The Other Brother Update-Fall 2014
Printed ‘Side by Side’ sequence of comparison artwork from The Other Brother.
Coming up on SEPTEMBER 5 at noon is the broadcast of a radio interview that Mark, myself, and Tom had with Walter Edgar on SC ETV Radio. The Walter Edgar Journal is on Friday’s at noon. Please share this info with your SC contacts.
http://www.scetv.org/index.php/walter_edgars_journal/show/the_other_brother/
Mark and I are heading to Chicago on SEPTEMBER 18 for a screening of TOB at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art http://www.art.org/2014/08/film-screening-the-other-brother/
They also installed a small exhibit of the brother’s side-by-side art. We are looking forward to holding a Q&A after the screening. Please share this info with your Chicago contacts.
On OCTOBER 19 at 4:00 pm we will have a screening and Q&A at the Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, NC. Please share this info with your NC contacts. http://upstairsartspace.org/
If you know of any venue that may be interested in screening The Other Brother please get in touch with Mark, mflowers@mountainteastudios.com.
The Art
“In addition to the impact of the Side by Side sequence in The Other Brother, the ‘connection’ between their art shows up in the shots of Jesse’s photographs beside Tom’s landscape paintings – I would say that comes from their ‘culture’ as raised in a place with access and appreciation for that landscape. After that it is all about the difference.
“Their art in general is radically divergent. Jesse is, as is said, a natural. Everything in the external world that he sees and feels is incorporated into his inner fertility. His hand is direct and unrestrained, yet naturally disciplined. His art has a direct line back to the early cave dwellers. The ‘crowded’ characteristic of his surfaces is not really crowded, just insistent richness and an instinct that was unbounded by educated ‘taste,’ only the edge of the envelope or the edge of the paper or the need to insert an address brings it to a conclusion.
“I would not say Tom is so much ‘contemporary’ as he is ‘educated.’ U of Iowa shows all over his work. Where Jesse was so dependent on what he felt, Tom depends upon what he learned. Jesse’s work is immediate; Tom’s is mediated by the world of art as understood by urban civilization and passed on through the educational process. Jesse is limited to just what his individuality allows, Tom expands beyond his own take on things. I found myself thinking Tom’s work ultimately might have been diluted by the expansion his education afforded him, but whatever, Tom’s is much broader in range than Jesse’s.
“The best urban art usually gets to a higher place than the best primitive art. As a matter of ‘type’ I generally prefer urban art to primitive art. So Tom chose the more ambitious path. But it is a treacherous path and no sure thing. In the many direct comparisons the movie presents, my eye consistently went for Jesse’s work over Tom’s.” -John Link, Visual Artist, Art Educator, Art Critic
