"The Healer", by Jay Hester

"The Healer"

by Jay Hester

48" x 60"

Oil on Canvas

 Depicting the cataract surgery by Dr Herff on a comanche chief in 1847.

This painting and 8 others will be part of the new selections in Jay Hester's solo exhibition:

 Jay Hester TEXAS: Stories of the Land 

Opening Oct. 8, 2016 4 pm- 8 pm

Sources:

“…approached by an Indian Chief to remedy his failing eyesight, Herff diagnosed the problem as advanced bilateral cataracts. Having brought specialty surgical instruments, he set about to remove the opacified lenses.  He decided to use cistern water rather than the heavily laden mineral ground water….Artificial light from a lantern or fire would pose a great danger in the use of ether needed for anesthesia, so he reasoned that the operation should occur out-of-doors on a clear day, cloud free, windless, dust and insect free. With the utmost cleanliness, he extracted the cataracts while bystanders wave off flies with palm branches.”

Early Texas Physicians 1830-1915 Innovative, Intrepid, Independent, Texas Surgical Society, Edited by R. Maurice Hood, M.D., Introduction by T.R. Fehrenbach, pg. 177.

 

 

“Among the leaders of the new colony called Bettina was one Ferdinand von Herff, a distinguished doctor and student of politics who was a co-founder of the Socialistic Colony and Society, which originally planned to establish socialist communes in Wisconsin. Instead, von Herff and his two co-founders arranged with the Adelsverein to plant their colony on Adelsverein land in Texas. They named the village Bettina after a social activist and friend, and chose a location on the Llano River, northwest of Boerne.  It was in Bettina, under an oak tree on the banks of the river, that Dr. von Herff successfully performed surgery to remove a cataract from the eye of a local Indian chief – an almost unheard-of undertaking at the time.”

Explore Magazine, SMV Texas, LLC. A Brief History of Boerne, August 27, 2014, Admin, Accessed on August 8, 2016,

 

 

 “The two doctors among the Forty proved valuable; though one would surely have been enough. Dr. Ferdinand Herff became accustomed to dealing with the local natives, and eventually learned both the Comanche and Apache dialects.  His reputation was made after only a few weeks at the colony, when a Comanche appeared with an advanced case of cataracts, asking to be healed.  Herff had – amazingly- brought the most advanced ophthalmologic instruments with him from Germany, and had performed cataract surgery several times in Europe. But never without professional support and, needless to say, never in the wilderness. Fearful that the Comanche would blame him if the native went untreated, Herff decided to risk an operation. Local anesthetics had not been discovered yet, so the doctor was obliged to use ether to incapacitate the patient. This created a problem since, according to Herff, ‘one of the outstanding essential in a cataract extraction is adequate light.’  In those primitive days the only forms of artificial illumination were candlelight and kerosene lamps whose rays were intensified by magnifying lenses. But…the flammable nature of ether definitely constrained its use anywhere near a naked flame, so the only solution was to perform the surgery out of doors, aided by the sunlight…Surrounding the operating group stood a dozen of the Forty with palm leaf fans to keep the flies away…The crude, daring procedure was a success.”

Morgenthaler, Jefferson, The German Settlement of the Texas Hill Country, 2011, Mockingbird Books

The New Artwork of Houston Artist, Jim Hatchett!

