Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press: Washington, DC

December 03, 2021

A deep dive into my hard drives, and a few new images as well...

So recently I've been doing deep dives into my hard drives, to perhaps find some images I had overlooked, or reprocess some photos from the past that I can make better. It's been fun.

Here, is a Zippo lighter image, shot at dusk at Council Rocks in Arizona a few years back. (I may need to do more flame tower images here in North Carolina. Hmm.) I popped the color a bit and sharpened the photo a little. I really like this image and this place. It is the place where the Apache chief Cochise lived, and where he made peace with the Americans in the 1870's. I miss Arizona so.

Other old and a few new images are below. If you want a print of anything, reach out.

And may you all have a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

Love y'all.

Stu.

"Washington Monument 1961, D.C." (c) Image capture Stu Jenks 2021, photographer unknown, from a postcard.

"Crowned Buddha, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina" (c) Stu Jenks.

Posted at 11:20 AM in Arizona, Art, Black & White Photography, Blue Ridge Parkway, Christmas and Winter Solstice, Composition, Current Affairs, Dartmoor, Faith, Flame Towers, Good Folk, Indigenous People, Mountains, Mountains of North Carolina, Nevada, Night Photography, Nocturnal Photography, North Carolina, Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair, Prayer, Religion, Sculpture, Sky, Snow, Spirituality, Stained Glass, The Apache Wars, The Road, The Sky, The South, Travel, Valleys, Virginia, Washington, DC, Windows, Women, Wyoming | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 05, 2021

“Abraham Lincoln #2, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” [Extended Family Series] (Originally "Thomas Hart Benton")

“Abraham Lincoln #2, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2021, 56 inches tall. (Originally "Thomas Hart Benton")

Price: $125, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall.

This is a very complicated piece.

Originally this stick was made for Thomas Hart Benton. A painting of his in the North Carolina Museum of Art moves me greatly. (An image capture of that painting is at the bottom of this post.) This 1945 painting is of a family moving from their home before flood waters reach them and their house. A few years ago, that painting was a powerful metaphor for me, because I had to leave my wife and Greensboro to return home to Tucson, in order to work, and make a living. I felt like that man lifting that bed into the wagon.

So. I made Thomas Hart Benton a walking stick. Signed it and everything.

Then I saw Ken Burns' documentary on the man a couple of weeks ago.

Benton was a complete and utter asshole it appears.

He treated everyone badly: wife, students, contemporaries, you name it. He drank way too much. He hated gays and said often how much he disliked the 'limp wrist crowd'. He thought he was the greatest artist who ever lived. He was a bad guy.

Jackson Pollack was one of his students. Benton said of Pollack, "The only thing I taught Jack was how to drink a 1/5 of scotch a day." A day. I know.

I told Alexa about my displeasure with the man. She suggested I burn the stick. I kind of liked that idea. It would burn like a son of a bitch in our fireplace. But I choose a more middle path, sanding off Benton's name and dedicating the stick to someone I actually care about, like Abraham Lincoln.

Old Abe already has a piece made in his honor, a saguaro stick, somewhat heavier from this one. I've been wanting to make Honest Abe another functioning walking stick, something he might have actually used if we had lived at the same time, and he happened to wander into my studio in 19th Century Washington, D.C.

So Mr. Lincoln, you get another stick.

And Thomas Hart Benton? You are shit out of luck. Love your paintings but you can go straight to hell. As you can tell, I feel very strongly about this.

I've said this since I was in art school, said it for decades actually:

You can be a good person and a good artist all at the same time.

The asshole white male artist driven by his creative passions is a cop-out. You, Benton, Picasso, many others, just didn't give a fuck about other people. You were children who just wanted you wanted when you wanted it, wrapping your awful behaviors in artistic rhetoric. It's a rationalization, not a vision statement. Simply, you were dicks. You knew it. I know it. Fuck you.

I've had the opportunity to make sticks for extended family members who were jerks. I've only made one, and that was the Uncle Courtney Saum/Donald Trump stick. If I'm going to spend the hours making lovely pieces, I want to make them only for lovely people. Just the way this artist is built.

Sorry for the lecture. Here enddeth the lesson.

#lincoln, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries, #thomashartbenton

Posted at 01:05 AM in Art, Business, Cactus, Extended Family Series, Other Artists, Walking Sticks, Wall Pieces, Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 04, 2021

“Eleanor Roosevelt, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2021 (Extended Family Series]

My mother Mary revered Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor was First Lady when Mom was a teenager, living across the Potomac from D.C., in Alexandria, Virginia"

"She was not an attractive woman," my Mom would say,"but she was an great inspiration to many girls and women like me." Mom wasn't lying.

