(Emile Norman and Brooks Clement)
I watched the PBS documentary tonight Emile Norman: By His Own Design, and it sparked a wave of thought in me about art, long-term lesbian and gay relationships, and the limits imposed on artists by class and gender.
Emile Norman is now 90 but still actively working and living in the stunning, hand-built home atop a hill outside Big Sur that he created with his lover/partner Brooks Clement in the 1950s. Brooks has been dead since 1973, but they had 30 years together. During the 1950s and 1960s, they were openly gay, and their home was a refuge, a magnet for all kinds of creative people.
(Emile Norman waves from tower atop his Big Sur home)
Emile is an innovative sculptor/muralist who relies on nature for most of his symbolism and themes. He dropped out of art school after one day and pursued his own path during an era when abstract expressionism was all the rage. When Norman and Clement moved to Big Sur in 1946, Brooks told Emile "You go into the studio and I'll show the world what you're doing." It was a deal that made Emile successful and happy. The two men were inseparable, excellent companions and at the heart of a wide circle of friends. When Emile became too old to safely live alone, a pair of young gay men (Jeff Mallory and C. Kevin Smith) moved in as caretakers and forged family.
The documentary was produced by Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker, neighbors and friends of Emile. You may remember them as the husband-and-wife lawyers who immortalized the imaginary "butterfly kiss" on the TV series L.A. Law. It's a good film, interspersed with home movies from Brooks and Emile plus letters written about them by another neighbor, a young married woman and mother who visited constantly. The two men found freedom to be themselves in an era when few did, and the story of a sculptor who has been able to live by his art for 84 years is rare.
Equally striking to me, however, was the contrast between their good luck and the stories of other equally gifted and innovative artists who struggle with isolation and poverty. In particular, I wonder if two gay men of color would have found the welcoming attitude Emile and Brooks did. I doubt the Masonic organization whose mural represents Emile's largest work would have given him a commission if he had been non-white. Or a woman.
(History of San Francisco mural at Union Bank of California, by Emile Norman)
Lesbian artists of any ability are much less likely to be treated kindly by rural neighbors (even in a liberal place like Big Sur) or the arts community. They must contend with continuous sexism, veiled and incidental as well as outright violence and predation. If one of a pair of women is attractive by conventional standards, the men who enter their circle are likely to hope for a sexual conquest -- all dykes really want, after all, is the right cock, either from a manly man or, these days, from another queer. Or so the myth persists.
And with denial of access to circles of influence comes poverty. No chance to live atop hillsides, commune with nature, avoid wage-earning, and travel for inspiration.
(Solarium in home of Emile Norman and Brooks Clement)
Paula Gunn Allen died last month, far too early, with inadequate support at the end of her life. She had managed, while contending with her cancer, to buy a mobile home for herself (all she could afford) but it and most of her belongings were destroyed in a fire not long before she died. A lesbian of color poet, novelist, historian -- once the short-list for Pulitzer -- one of the greatest minds of our generation, but her death brought no public memorials that I've seen outside a few feminist blogs. And not even the Generation X blogs. It's as if she never existed.
I'm deeply glad Emile Norman is getting deserved recognition. I'm even more happy for the apparent happiness of his life. Still, it's not the face of minority art and artists. Not nearly enough.
(Polar Bear by Emile Norman)
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
EMILE NORMAN: LIFE AND EXAMPLE
Sunday, June 1, 2008
PAULA GUNN ALLEN
No.
I just found out Paula Gunn Allen died two days ago.
I can't write about it right now. You can read a great tribute to her at Women's Spaces. Or you can read what I've written about her by searching my Labels in the right column.
We've lost someone we can hardly do without.
Friday, May 16, 2008
JAMESTOWN, POCAHONTAS, AND THE NEXT 400 YEARS
(Village of Jamestown, on the James River, Virginia, c. 1615)
"I have noticed that as soon as you have soldiers the story is called history. Before their arrival it is called myth, folktale, legend, fairy tale, oral poetry, ethnography. After the soldiers arrive, it is called history." -- Paula Gunn Allen, Ph.D.
Two days ago was the 401st anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, which led to, well, the United States. Jamestown looms large in my personal narrative and psyche because I'm a direct descendant of one of the second wave of settlers there, Captain James Davis -- who was one of the folks jumping at the chance to introduce African slavery to this continent. A legacy to contend with.
There's an excellent article (complete with excellent links) about Jamestown up at the wonderful blog The Edge of the American West. Excellent, that is, until the end when the author tries to introduce some whimsy by including a clip of Disney's Pocahontas. Despite his having earlier repudiated this myth, it's not enough to make up for that crap being referenced at all. Instead, I recommend you read Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat by Paula Gunn Allen, Ph.D.. Allen is a Laguna poet, critic, essayist, novelist, short-story writer, educator, editor, lesbian-feminist, and one of the founders of Native American studies in this country. The review of the Pocahontas biography at Harper Collins states:
"In striking contrast to conventional accounts, Pocahontas is a bold and daring biography that attempts to tell the extraordinary story of the beloved Indian maiden from the Native American perspective. Drawing from sources often overlooked by Western historians, Dr. Paula Gunn Allen offers remarkable new insights into the adventurous life and sacred role of this foremost American heroine.
(Sedgeford portrait of Pocahontas and her son, Thomas Rolfe)
"We have all heard about the love-struck Pocahontas saving the dashing Captain John Smith from execution by the Chief of the Powhatans, but what if the whole event was a staged ritual of his death as a foreigner and his rebirth as an adopted member of the Powhatan Nation? Settlers at Jamestown report a young, cartwheeling Pocahontas frequently at their fort, but could the innocent-looking visitor actually have been a spy -- reporting back to her elders what she saw there? Was Pocahontas willingly kidnapped by the British settlers in exchange for corn and other ransom from her tribe, or was this a part of her more elaborate plan? We have been taught that this amazing woman was later baptized a Christian and married in the church at Jamestown, yet she helped her husband, John Rolfe, grow and export tobacco -- a powerful, indigenous herb to which the Native Americans attributed shamanic powers. Finally, the 'Indian Princess,' now known as Lady Rebecca Rolfe, traveled to England for an audience with King James I and Queen Anne. Was this a publicity stunt orchestrated by the English backers of the Virginia colony, or was Pocahontas fulfilling her role as a 'Beloved Woman,' an honor designated to a female of great spiritual power who was to be trained from birth in the diplomatic and political ways of her tribe?
"Pocahontas became an extraordinary ambassador, forming groundbreaking relations between the Indians, the American colonists, and the British. Dr. Gunn Allen convincingly argues that through all of this, Pocahontas fulfilled a crucial and essential role in the birth of a New World. This stunning portrait presents the fascinating, untold story of one of the most romantic and beloved figures in American history, and reveals why so many have revered Pocahontas as the female counterpart to George Washington, the true 'Mother of Our Nation.'"
I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Allen speak a few years ago, after this book came out. She was able to draw on the oral tradition and tribal memory of the people who are Pocahontas' descendants, which revealed that these people believed in 400 year cycles of development and change. They understood they were approaching the end of one era, and were about to see extreme transformation into another era. This is a large part of the reason why the first white settlers at Jamestown were not killed immediately: The native peoples waited to see if these newcomers were the bringers of change, in which case there was no point in trying to delay it. Their acceptance of and eventual assistance to such catharsis stands in contrast to our own cultural approach to unsolicited or unwelcome change.
However, Dr. Allen pointed out that day, we're entering the watershed between the past 400 years (set in motion at Jamestown) and what will come next: Something that may well mean our disappearance as a culture. Who among us will play Pocahontas' role of gracefully ushering in the new world?
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