As we continue to explore the various articles in the new JRM Quarterly magazine, we are proud to highlight the artwork of Houston artist, Jim Hatchett.  A Viet Nam veteran, Hatchett holds true to a time honored approach of Abstract Expressionism. READ NOW! Photo credit: Courtesy of the Artist Jim Hatchett A New Generation of the Forgotten By Gabriel Diego Delgado ---On June 10, 2016, The Huffington Post published an article by Michael S. Solomon titled, “10 Tips for Conveying Confidence - Fake It Till You Make It.”  The notion of faking it till you make it is neither new nor old, neither relevant nor injudicious.  In the art world it can quickly gyrate into a contradictory poser ridden context where some artists try climbing the academic ladder via pogo sticks.  This is complemented by Glasstire’s Christine Reese in her article, “On Elitism: A Conversation.”  She says, “Though there’s a big difference between not being able to get something out of art because you don’t understand the vernacular, versus not getting something out of it because there’s no there there.”  We have novice artists armed with credentials from prestigious institutions showing blue chip educations but creating hyperbolic banality infused with an ‘art speak’ mumbo-jumbo. The contexts of the artists’ statements and misguided purpose of intents are so convoluted with a need to be included in the Who’s Who of the (insert choice city) Art Fair that the artists’ execution becomes mundane; their physical manifestations are ill-steered down a path of irrelevancy in an unstable international art market. In this time of Instagram artists and social media narcissists, one artist out of Houston, Texas, glides through the art world with an unassuming haphazard attitude; one that mixes a Mother Earth-majesty surfer aura, Namaste meditator with a Vietnam vet, and worldly empathetic defiance producer. Jim Hatchett, a sixty-something Abstract Expressionist artist has been calling Texas home for most of his life. The unassuming abstract painter was the premier dirt painter during the self-proclaimed ‘decade of dirt’ in the 1980’s and 90’s.  Now, Hatchett has evolved into one of the leading Texas painters of our generation.  The level of clarity, tightness and development in his “action paintings” are juxtaposed with explosive movements; Tai Chi inspired sweeps of color and intuitive gestural marks that seem to be driven from an outer worldly phantasm of galactic divination.  Definitely not faking the expressionistic aspects of his abstract paintings, Hatchett honors his mentors like Salvatore Sarpitta and Normal Bluhm with his sincere renditions of 1950’s Ab-Ex sensibilities that are true grit and glory.  Bluhm worked from a model just like William de Kooning; Hatchett works from nature like O’Keefe.  However, unlike these household names, the Houstonian now falls outside the mainstream gallery ventures in his hometown.  Jim Hatchett’s dream is to have a one man exhibition of new paintings at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art which would be curated by his favorite colleague, Station Museum of Contemporary Art Museum Director, James Harithas.  Other than that, the commercial aspects of making art do not appeal to him. His choice of friends in this often ‘cut throat’ business reflects an ‘old school’ respectability where there is a trusted circle of friends and that is all that matters. “Selling…I could care less…I can exist without selling,” says Hatchett.  “I love every one of them (the paintings) they are like children to me.  I sometimes dig them out and look at all of them and think ‘Jesus, how did I do that?’  They all are magnificent masterpieces in my eyes…and that’s all I care about.” “Everything I am looking for, I get in the making of the painting; all the joy, all the fulfillment…it comes to me when I am creating them.  Sales would be nice, but I don’t need them,” he goes on to say. From 1968-69 Jim Hatchett served in Vinh Long, Viet Nam. “I missed the Summer of Love,” he says. “I was there (in Viet Nam).  However, both his main mentors are also vets; Norman Bluhm and Salvatore Scarpitta both served in WWII.  But, Hatchett does not use the art as therapy for PTSD as some returning veterans have. “In 1978, I was at U of H (University of Houston) and Salvatore Scarpitta was brought in for an art and teaching residency for one year.  Us students were able to paint alongside him for this big mural that I think last time I heard was in storage at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, but I imagine it still belongs to U of H.  Sal would have us mix up these paints and say, dab it here, spread it here, drip it here. We were excited to do that,” Hatchett said. Over the next ten years Hatchett would go on to gain regional attention in the 80’s with exhibitions at some well-known galleries in Houston.  However, leading into the 90’s he began to limit his color palette and change from traditional painting mediums to dirt, sand, rocks, and sticks (Mother Nature).  Always an avid outdoorsman, Hatchett would make a yearly pilgrimage to Big Bend National Park. This was his psychologically cleansing journey to purify himself.  He became more and more inspired by the world, by this mystical place.  Inevitably, his art began to reflect the supernatural elements of Big Bend.  Hatchett began creating oversized “paintings” that were reflective of Tibetan sand mandala paintings.  The meditative tapping and sifting of sand onto panels created an energy that Hatchett could not capture in his previous work.  His solo exhibition at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003 titled, “A DECADE OF DIRT” showcased ten years of this series.  In the exhibition catalog, museum curator Tex Kerschen writes: “These paintings do more than invoke transcendent states…they are as bound to ecology as they are to aesthetics.” “The Station showed ten years of that work, but I really explored it for twelve,” he says.  “I felt like when the show came down, it was the end of the run for that series...I was bound to greys and browns for 12 years.  I was ready to explode into color and really paint!” After leaving his job within the museum administration at the Art Car Museum, a folk art institution in Houston dedicated to the urban phenomenon of Art Cars, Hatchett started a new journey. “Not working a 40 hour work week was a big shock to me. I did not know what to do with myself…I was lost, or in mild shock…, so I started painting and have not stopped. I paint from the time I get up to the time I go to bed. This last year I bet I have painted 200 paintings,” he says. In talking about his new Ab-Ex work, Hatchett says he has known, friended, and painted alongside the “real deal.”  He knows what goes into making traditional Abstract Expressionistic work, and it shows. “There is only one way to do it,” he says.  “Fast.  You can’t nit-pick, you can’t slow down, you can’t think about it.  It’s pure joy, its pure ecstasy; my paintings are the residue of that joy.  I think I intuitively respond to the paintings on an unconscious level…whether I am channeling some universal energy or some other thing, I don’t know.  I lose track of time when I am in the zone creating.  I skip meals and soon its hours later than when I started.  Three hours feels like 10 minutes.” One of the new paintings from 2016 titled “Flashing the Plasma,” a 40” x 32” acrylic on illustration board, is a wonderful example of Hatchett’s ‘explosive’ energy as he delivers a lyrical composition with sweeps, scraps, drips, dabs, rubs and wisps that resonate with a seductively robust energy; a visual two-dimensional concubine that wants to engulf the viewer in a whirlwind of cosmic thrusts. “Shed Luster,” a 40” x 32” acrylic on illustration board, is a complex and multifarious arrangement of color bands scraped down to minimal pigments that deliver evidence of some violent and swift attack, stealing the impasto off the painting.  In the process of scraping the paint away, Hatchett pushes the remainder of that color into the layer below.  Reds mingle with blues in a forced and arranged marriage kind of way.  We sense cohesion of the underneath resisting the traumatic suppression of the artist. Hatchett leaves pockets or windows to the unaltered deposits below.  We see the strata of color as celestial bursts.  Hatchett shows us artist-driven violence juxtaposed with a heavenly aura brooding and simmering like a NASA-esque image of nebulae.  Jim Hatchett’s paintings are pure and unaltered interstellar energy put down on canvas, paper and board; light years beyond the fakers and makers.        READ ONLINE NOW! Copyright © 2016 JR Mooney Galleries, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because we like to send you news about J.R. Mooney Galleries and the Texas art community. Our mailing address is: JR Mooney Galleries 8302 Broadway San Antonio, Tx 78209 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

