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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2013)
Applegater Winter 2013 13 Three Applegate artists take their art in new directions by DIANA COOGLe When Applegate artist Barbara Kostal retired from commercial and commissioned work, she didn’t pack up her easel and put up her feet. Instead, inspired by Dhyani Ywahoo’s book Voices of Our Ancestors, she took her art in a new direction, delving deep inside her spiritual self to see what emerged in a new series of paintings called Wisdom of the Heart. But it doesn’t take retirement for an artist to turn in a new direction. Rick Faist, from Williams, was once a painter, until a home- school project with his son caused him to put his brushes aside for the craftsman’s art of making kalimbas. Likewise, Greeley Wells, who lives on Carberry Creek, put away his paintbrushes when he discovered the joy of making movies. Now dust glints in the sunlight in his studio, as Greeley roams the outdoor world with his camera. Barbara Kostal Barbara Kostal’s studio, a wedding gift from her husband, David Calahan, has French doors that open onto a balcony overlooking undulating fields, canopying oaks, and layers of Applegate mountains. Barbara often paints there, letting snow and invites the artists of old to be with her when she paints. A third thread is the twining of her two loves: caring for people and doing art. Art is her “passion and bliss,” but also a medium for healing. When a client commissioned a painting representing “restlessness,” for instance, Barbara painted a horizontal line at the bottom of the painting “to give restlessness a base.” Barbara is retired from commercial work and commissions (though she “might play another season if for the right team”), but you can see her art at 6th and F Streets in Grants Pass. This mural, “The Road of a Thousand Wonders,” was commissioned in 1995 by the City of Grants Pass. They paid for the design, but Barbara and her co- painter, Ray Colton, donated their labor as a gift to the city. They painted, in wool hats and layers of long johns, throughout the winter. Barbara will be refurbishing the mural this spring. Barbara’s current project is a series of more than 60 paintings called “Wisdom of the Heart,” which she calls “the great spiritual journey of my life.” These paintings often come so fast that as one layer dries Barbara starts another sketch. “I am the energy. The energy is me,” she says. She recognizes and wants to convey that everything is in relationship: life, death, heart- soul. The series will culminate in a book of paintings and accompanying essays. (It is one of the great honors of my life that she invited me to write those essays.) Rick Faist Ni n e t e e n y e a r s a g o Applegate artist Rick Faist, a painter, helped his son make an African musical instrument called a kalimba (thumb piano) from homegrown gourds. With leftover tines he made more kalimbas, which he sold to Artist Barbara Kostal at work out on her studio balcony at buy a drum set (he is also her residence, which she calls a “woodsy paradise.” a musician). Soon, making kalimbas became a sideline fall on the painting called “Winter” and to painting and gradually took over the the sun’s heat saturate “Summer.” business. Now, under the name of Thumb “I have freedom in this woodsy Fun Kalimbas, Rick makes approximately paradise,” she says, “to express myself, to be 900 a year. Fifteen thousand or so are in aware of my surroundings, to walk barefoot the hands of customers worldwide. in the hills.” Rick can make about three dozen Nature is one of three threads in kalimbas in a week, although, he says, it Barbara’s long career of murals, commercial takes all his time all the time. That’s not ads, logos, fabric painting, artistic lamps, surprising, since making a kalimba the and acrylic paintings. Just as nature is Rick Faist way involves more than 70 layered (weather, the leaves and flowers steps, from growing the gourds to grinding of the seasons), so are her paintings: paint the keys to tuning the instrument. A true over paint, paint over words, paint over craftsman, he does all the work on every snow. kalimba himself, though his wife, Louann, Another thread is her sense of a weaver and landscape artist, helps with belonging to “the ancient family of artists.” things like making keys, weeding the gourd She uses their symbols in her paintings patch, and selling at crafts fairs. He enjoys the varied work, he says: it makes painting seem like such sedentary concentration! Rick cuts sound holes in the hardwood tops of his kalimbas in a variety of shapes: falcon, elephant, salamander, dolphin, or anything else the buyer wants. Though it is not true that the animal shape influences the sound, one boy thought the kalimba with the rabbit-shaped hole played fast and the one with the turtle-shaped hole played slow. The thumb piano is a quiet instrument, softly played and pleasingly melodic, like sunshine spilling through trees. One woman bought one to play for her father while he was dying. Another customer bought one for a friend in traction. “When we set up a booth at a crafts show,” Rick says, “our booth neighbors usually think with dismay, ‘Oh, no! Top photo: Rick Faist at a crafts show with his kalimbas or thumb Musical instruments!’ pianos. Bottom photo: A painter of note, Greeley Wells is now making artistic movies of nature. but then they realize that the music isn’t invasive and adds a pleasant atmosphere.” Greeley was walking through his woods on Since the kalimba is played by Carberry Creek taking pictures with a new the thumbs striking tines, it is a good iPhone, he thought, “Doesn’t this thing instrument for today’s generations, who also make movies?” With that discovery, have grown up texting. They feel right at his career changed paths. He is no longer home with a kalimba. a painter but a moviemaker. Thumb Fun kalimbas are unique for Unhampered now by the limitations the wide range of tuning available: any of two-dimensional art, Greeley plays with major or minor scale, pentatonic scales, time, sound, motion, and realism in the East Indian tunings—anything requested. outdoor world. Rick and Louann Faist sell kalimbas The art, he says, is in allowing the at crafts shows throughout the Pacific creek and the tree to catch his attention. Northwest, locally at Cripple Creek in Then he tries to capture the layering of Ashland and Great Northwest Music experience: the yellow leaves that (next in Grants Pass, and online at www. layer) are moving and behind it the creek thumbfunkalimbas.com. (next layer) also moving (another layer) Greeley Wells and the sun making it sparkle (another When Greeley Wells was in high layer) and through the leaves in the school contemplating possible careers, he distance darker forms (another layer) and considered what he had been doing all his if he is lucky, a red tree (another layer). life (art), what he liked to do (art), and Greeley’s movies are quiet. They are what he was good at (art). slow. The sun spreads over a hillside, leaves So Greeley (his signature name) twinkle lazily to the ground, the wind became what he was: an artist. blows sparkles on the creek. Greeley wants Greeley mostly painted the human us to see beyond the “first seeing,” which, figure because, he says, “it is the prototype he says, is mere identification: “This is a of exquisite form.” He explains that he maple.” He wants us to learn “real seeing,” wanted his paintings to follow the flow of a deeper way of looking. “My movies calm lines. (As he talked, his hand flowed like a you down, make you pay attention, watch shadow across the form of his own body.) a little bit longer—and see,” he says. He likes the play of light and dark, Greeley does not miss painting. the way shadows give a sense of undulating “Sitting down with paint doesn’t hold a three-dimensional forms in his two- candle,” he says, to the animated nature dimensional medium. Greeley frequently of his new art. painted in shades of gray, which allowed Go to www.greeley.me to see Greeley’s more opportunity for the line to express paintings and to www.youtube.com/user/ form without the complication of color. greeleywellsjr#g/r. to see his movies. The past tense of “painted” is accurate Diana Coogle because, one day three years ago when dcoogle@laughdogpress.com