Thank you Mrs. Roosevelt for all you did for us, and thanks Mom, for telling me about her and FDR, when I was a kid.

Photos of Eleanor's sculpture and other work at the FDR Memorial in Washington, DC, were taken by me in 2021.

Posted at 01:27 AM in Arizona, Art, Extended Family Series, Walking Sticks, Wall Pieces, Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 03, 2021

"The Old Man & His Angel"

"The Old Man & His Angel". Image capture by me, when I was recently in Washington.

Detail from Thomas Cole's painting, The Voyage Of Life: Old Age. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. I love this painting.

On this date in 2001, my father Stuart Jenks died after a long battle with interstitial muscle cancer.

Politely speaking, Dad and I had a complicated relationship. (More on this can be found from my previous writings and books, specifically the post "Dad Doesn't Leave The House Anymore" on this feed.)

I generally don't miss my father, but occasionally I do.

Like today.

Posted at 01:14 AM in Angel/Ghosts, Art, Family, Other Artists, Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 24, 2021

"St. Martini & St. Agnes, El Greco, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC." Image capture 2021 by Stu Jenks.

There is a whole room of El Greco's work at the National Gallery. I spent a good amount of time in that room. This is a detail from a larger painting. El Greco painted this in 1597. I came away with these two thoughts: El Greco was a genius, and he was way ahead of his time.

Very moving experience, that one room. I liked his work before. I love it now.

Posted at 01:58 AM in Art, Love, Other Artists, Paintings, Travel, Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 18, 2021

“Auguste Rodin, Saguaro Cactus Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Auguste Rodin, Saguaro Cactus Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2021, 86 inches tall.

Price: $450, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.

The reason I chose a career as an artist is because of Auguste Rodin, I kid you not.

I was attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an art student in the mid to late 1970's. I knew at some point I needed to drive up to the Hirshhorn Museum in D.C. to see what was there. (Pre-internet. You only knew about many things if you saw them in a magazine, in a book, on television, or in real life.) There was a Calder sculpture there at that time I wanted to see and some other minimalist stuff too. I drove all night in my 1964 Karmann Ghia and got there in the morning, stoned on Mexican Dirt Weed, and happy to be there. I roamed the inside of the Hirshhorn for a while and was pretty impressed.

Then I went outside.

The sculpture garden blew my mind, and it wasn't just the marijuana. Henry Moore, David Smith, Barbara Hepworth, Jacques Lipchitz, Giacomo Manzu, Jean Arp...

And Auguste Rodin.

I had seen Rodin's work in books and in slide presentations in art history class, but never in person. I arrogantly thought his work was just OK. I was a minimalist sculptor and conceptual artist at the time, producing what I thought was thought provoking but not particularly evocative or emotional work, like I try to do now. I was a Joseph Bueys-Donald Judd-Frank Stella guy, not particularly interested in 19th Century art.

Until that morning in 1977, when I saw The Burghers Of Calais, Walking Man, and Balzac for the first time.

I hardly remember Walking Man, but Balzac took my breath away, and The Burghers rendered me speechless (and to those of you who don't know me IRL, I'm a chatty guy. Being struck dumb doesn't happen very often with me.)

I don't know if it happened that day, or on the ride home, or when I got back to art school (I was pretty high don't you know), but I remember thinking to myself, "If Rodin can do that, make evocative work that speaks to both our hearts as well as our minds, I can do that too. I can make powerful art too." I wasn't in anyway comparing myself, then or now, to Rodin. I was just inspired to do the work and see if I could bring a little beauty, a bit of honest feeling and a little magic into the world. That I do think I've done to some degree (even though I wish an art professor or a family member had mentioned the importance of a 401-K at some point.) I have created a body of work over the last 25 years that I'm proud of: The photographs, the books, the albums, the sticks.

I may not have made much money in my life but I have put some beauty, some mystery, some true feeling into the world, and I try to be a good person as I do the work. I've not always succeeded as an artist and as a man, but I truly try.

And it's all because I saw The Burghers of Calais on a fall morning in 1977.

Photos of Rodin's The Burghers of Calais, & Balzac in Washington, D.C., and The Burghers in Calais, France were taken by me.

#rodin, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

Posted at 11:03 AM in Arizona, Art, Extended Family Series, France, History, Other Artists, Sculpture, The West, Wall Pieces, Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 07, 2021

“Ulysses S. Grant, Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Ulysses S. Grant, Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021, 51 inches tall.

