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Interview with Addison Parks
(Part One)
Dateline: 04/27/99
Addison Parks, writer, art
critic, painter, and zine publisher, is kind of like an angel
of the art
world, a man-with-a-mission, floating around guarding and supporting
the real treasure of Art:
its creative soul. He publishes the online zine, ArtDeal, where
his writings have inspired many a
fledgling art-type.
Robin: Give us a little personal
history, when you knew you wanted to be an artist, how you
got where you are, and any noteworthy struggle/adventures in
between.
Addison: I take being a painter
for granted. It's all I've ever known. Had a studio in Rome in
1963 at the age of ten; the Italian Futurist master, Gino Severini,
gave me instruction in mural
painting. I was very lucky. Showed, got written up. Great start.
My mother was a sculptor.
Coming back to America at age fourteen derailed me for a while.
I was into assemblage ala
Johns and Rauschenberg, but living in Virginia. Enough said...
but a final year at Phillips Exeter
resurrected my aspirations to paint(an 'A' in painting was as
good as an 'A' in math). After
graduating early from RISD in painting, I moved to New York in
1978 with the help of the artist
Richard Tuttle. Showed at PS1, painted murals (featured in the
Times Magazine), wrote for
Arts Magazine, trucked art, worked as a preparator, showed with
Joan Washburn, thanks to
Bill Jensen, and then with the infamous Andrew Crispo Gallery
in 1982.
Completely enjoyed being
in the thick of it -- the birth of the Eighties art explosion,
postmodernism, and all that. You asked for a story, well, my
editor at Arts Magazine told me
he was doing a graffiti spread in the upcoming issue and when
I said I had an anti-rant lying
around on the floor somewhere, he asked me to get it in to him
fast. Well, he pasted my little dig
onto the tail end of their tag, and the ensuing firestorm left
me looking over my shoulder for
guys in fatigues with spray paint. In direct response to my slim
column they formed a panel that
included artists Keith Haring, Fab Five Freddie, and Futura 2000.
They equated me with Ronald
Reagan, and published a huge spread in response. The irony is
that I loved their work, and
helped them install their most important exhibit to date, NEW
YORK, NEW WAVE. My
friend, Douglas Abdell, also had a painting on the page just
opposite my rant, and he has barely
spoken to me since. One of my rare negative writings which was
never intended as it was
presented. It just goes to show... I obviously hit a nerve, one
I regret. I also did a mural
collaboration for Cologne with Francesco Clemente and Moira Dryer;
was part of an
artists/writers group that included Peter Halley; and interviewed
David Salle in his studio, but
Mary Boone withheld the transparencies unless he was on the cover.
No deal. I also did a cover
spread on the Stormking Sculpture Center for Arts where I spent
three days camping out on
the grounds to research the piece -- this after they sent a stretch
limousine to pick me up!
But I left New York to have
a child with a Bermudan art critic I met at the Mud Club... took
a
teaching job at the Putney School in Vermont (Tea Leoni and Chris
Eigeman were a couple of
my students) -- and never made it back or even looked back. Traveled
and painted in Europe
and out West on a marvelous adventure over two years, and then
ended up back in Providence,
teaching part-time at RISD and running an art space, The Brouhaha...
but that's when my life
went south. My art dealer, Andrew Crispo, went to prison under
very dark circumstances; my
dearest friend, Robert Boykin, died of AIDS; my great editor
at Arts, Richard Martin, was
gone; my wife and the mother of my beautiful son, Rory, divorced
me, and I was hopelessly
involved in a powerful but destructive relationship with a former
student, the aspiring Brit Pop
Star, Heather Nova. I escaped to Boston, worked as a broadcast
designer and wrote an art
column for the Christian Science Monitor.
Now I show with the Creiger-Dane
Gallery in Boston, have two more boys, and a girl on the
way with a woman unlike I was ever lucky or smart enough to love.
And I paint. There you have
it!
Robin: Why did you start
your art zine?
Addison: I love art. I want
other people to have the chance to love it the way I do. I grew
up
with wonderful paintings and sculpture in the home where I was
born in Cleveland. I watched
my mother and other artists at work in their studios. I saw art
every day when we lived in
France, Greece, and Italy. There is no question it was an experience
of total light for me. Total
wonder. It got in my blood. It was the story of life... the passion
for life. I recently organized a
show on abstraction around a painting by Milton Resnick that
my mother bought in 1960. I've
looked at that painting everyday since then... it shows me something
different every time I look
at it. Like morning light, it gives me a clear, bright look at
the day. That is such a wow for me. If
most people only knew what art can mean!
Then, after writing about
art for twenty years, with both great and green editors, I wanted
to do
my own zine. I wanted a loose outlet for my ideas, a focused
audience... one that I didn't have to
dumb it down for. I wanted to do a publication for art makers/lovers
that was down to earth,
enthusiastic, and straight about art... hence the art DEAL. Artdeal
started in print, on a Mac,
xeroxed and stapled and dropped around town. I reviewed shows,
galleries and museums,
visited studios, did interviews, and of course, the rants. It
got both great and bad press. After just
a couple of volumes it went to the Internet. No brainer... powerful,
colorful, non-linear, global,
and cheap!
Robin: You mentioned that
you are a man with a mission, would you care to elaborate (I
bet
you would!)?
Addison: It's pretty simple,
really. I believe being an artist is a CHOICE, not a qualification.
If
you are trying to measure art you are missing the point. It is
not a competition; it is subjective; it
is an experience; and don't bother making judgments. As artists
we're all in the same boat.
We're all doing what we can. No need to shoot each other down.
Just pay attention. Listen. Give
each other a chance. Then do the work.
I guess the reason this is
a mission is because as artists we tend to be our own worst enemies.
It
starts there. Renaissance. A new benevolence. I am getting over
the need to lead horses to water
and make them drink. Art is a gift; it is how we share our gifts,
and express our gratitude for all
the gifts we've been given. We just have to make water and if
THEY come, well... if they drink,
then it is their gain.
[Stay Tuned for Part Two of this
interview!]
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