art beat / By Jennifer Savage

One More Line

For Jack, Carrie says One More Line makes him feel a bit “exposed, embarrassed… but flattered.” It isn’t his, it’s hers, he says. In his artist’s statement, Jack is similarly understated:

“In my earlier days as a sculptor, I reacted to the news and worldly themes: Nixon, the shootings at Kent State, as well as local issues and Western themes. I was playing with images that were important to me as a child: Cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians. But it was a generic kind of art and was suitable for shows. In 1992, we had a huge earthquake and my foundry was wiped out. At that point I started drawing full time. I realized that the casting process was 99 percent labor and one percent creativity. Drawing was the opposite. It was also at this point that I went from the generic to the specific and from the national to the local.”

He took a position teaching at Ferndale Elementary and, impressed with children’s ability to focus on the essential, began his own project.

“The project in question — the study of Ferndale through colored pencil drawings — I knew was a process in which I would give up other opportunities. My way of working is like going into the monastery. I was uninfluenced by galleries, the art world, and staying on top of trends…. My art, audience and goals were very specific…. In retrospect, I would never have envisioned these panoramas. I chose this manner of working in isolation, seven days a week, day and night, for years. It was a total fascination, and the results turned out pretty good. I feel like my life is well spent in doing this.”

Carrie also feels her investment has paid off. “It was intense, hard and focused,” she said. “The first time I interviewed Jack, I had no idea what it was going to be about. By the time we finally finished, I understood.” She couldn’t necessary keep Jack alive — though he is — but she could ensure his art lives on forever.

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