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05/15/2008: "BY WAY OF THE DODO: Scott Muskgrove’s Menagerie:" by Walter King

Every generation defines itself, to some extent, in rebellion to their elders’. The fine art world is so caught up in its high minded, illusory and often times silly ideals about what art should be that it often forgets that art is a petri dish for our culture. What eventually happens is that a new generation who feels the weight of history decides to throw it all off. The Impressionists sidestepped the Salon, in the 60’s artists formed unions to overthrow the museums and protest the war in the 60‘s (the museums are still with us thankfully), and sometime in the 80’s younger artists, partly because of the weight of history and partly because some simply knew nothing of history they simply ignored high art and embraced the art they grew up with. I suppose you can call it low or popular art. I use these terms somewhat facetiously here as my philosophy at least tries to ignore those labels in search of a more holistic understanding of art. More recently I’ve been known to rail against the democritization of art. But just so you understand the complexity of my views I am not against the next generation sidestepping the system.




I’ve been sidestepping it most of my career. I just want to see quality. I had a chance while in New York a couple years ago to see the PS 1 show highlighting emerging New York artists. It was an eye opener. I’ve never seen more fake fur and glitter anywhere in one building. While there were certainly lots of younger artists tracking established styles and post modernist ideas and forms there were many who seemed to play with whatever is out there in the popular culture in total disregard of what is considered to be proper art. Their work includes stuffed animals, jungle gyms, dolls, toys, computers, naïve and primitive techniques and lots of fun. And most of it, because it was carefully juried, was really quite good.

I teach in a college illustration program and have to stay tuned in to what is going on in that field. And there is a lot going on. It is a field in flux. Once the world of illustration was just so many little Norman Rockwell’s trying to define the American dream via editorial magazine work. But while the fine art world poo pooed old Norman from the 60’s until recently he has now become the modern Vermeer. (And even though the conservative right has claimed him we must remember he married a card carrying socialist the second time around.) And Pop culture has replaced even Norm. Magazine illustration has been relegated to use of Stock Illustration work but there are more jobs out there for kids who can design and sculpt toys, sci-fi and fantasy model figures, characters for animated interactive computer games and fantasy-- lots and lots of fantasy. While I have my old timers biases and a grandfather’s fears, I also have to help make sure my students can get out there and figure out how to make a living at their art. I constantly remind myself that while my parents were probably right about how they raised me morally they didn’t get my culture. “Talkin bout my generation. Why don’t they all fff-fade away?” I will eventually fade away but until then I must also stay tuned to who has begun to do something cutting edge in any of those fields and who is making news.

Scott Musgrove was a student of mine back in the 80’s. As I recall he took my sophomore design class and a class called expressive illustration which was later renamed Illustration Workshop. I won’t take any credit for his talent and very little for his skill. He was always a little ahead of the curve, always seemed to have a feel for who he was and what he wanted to do. I also worked with him on our schools art and literary review. He did a couple small experimental pieces for the Botticelli that year. You can catch a glimpse of where he was heading at the time.



Sometime later I heard he’d moved to Seattle around the time Seattle Grunge was in bloom and was doing underground comics published by Dark Horse Comics. At the time I thought how 60’s of him-- how retro. Underground comics seemed like the kind of thing the children of hippies might find exciting but not something serious illustrators might pursue. But as an instructor I had a policy of using whatever interests a student brought to the table to help bring out their personal voice rather than forcing them into the mold I might think was more valuable and dignified. I figured they would eventually grow past their immaturity into something more valid in the adult world. So I assumed that eventually Scott would mature past his idyllic child like days and evolve into something more suited to the adult world.

