evokes the place of his spiritual awakening - to a life harmonious with the understanding.
The Laughing Series of Drawings To arrive at some sense/understanding and appreciation of their intrinsic qualities - I have set down my various and somewhat disconnected thoughtless/thoughts on the six framed ink wash drawings - part of the extended series. A single male/female figure animates each of the six drawings. Each is a glimpse - rendered without fear or pretension of the ego and the persona. The drawings explore the physiognomy of the male/female person (4) and a psychic state of mind. Drawing enabled Ron to access the imagination and release from his unconscious the disquieting, yet moving images that emerged out of the void/surface of the paper. Completed during a difficult period in his family life - I mention the and it is my surmise - that the drawings were somehow a notebook of the unconscious - of the personal anguish he underwent at the time. some thoughts During the early 50's, Spickett was already employing a wash and pen technique for his prairie grass landscapes. These early drawings were characterized by an oriental sense of touch and atmosphere - a presentiment of his future direction. His style of wash/drawing had little common in terms of the technique or sentiments of the English watercolour tradition of W.J. Phillips, A.C. Leighton and H. Glyde that was the convention during the 30's and 40's in Western Canada.
Practice Spickett's innovative wash/drawing technique - using the steel pen nib (6) instead of the tip of the brush after laying down the wash is the reverse of conventional wash/drawing technique where the line precedes the wash. The character of his drawing line ranges from sharp-edged, focused to blurry - equivocating third dimension with a singular, swift, unpredictable, mindlessness in seeking the direction/path for the flow of the ink - his mind's eye determining the ultimate form as it moves across the wet, primal surface of the paper - in the spirit of sumiye. Studying the unmounted wash/drawings one can deduce that Spickett's preparation of the materials related to the selection of the paper - proportions - the taping of the edges the physical edges of the paper/space - in effect a tabla rasa - and a state of mind (7) - much like the preparation for the tea ceremony. The material ritual enabled Ron to intuit the psychic images from the unconscious - figments of the imagination - mind/no mind and transcend the perceptual reality of the moment. "in the beginning" The
emptiness of the paper is suffused with a no colour/tone/was Gestures and physiognomy
Interpreting the drawings Ron's ability to charge the physical/material dimensions of the moving line with a psychic energy transforms the line's singular function of describing form to that of conveying state of mind and body. The eyes shut tight - enthralled - the line controlled with the verve characteristic of the 17th century Haiga style of Zen painting.(10) The placement of the figure - suspended in space - no ground line - no clue as to place - no past or present - a moment in time, belief and credibility. A visual koan His Place Spickett produced a remarkable series of drawings uniquely touched with the Mushin (11) that bear comparison with the work of his contemporaries - Eric Freifeld, John Gould and John Newman - a notable group recognized for their drawing skills. Ron's laughing series of drawings were signed Spickett together with the year 73 in the lower right corner. The Sleep/Wake series of drawings followed: a coming to rest from the nether reaches of the mind - the middle way. He continued to use Spickett until 1982 - Gyo-Zo followed Sparrow House Then - to now. I am
induced to think of the long past, once Nei Issau 1248-1317 Harry
Kiyooka ______ |
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1943
- age 17 1/2 Ron enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy and served
for 3 years in Merchant Marine - 1947 he studied art with "Buck"
Kerr, Stan Perrott and Luke Lindoe at the Southern Alberta Institute
of Technology and Art in Calgary. After graduating in 1949 Ron moved
to Toronto where we worked and married Barbara(Rose). After three
years, they returned to Calgary - a year in Mexico followed, returning
first to Banff and then back to Calgary in 1957 - to teach at SAIT
and University of Calgary. Spickett maintained a backyard studio
and his first zendo (April Rain) at 3427 Elbow Drive for 25 years;
in 1995 he moved to a retirement style condominium and then to Suzumi-Ji
(Sparrow House) in the SE, where he currently resides.
1960
- Ron wrote: "If my painting retained an image of illusion of form
longer than seemed contemporary, it is only because I have found
it necessary to experiment, grasp, accumulate ideas and methods,
in order to unravel and release them. As part of this process, I
have developed a respect for the natural tendencies of materials
and desire to cooperate with them rather than force or adulterate
their effects. The charm of spontaneity comes only when the eye
(or ear) responds to the intuitive rightness of the act. The laws
upon which these reactions are based are the problems of aesthetes.
As a painter I am only concerned with there being a reality extending
beyond myself. The creative act is a consuming performance. (2)
1973
- Spickett was 47 years old when he made the decision to cease working
on the large, didactic, public paintings (renounce might be more
appropriate) and turned to the more subjective medium of wash/drawings
and during the latter part of the year initiated the Laughing Series.
In
Zen Buddhism D.T. Suzuki describes the relationship between the
brush and the act of painting as follows: "Sumiye artists chose
these materials so as to transfer the line onto the paper as rapidly
as the brush allowed with no deliberation, no erasing, no repetition,
no 'doctoring', no building up. The artist must follow his inspiration
as spontaneously and absolutely and instantly as it moves he just
lets his arm, his fingers, his brush be guided by it as if they
were all mere instruments, together with his whole being, in the
hands of somebody else who has temporarily taken possession of him.
- We
may say that the brush itself executes the work quite outside the
artist; who just lets it move on without his conscious efforts.
If any logic or reflection comes between brush and paper, the whole
effect is spoiled. In the way sumiye is produced."(5)
Arms
akimbo, legs off balance, hair in disarray, expressions at once
radiant and joyful - and clothed in ecstasy - the same frame of
mind as that of the Sung painters who depicted the Zen patriarchs
as abandoned lunatics, scowling, shouting, loafing around or roaring
with laughter at drifting leaves - suggesting parallel between the
meaningless babble of the hoping lunatic and the purposeless life
of the Zen sage (9) - the figures in Spickett's drawings become
part of the mesmerizing, fragmented dance of life/death. 