Handbuilder Diary: Twofer: Sandow Birk and the Santa Clara Mission

The deSaisset Museum...

I first saw Sandow Birk's paintings when I took a student from my third grade class to the San Jose Museum of Art one summer. Jacob was a very talented artist, and I thought it would be fun for him to go to an art museum, so that he could see that he had kindred spirits out there in the world. I wanted him to join his community. We ate lunch at the Museum Cafe, and then walked into a large gallery and saw several giant paintings depicting the end of the world, or so it seemed. Jacob was completely gobsmacked. Tiny mind blown. "Who would paint this and why?" To be honest, I was gobsmacked, too. The scale of the painting was unusual, and the detail. The concept was modern, but the style of the painting was very traditional.

Since then, I've been a big fan. And, I've been able to see more of his work in person. So, it was a treat to hear that Sandow Birk was giving an artist talk at Santa Clara University. And, because I was a bit early, it was a chance to check out the mission a bit, after grading 28 fourth grade mission reports last weekend.

In his talk, Sandow explained that he studied in Paris, and was able to visit the Louvre for classes. That explained the classical size and scale of his work. And, he also linked art history and literature to his concepts. We make what we are, so surfing and living in South Central Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots influenced his early work. He talked about visiting San Francisco as a Los Angelino, and coming up with the idea for his "The Great War of the Californias" series of paintings. These paintings are some of my favorites. Seems like I might need to order the catalog one day.

I think my favorite part of his talk, was when he made a connection to the West, Albert Bierstadt, and our prison system. Combining the mythic, propaganda landscape paintings advertising western settlement, with the notion that our state has the most prisons of any other state, was genius. Sandow visited and painted each prison in California for his "Prisonation" series. Again, I might need to get the catalog.

I have a lot of ideas percolating for this summer, and hearing from someone else who percolates even more heavily, was a delight and an inspiration.