And he did evolve. But to my surprise and pleasure he did it without ditching what drove him as a kid. I picked up a book from the cut out bin at Half Price Bookstore called Pop-Surrealism by Robert Williams (Contributor), Carlo McCormick (Contributor), Larry Reid (Contributor), Kirsten Anderson (Editor).
I find it interesting that Half Price is now part of beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s legacy. He was co-founder of City Lights Book store in San Francisco in the 50’s which became the fertile soil for so much beat poetry. He also includes Shakespeare and Co. in Paris within his grip. I actually met him there once. Wish I could find that photo. The book also Features the work of: Anthony Ausgang, Glenn Barr, Tim Biskup, Kalynn Campbell, The Clayton Brothers, Joe Coleman, Camille Rose Garcia, Alex Gross, Don Ed Hardy, Charles Krafft, Liz McGrath, Scott Musgrove, Niagara, Marion Peck, Lisa Petrucci, The Pizz, Mark Ryden, Isabel Samaras, Todd Schorr, Shag, Eric White, Robert Williams, and XNO. I don’t find them all to be as good as Scott but it is an interesting group all the same. Those of quality work outweigh the rest.


Anyway I was thrilled when I saw Scott’s name in the table of contents as one of the pop-surrealists. And he had moved his work forward with a twist. He still has that underground, alternative mind. But his gonzo comic approach had become much more sophisticated. He was now painting like a Belgian realist. But the concept behind the work is what makes it interesting and very appealing to his generation.

He has invented an alternate universe where the remains of certain extinct animals have been exhumed, studied and cataloged. These lost animal souls, somewhat inspired by the demise of the fabled Doe Doe bird, have a story to tell about environmentalism, animal rights and animal antics. They are sometimes cute and cuddly, some sarcastically biting (which leaves no visible marks) and all are facetiously farcical. They take on a life of their own dominating their surreal surroundings. And there are all sorts of suggestive morals. Scott has published his own book with all the details. Calling himself an Evolutionary Biologist and an Accidental Taxidermist (the title of his book and a show at Tin Man Alley in Philly) he defines these evolutionary drop outs concisely including dates of extinction. With one exception-- the Elmer Fudd like Homus Destructus. Richard Metz’s review of “the Accidental Taxidermist” show in Philly explains Scotts furry fascitiousness thusly:

“the serious part of this work is the strong environmental message. It is we, as humans, who have caused these strange creatures to become extinct. In one work entitled Homus Destructus: common name: The Pioneer, he is a short brutish fellow carrying a gun and knife in a treeless landscape of browns. While each of the other creatures has an extinction date on the metal tag on the frame of the painting, Homus Destructus is labeled as "not extinct yet." Like the writing of Kurt Vonnegut, when you get the humor, you get the message.” Written for InLiquid Art / Design Network. inliquid.com



In 2005 Scott had a show at Jonathan Le Vine Gallery in NYC called Natural Alchemy: a pictorial inventory. He doesn’t restrict himself to painting and drawing but to sculpture and he even has an animated TV series, Fat Dog Mendoza, which is distributed through Cartoon Network Europe. He does customized paint jobs on his 3-d vinyl rotocast animals which extends their market dramatically. Rotocast toys are very hip right now. Scott’s animals are a natural for this market.





His landscapes for this alternate universe are magical. Again, think of the Hudson River School or Grant Wood. Every detail is worked meticulously in an almost Renaissance technique. Trees are often conical and stretched tall. Hills are rounded and smooth. The landscape seems young but late afternoon atmospheres add to the moral of the concept, i.e. the end of an age. The ornate black Dutch and Mediteranean style frames complete the tongue-in-cheek museum quality picture. One is able to picture these images in Juxtapose Magazine but the museum quality framing puts them in a totally incongruent context, yet one that the images manage to live up to.





Scott must be in his 40’s by now. Most of my students are a few years out of high school when I meet them. He’s matured dramatically. His work has taken on a measured sense of humor that I don’t remember him having back then. Everything seemed so desperately important and of the moment. He’s stepped back a bit from the immerging emotional holocaust many students seemed to anticipate back in the 80‘s. The more violent expressiveness has softened. His work is still apocalyptic in nature though. That he hasn’t lost. But while he hints at the end he now seems more involved with the story telling…it is a story that tells the beginning, assumes the middle (the now) and the potential end.


