The Red City
John Sager, 2024
17 x 19 x 10.5 inches
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John Mark Sager Statement "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough." — Meister Eckhart Great architecture delights me, and during my first two years of college my major was urban design. For 25 years I have dreamed of creating this show of altered books with “City” in the title. The words in the titles inspired me to construct 10 towers of imagination. Urbi et Orbi (for the city and for the world) refers to a papal blessing addressed to the entire world. Thank you to my wife Joni who shares and supports our artistic life with love, passion, and the computer savvy necessary for a modern art practice. As the poet Hafiz said, “Art is the conversation between lovers.” Thank you to my father who drove his young family from Dallas to World Fairs in New York City, Montreal, and Seattle. The image of Habitat by Moshe Safdie in Montreal has remained with me to this day. I could probably talk forever on all the architects that thrill me. Thank you to my mother who signed me up with a Title II program in high school that gave me welding lessons from the shop teacher who was also a metal sculptor. I think I discovered David Smith at this point. He and Anthony Caro, Giacometti, and Brancusi kept me thinking about different approaches to art making. Thank you to brother Nathan and sister Tesha who have been gracious and encouraging companions in our lifetime together. As a child I collected things from nature: shells, rocks, fossils, leaves. And I built plastic models of airplanes, automobiles, ships, and buildings. My room was my museum, shelves full of these collections. Thank you for my childhood summers with caring grandparents in Thrall, Texas. At eight in the morning, Grandpa and I would hop into the old pickup and drive the half-mile to Krieg Brothers Chevrolet Company on Highway 79. I would spend the whole day in the junkyard behind the shop, playing with things like flywheels, springs, and gears. Thank you to friends and fellow artists. When I look at a friend’s artwork, I not only see the formal qualities of line, material, and patina, I also see the hand, the mind, and the heart that went into that artwork. It is a great feeling to be part of this family, this continuum. My favorite responsibilities during my 37 years on the technical staff at the Blanton Museum of Art at UT Austin were layout and lighting. Arranging the artwork chronologically, thematically, and/or aesthetically to make an engaging exhibition is similar to forming parts into a whole artwork. Lighting is the final presentation. Light reacts differently to each material, be it glass, wood, oil or bronze. My job kept my eye tuned aesthetically and provided wondrous access to art from around the world. I am a material artist. The strength of steel, the fragility of paper, the translucence of glass, the naturalness of wood; I enjoy the essence of each material I work with. Found objects that have an inherent beauty inspire me: the gentle curve of a violin bow, the discoloration of an ivory piano key. I looked at my work recently and saw an enduring theme of multiplicity, a multiplicity of both materials and ideas. There is an abundance of stimuli for the artist to respond to and synthesize. It is a heroic task. We wade through history, and swim in a multitude of ideas, eventually finding the stroke that we can call our own. Cross-pollination has always been a major factor in the arts. Literature, music, and architecture have seeded my artwork, sometimes blossoming into fruition, always leaving a trace of growth. “There is in all visible things … a hidden wholeness." — Thomas Merton |
John Sager lives in Austin, Texas, USA
More of John’s work can be found at https://www.davisgalleryaustin.com/artist/john-sager
email John at jonisager@yahoo.com