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Tim Duncan Autographed Giclee reproduction for the Spurs Fan who has everything!

“Running the Floor” is a 32” x 40” limited edition, player autographed serigraph of the painting featuring- Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker.

Signed by all the spurs players,, sports memorabilia meets fine art

http://www.jrmooneygalleries.com/index.php?route=product/product&manufacturer_id=469&product_id=5061

Boerne Business Monthly and Arthur McCall

Read Now “Emotional Connection Can Inspire a Fine Art Acquisition”    What is the main motivation to purchase a work of art?  Is it an instantaneous connection that the viewer experiences when their eyes meet the canvas, or its investment potential?   According to Artsy writer Alexander Forbes, “the vast majority of collectors (72%) say their purchases are passion-led and investment-informed, while only 6% said they’re buying art purely as an investment.”  Apparently, the emotional factor of connection is still a paramount element that inspires even the most discriminating art collector to purchase.  One of the strongest yearnings one can have is for reconnecting with feelings that remembering the past can give us.  Paintings can remind us of gentler times by encapsulating a moment and allowing one to relive a cherished scene from days gone by.  One of J.R. Mooney Galleries’ newest selections, “If Rust Could Talk,” is an oil painting on canvas by artist Arthur McCall, known for his Hill Country and mission scenes.  McCall is an Atascosa County resident and a retired game warden; a position he served for forty-three years before retiring to work at his paintings fulltime.  He has pursued his art since childhood, yet was only a passionate hobbyist throughout his career as a game warden.  Painting was a pastime that he could use to relax from the strains and pressures of his duties, and it eventually blossomed into a successful livelihood and partnership with J.R. Mooney Galleries.  “If Rust Could Talk” is a landscape of nostalgic intent, a familiar place that everyone has some recollection of visiting with anticipation on special occasions; a beloved terrain that is dotted with scrubby Texas Hill Country vegetation and patches of prickly pears.     McCall’s familiar attention to detail is persistent throughout the piece.  The color palette is limited, and in its own dreamlike way, has more light infused, gently washing over the colors, giving it a more nostalgic quality.  The narrative of the placement of the rusting automobile and structures in the yard has a special touch. “One of the great things about my paintings,” McCall says, “Is that I can take people back to a memory, to a place, to a nostalgic moment in their life.  I often hear, ‘Oh, that looks like Grandpa’s place,’ or ‘That looks like where I went hunting with my buddies.’”  By capturing these feelings in his paintings, McCall is able to channel one of the main impetuses that motivate people to purchase art: a sentimental bond.  There is a unifying presence of rust on the steel shingles of the shed, the blades of the windmill and the water tower, all structures independent and with their own purpose and use.  The rust acts a visual reminder of what the elements’ toll is upon metal throughout the seasons.  Each structure has witnessed the passing generations that have built and utilized them.  Covering the well-worn structures in a patina, the rust suggests the sepia tone that time infuses into vintage photographs.  There is certain stillness, a frozen moment in time, that creates a lens into the past that is central to the mood and theme, emphasized by the stoical position and stance of these weary structures, stubborn in their tenacity in this sun-drenched environment.              Robert Patrick, an experienced gallery director of twelve years, summarizes most succinctly the universal factor that can capture a viewer’s commitment, “It does not matter what genre, what medium, what level of taste.  All that matters is that they have formed a connection with the work of art because the artist was able to successfully share an emotion or idea, and that is important to the viewer right now.”  McCall, with his proven track record of a consistent body of work, is able to do just that - in a direct and laid-back fashion, through the skillful handling of his self-taught artistry. ©Katherine Shevchenko, Art Consultant, J.R. Mooney Galleries, Boerne. For more information about the art of Arthur McCall, please contact J.R. Mooney Galleries at (210) 828-8214 in San Antonio or (830) 816-5106 in Boerne or visit www.jrmooneygalleries.com. Sources: Delgado, Gabriel D. "J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art: Arthur McCall." J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art: Arthur McCall. N.p., 22 May 2012. Web. 08 June 2016. Edlund, Carolyn. "A Gallery Director Speaks: The Psychology of Selling Art." Artsy Shark. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 June 2016. Forbes, Alexander. "5 Things to Know About Investing in Art Right Now." Artsy. N.p., 31 May 2016. Web. 9 June 2016

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