He is the Creator, Writer and Artist of Fat Dog Mendoza Comic Book, published by Dark Horse Comics

Scott is also the Creator and Producer of the animated TV Series “Fat Dog Mendoza” (based on hiscomic book ); 26 half-hour episodes were produced in partnership with Cartoon Network UK, Sony Wonder and Sunbow Entertainment. The show has aired in roughly 50 countries around the world. Scott wrote 17 of the Fat Dog episodes with Story Editor Michael Ryan, is credited as the character designer and also composed the main title theme with Kurt Liebert. Add renaissance man to his title.

He is also Writer and Designer on various other animated features. He is also the Writer and Artist on “Loose Teeth” comic, published by Fantagraphics Books. He’s been a Contributing Cartoonist to various other comic anthologies and worked for some time as a Freelance Illustrator in Seattle.

Eventually I hope to bring Scott back to speak to students. I want him to talk about his career, how he has gotten to this current place, some of the other artists he runs with and the entrepreneurial instincts that got him to this form of painting and sculpture on which all of this depends. It is a very serious kind of art in terms of technique and the effort it takes to achieve the quality he establishes as well as the ideas he evokes. And it is a whole form, not blurring borders as some do to avoid criticism. He, instead, includes painting, printmaking, storytelling, sculpture, toy making and book publishing among the venues for his work with no blurring whatsoever.
Bighorn.jpg
Scott is one of those illustrators who have crossed back over into the realm of fine art exhibiting and selling as a painter and sculptor and printmaker. Some might say he is a dinosaur in that he takes his painting and sculpture techniques seriously like a realist. Others might call it cartoonish with a twist. But however you see it Scott has, in his own way, revived the Dodo.

For those of you in California you can see his work …


May 10 - June 4, 2008
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 10th, 7-10 pm

Billy Shire Fine Arts
5790 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
phone: 323-297-0600

Exhibitions:
Jonathan Levine Gallery - ‘Natural Alchemy’ - New York City 2005
La Luz de Jesus - ‘Specious Beasts’ - Los Angeles 2004
Tin Man Alley Gallery – ‘Accidental Taxidermist’ - Philadelphia PA 2003
La Luz de Jesus - ‘The Late Fauna of Early North America’ - 2002
Roq la Rue Gallery – Seattle 1998

Group Shows:
111 Minna Gallery - ‘Eight Painters’ - San Francisco 1998
Roq la Rue Gallery – Seattle 2002
La Luz de Jesus – Invitational – Los Angeles 2001, 2003 Alexander Gallery –
New York City – Sometime in the 90’s

Replies: 19 Comments

on Monday, May 26th, Gary Hall said

Great article. I just Fat Dog Mendoza!!

on Monday, May 19th, walt said

Again we interupt this blog with an important message about the Orphan Works bill.

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Last Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed their Orphan Works Act.
It is now headed for the full Senate.

If you’ve written before, now’s the time to write again.
Urge your senator to oppose this bill.

Because it has been negotiated behind closed doors, introduced on short notice and fast-tracked for imminent passage without open hearings, ask that this bill not be passed until it can be exposed to an open, informed and transparent public debate.

We’ve drafted a special letter for this purpose.
You can deep link to it here:
Contact your Senator in opposition to S.2913 NOW at:
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The House Judiciary Committee is considering H.R. 5889, the companion bill now. Please write them again:
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on Sunday, May 18th, nurit said

great post. its nice to read about new art for me..

on Sunday, May 18th, walt said

Yes, Jose, there are far too many examples of what I call the 'Fundamentalist' strain in the hearts and minds of artists. Their idea of quality is what THEY do. If anyone else wants to achieve quality it must also be the same kind of work in the same form, sometimes even the same medium and subject. And while one certainly feels most secure in the realm they know the most about, as an artist, I would hope that an artist was interested enough in what else is going on as to get some, a little at least, education.