U.S. Grant. Great General, not so great of a President.

You may notice that there is no Robert E. Lee stick on the StuBlog but there is a U.S. Grant stick. Even though I was born in the South, and have, in the past, been moved by the bravery and struggles of combatants on both sides of the American Civil War, I strongly recognized that The South represented slave owners and slavery and The North did not. And General Lee, for all his gentile behaviors, was still a traitor to the Union. Yes, yes, "I can not fight against my country," he stated at the beginning of the War, talking about the State of Virginia as his 'country', but Lee did betray the United States of America. And, in his writings, he stated that blacks were not intelligent to be full citizens.

Sadly, I was taught as a child that Grant was a drunk and a butcher. What I know or think I know is that Grant did drink but probably was not an alcoholic. He didn't enjoy killing Southerns but he did what was need to be done to end the war. Also, it is little known that Grant saved Raleigh, North Carolina from being burned to the ground by his own troops, after Lincoln was assassinated. He ever pointed his own cannons at those troops to keep them from coming into town.

Grant also could have recommended that all Confederate officers be tried and shot for treason at Appomattox Courthouse. That would be within his rights to do so, but he did not do that. He showed mercy instead. He let everyone, officers and regular soldiers alike, simply go home.

In the 1990's, I was a fan of Robert E. Lee, but not anymore. I know more now.

In 2021, I'm now a fan of U.S. Grant, because I learned a thing or two.

As a President, he had a corrupt cabinet and administration, which wasn't entirely his faults. But as a General, he showed compassion and wisdom at the end of the Civil War. What he did or rather didn't do at Appomattox was a very big deal.

I'm a fan now of U.S. Grant.

Sir, you get one of my sticks.

#usgrant, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

Posted at 11:32 PM in Art, Extended Family Series, Politics, The Civil War, Walking Sticks, Wall Pieces, War, Washington, DC, Wood | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 20, 2021

“Amanda Gorman, Beech Wood, North Carolina” (c) 2021 Stu Jenks [Extended Family Series]

“Amanda Gorman, Beech Wood, North Carolina” 56 inches tall. (c) Stu Jenks 2021

Price: $195, shipping included in the price. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.

Amanda Gorman is the young poet who stunned the nation with her moving words and amazing elegance at the Biden Inauguration in January. For me, it was the highlight of the ceremony.

She killed that day.

Below is the poem she recited.

The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman.

Dr. Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans, and the world.

When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never ending shade?
The loss we carry, a sea.
We must wade.
We've braved the belly of the beast.
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace.
And the norms and notions of what just is, isn't always justice.
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.
Somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that it isn't broken, but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country and the time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one.
And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge our union with purpose.

To compose a country, committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else say, this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.
That we'll forever be tied together victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid
If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we've made.
That is the promise to glade the hill we climb.
If only we dare it's because being American is more than a pride we inherit.
It's the past we step into and how we repair it.

We've seen a force that would shatter our nation, rather than share it.
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded, but while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated in this truth.
In this faith we trust for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.
This is the era of just redemption.
We feared it in its inception.
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of of such a terrifying hour, but within it, we found the power to author a new chapter.
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves.

So while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be a country that is bruised.
But whole benevolence, but bold, fierce, and free.

We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.
Our blunders become their burdens, but one thing is certain.
If we merged mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy, and change our children's birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left.
With every breath, my bronze pounded chest.

We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the gold limbed hills of the West.
We will rise from the wind swept to Northeast where our forefathers first realized the revolution.
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the middle Western States.
We will arise from the sun baked South.
We will rebuild, reconciled and recover and every known nook over our nation.

And every corner called our country.
Our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid, the new dawn balloons, as we free it.
For there was always light.
If only we're brave enough to see it.
If only we're brave enough to be it.

#stujenks, #amandagorman, #extendedfamilyseries

Posted at 07:20 AM in African Americans, Art, Current Affairs, Extended Family Series, North Carolina, Other Writers, Walking Sticks, Wall Pieces, Washington, DC, Women, Wood | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 12, 2021

"Dr. Anthony Fauci, Rhododendron, North Carolina" (c) 2021 Stu Jenks [Extended Family Series]

Price: $175, shipping included in the price. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.

Who doesn't love Tony Fauci? Just one guy. The Orange Julius Caesar.

Who doesn't know who Tony Fauci is? Nobody. At all.

He is America's family doctor, that's for damn sure.

Thank you Dr. for your service to the nation and to the world.