^{"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."}

The act of creation, of making something from nothing, is more mysterious to me now than ever.  It is a mystery cult of which I am an initiate, a member, chosen long ago when a seed was planted.  I was chosen.  I had no choice.

If I have had a master it is Nature itself.  I have endeavored to divine its inner and outer aspects in my bumbling way.  A never ending exercise in humility is human creation.

Like flowers, clouds and people, art blooms mysteriously.  Artists are the intermediaries and arbiters between the sacred and the profane—aspects both revealed and perceived.  We are children who lift up rocks to reveal what is beneath them—just because.  For this we have been exalted and vilified.  Again, the sacred and the profane!  Which is it? So bet it—so it goes.

This is not an "Artist's Statement," for they are invariably cloying, pretentious, and self-serving.  The pictures I make (forgive me) come from deep in the cave—my cave—a place not too distant.

"We all shine on, like the moon and the Stars and the Sun.  Everyone...come on!"
 --John Lennon (Instant Karma)

A few paintings (below) by Kurt Mottram (above!)
from his March 2007 show at the Harper & Howell Gallery, on G Street in Grants Pass

"John Lennon"

"Butterfly"

"Rogue River at Reinhardt Park"

"The Beatles Play The Blue Pine"

FIRST FRIDAY ART NIGHT

A local tradition going on 15 years, scandalously appropriated by dozens of cities nationwide, First Friday Art Night is celebrated monthly in Grants Pass (Oregon) with a Roving Gallery Art Party. Starting at 6pm on the First Friday of every month, occasionally taking a break in January and rarer still in July (if clashing with the New Years and/or Indepence Day festivities) the event officially ends at 9 o'clock, when most of the merchants go to bed.  As to be expected, however, the more bohemian types among us paint the town until well past the witching hour, occasionally moving the party elsewhere and keeping it going past dawn, if not a whole 'nother day!

Back to the First Friday Art Site for further information, including gallery & museum listings, maps, artist information, and current exhibition schedules.