One way to do a democratic kind of exhibition would be to poll local artists and find out who, besides themselves, they consider to be an important member of the arts community, not so much for their activity within that community but for their studio production. Who is considered to be important artistically among artists? Often times we'd find out about artists who otherwise are not talked about much except within those smallish groups.

Andrew, I wanted to write about Scott for two reasons...I like writing about artists I know or have known personally. While I'll step outside of that motif once in a while it is a guiding protocal. And I like writing about work that is not usually given much credence by the larger formalized art world. In fact there are actually several artworlds at work, each with their own agendas and heroes. There is the traditional art world with its painting and sculpture galleries...the more conceptual artworld that lives primarily in happenings,articles in art magazines (I mean how many people really see these things? 50?...a few hundred?) and museum atriums...there is the commercial art world which itself can be divided into various categories like Marketing (which has the largest audience by far) with its design and graphics or Illustration which can be seen as its own category while existing within a number of other sub-categries...film and video with its commercial audiences, and there is underground/alternative art which often float between all the above categories but just as easily can be found on your local abandonded building walls as quickly as within a local bookshop or alternative gallery. And do realize that graffitti on a crowded business corner building gets a far greater audience than most fine art in a gallery.

Scott is his own person. We weren't great friends or anything. In fact there was some animosity between his close colleague and myself at the time and I was never quite sure how Scott felt about it all. But none of that has any bearing on his art at this point.

As far as my former students are concerned...If you mean student in the Socratic sense of the word, I've had very few. I usually get a student for one or two classes. Very few stay in contact with me beyond that. I've had a few dozen over the years who I might say I mentored. But even that is a quasi-statement. My idea of mentoring is a very loose handed grip. My idea of teaching is to lecture on a an idea, a precept or a process, set up an assignment in which that idea or process can be explored and then help students walk through the process of experimentation with the idea. It is the creative process I'm mostly concerned with in the end. The idea is mostly an excuse to open doors and start the process in motion in my mind. I'm more concerned that a student is working than exactly what they are working. But because I teach illustration (which is primarily assignment driven) I must also pay attention to the individual aspects of the subject matter and technical aspects. But in my mind that is most secondary. So as I said, mostly I open the door then get out of the way as quickly as possible if the student is moving forward. Scott was moving even then. Never had to push start him to my recollection.

on Sunday, May 18th, josé said

Walt, a great blog, I loved the way you spoke about this artist and I loved the paintings. I think that in this field of ours when there is integrity, commitment and perseverance Art finds its way through. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in this form or that, whether it’s a cartoon or a painting; a design object or a sculpture - in some special cases it surpasses those labels and simply becomes a work of Art, and when it doesn’t, I agree with Michael, we shouldn’t fall for our need to judge, after all what we are witnessing is that somebody is striving to make it work. Picking up on something Andrew said about vampirism I think that’s a pretty good description of what we are and how it works when it works well: the cycle is complete and sustains itself when our enthusiasm is reflected back to us through the student/fellow artist’s own enthusiasm and spark [not to mention validation from viewers]. We feed on one another, for ideas, for energy, for whatever it is we’re looking for - if we give and we notice nobody takes we are left depleted; if they take without giving anything back we become exhausted. So it must be a good feeling, Walt, to see someone you’ve taught stand out and shine, and it comes through in the way you shared this story with us – even if, as you say, you can’t take credit for what he has achieved.

on Sunday, May 18th, Andrew said

Walt, its important that artists who judge other artists work are objective enough to see the quality that's in work unlike their own. That's not often enough the case, and then one gets into the quandary of how to decide if an artist is worthy of being in a position to judge other artists before appointing them to do so. And who does the appointing? In art contests organized by townships, banks, or other entities, usually that would be someone who knew very little about art.
On Scott Muskgrove's work, which I failed to say much directly about in my previous comment, he seems like one of those rare exceptional types that is capable of performing outstandingly in any number of different kinds of endeavors. A Renaissance man. The work shows he has a passion for what he's doing. Something to want to own. Bet he can cook, too!

on Sunday, May 18th, walt said

Marjan, so it was pretty bad work eh? Not surprizing. The New Academie has so many extraneous agendas that it finds it hard to focus on quality as guiding force. Actually just focusing on quality opens up the dialogue. By focusing on quality instead of only what the art says (in most cases what the artist says the art says) the quote unquote upper levels of art would become more democritized in general. more alternative voices and issues would be heard. But because now there are certain litmus tests and hoops to jump through (political correctnesses)and many truly great artists are dumped out of hand. So I'm not surprized that the Turner Prize winner's work was vapid or insipid. Turner must be rolling over in his grave.

But this current dilemma is of course nothing but the living out of protocals set in place as a reaction to an earlier political time period when other more conservative powers defined and decided the look of art. The pendulum do swing back and forth.

Because artists can't seem to band together they will always be at the whim and will of higher powers. I'd like to see artists judge artists more often rather than museum curators, critics galleries. I always paid more attention to the artists celebrated by other artists.

Truth is though that groups over the years populated and administrated by artists tended to be quite conservative rather than forward looking. Today these groups tend to be the alternative galleries and artist cooperatives who depend upon dues from other artists. That means they are more driven by filling their ranks for the sake of operating funds (dues) rather than keeping a strict level of quality control on their memberships. And even among those groups who practice quality control there is often so much infighting that they become paralyzed, over involved with organizational structures and eventually become either closed to new thinking or open to all comers no matter the quality of the work. I've been involved with several of these groups and peripherally connected to even more of them. I've seen these problems across the board from the smallest local arts groups to the College Art Association. The CAA is now so full of members other than artists that the politics are working against artists. The CAA has come out FOR the Orphan Works bill in favor of their membership made up by a majority of Art Historians, Curators and Librarians.

Let's just say that life is messy, art is by its nature a dictatorship and anything could be considered art (whether it is actually good or bad) because the human mind can justify anything...at least for a few moments.

on Sunday, May 18th, marjan said

Hello Walty!

Interesting, interesting and if I were in CA I would definitely go to see the work....it all rings a distant bell....

As for the "democri(a)tization " of art. I don't have a problem with it at all, what I do have a problem with is the truly elitist attitude that everyone must be dumb, therefore they don't deserve quality.
I'm sure it all goes back to education.
In the 1760s Voltaire's Candide was a bestseller. Centuries later, it's still the "educated classes" who can even read the book.

I went to an exhibition last week, unfortunately. I was so annoyed. Former Turner Prize winner. I still don't know if the whole thing was a total con, doing a dreadful copy of a work from the 1970s or if he genuinely didn't have a clue about the subject of his "art" work.
I wouldn't have cared less, if such "work" doesn't flood the market and leaves very little room, if any, for decent, honest, inspiring work.

Yours Moaning Marj ;)

on Saturday, May 17th, walt said

Ellen, with students like Scott I just open as many doors as possible and then get out of the way so as not to trip them up or get run over. There are always enough who need help. And always a group who think they are already good and expect you to reward them for garbage.

on Saturday, May 17th, Ellen said

Great point, Michael!
Andrew, Long ago I decided not to teach art. Occasionally I run workshops, but for a very limited groups and only for a couple of days. The last student I had said he wanted to do portraits. Thing was, he wanted to go right to the end without learning the basics. After two sessions of trying to learn the planes of the head, he'd had enough. TEACHERS, though, I worship the ones I've had. Few & far between, I've come accross someone who has given me knowledge that I can progress with: Not to say there aren't many out there; I just have only been lucky a few times.
Walt, Scott apparently was lucky with you!

on Saturday, May 17th, Andrew said

I've never taught, though I've lectured a few times to groups of students, but I have had a lot of apprentices sent to me through the various foreign studies programs in Florence. It was always a one on one relationship, many times not of much significance, but a few times really rewarding. Those were the art college students who stuck out because of their drive, which significantly enhanced their talent. Most of the ones who stuck out head and shoulders above the rest were just plain driven, and did a variety of things, almost always well. It always amuses me to recall that one of the ones who didn't impress me was a Fullbright scholar. And the midwest, produced more good ones than the east or west coast. My own life and my own art was very much influenced by my contact with people who had the incredible idealism that goes with the age most of them were, of optimism, of thinking anything was possible, even when confronted with failure. I feel like a vampire, because this quality was refreshed in me every time I started up with a new one.

on Saturday, May 17th, walt said

Here here! Or is it hear hear? What you said Michael!

on Friday, May 16th, Michael Lynn Adams said

Comedian Mike Meyers once said, "there is no high humor or low humor. There is only funny." Critics and social commentators might disagree. But from a comic's perspective that is an essential truth.

The same is true for art from an artist's perspective. There is no high art or low art, there is only art. The distinction between high and low art is best left to the critiques and future historians. In time, their judgment is likely to be judged by others as wrong, anyway. The tides of taste are always shifting and fickle.

Artists are doing themselves a grave disservice judging their own or other artist's work as high or low. Hogarth turned vulgar subjects into art centuries ago, as did Caravaggio and a long list of distinguished artists. Daumier's political cartoons are prized museum pieces. And as Walter points out, Rockwell's work, dismissed when created, are now masterpieces of fine art.

As artists we need to do the work, show it, sell it, enjoy it, whatever, just don't judge it on how it fits into a social or historical context. It only leads to self censorship and would be horrible waste of time and emotion.

on Friday, May 16th, Mark said

Walt, I agree it is what we take away from the work that counts. Good art can come from historical inspiration, or from what is now, today, without historical influence to any great extent (one can not dismiss historic influence all together). Trouble is, often an artist is going beyond self imposed limits (and even outside imposed limits) but others may be unable to see it as it is often subtle, where as for some artists is very obvious. Not saying one or the other is better, just that it is the way it is.

on Friday, May 16th, Brad Michael Moore said

I think it is the Musgrove's passing through our lives, that best color our perspectives as we repontificate what is of significance in our own historical reviews. So many different colored energies going so many directions. We, ourselves, are just an amalgamation of our own experiences, and those who were around - even fleetingly, to help color these events... - BradMM

on Friday, May 16th, walt said

Mark, I think many artists become limited by what they consider art to be. Whether that art is easy or hard, this generation or that, high or low. When an artist rises out of those self imposed limits and creates work that is qualitative it is worth celebrating. It doesn't matter what we think previous to seeing that work. It's what we think and feel afterwards... if it moves us, thats what counts.

on Friday, May 16th, Mark said

We talk a lot here about what is art and isn't and what makes one an artist. History can help us determine that but it is far from definitive. Your blog Walt just goes to show that much out there is art, a 'democritization' of art if you will. We let personal opinion get in the way of actualy defining 'real' art. Just because one doesn't like it, one thinks it 'old hat' not 'on the edge' doesn't mean it is not art, just as being 'on the edge' pushing 'the envelope' and so on means it is art. Comics in our house were 'JUNK' but I devoured them anyway and had a huge collection which after getting married I sold as we needed money, got a lot for them too, but I wonder now what they are worth. I was going to be a comic book artist in my dreams, they I moved into another direction.

Yes true art, real art, can be found in may places.

on Thursday, May 15th, Samantha said

Great read really enjoyed it, Very interesting artist. Thanks

on Thursday, May 15th, Ellen said

I LOVE this blog & you for writing it, Walt! Comics were the mainstay of my home when I was a kid. My parents, teachers in the best sense of the word, listened to classical music while they feasted on New Yorker cartoons. We loved everything from Mad Magazine to Archie to Superman to Disney. Those artists could DRAW!! So many artists who draw comics are immensely talented and cerebral individuals. There are many who also do fine arts in which they were trained: I've seen these extraordinary individuals at Art Expo or other venues. Scott Musgrove has had a fabulous career that is enviable in its scope: his work is masterful and wonderful. Walt, I DO still love Rockwell, too. But that's the beauty of the human mind: celebrate the differences! Thanks.