A few months ago I saw him at an event for ESKFF, the wonderful organization founded by Eileen S. Kaminsky that I have written about in these pages before, and as we were talking he asked me if I had met Aaron Boucher who had founded Field Colony, a gallery, meeting and co-working space in Hoboken. I hadn't, but I had heard something about Field Colony through the part of the grapevine that runs through Instagram, and Walter suggested I stop by to introduce myself and said I could tell Aaron he had sent me. I stopped by one day soon after that, but Aaron was out so I left my contact information and heard back by email, and then about a week later another artist friend called me and asked if I had heard anything about Field Colony, and when I told him I had and that it was Walter who had told me about it, my friend said, "His work is amazing!" The friend who I was talking to is an amazing artist in his own right, and he also is immersed in the art world as a supporter of other artists and creative ventures. We talked about Walter's work for quite a while that afternoon, and because it had been Walter who recommended that I introduce myself to Field Colony and my friend admired his work so much, I followed up again to set up a time when my friend and I could meet with Aaron Boucher.
A day before we were scheduled to meet at Field Colony, I stopped by to confirm the meeting and saw Walter. He told me that he was preparing to start an Artist Residency, and so I suggested that when he'd gotten settled in a bit I could stop by to take some photos and interview him for my blog. We decided on the following week as a possible time, and the next day when I stopped by with my friend to meet with Aaron, Walter was not there yet, but Aaron showed us his canvases that had been stretched on the walls. They were going to be very large pieces, and in my naivete I thought that when I came by to see Walter the following week he would have just barely begun. Much to my surprise, he had completed a prodigious amount of work, glorious paintings of the forefathers of America circa the signing of the Constitution. To my defense I know that Walter has a teaching job that takes a great deal of his time and that he takes very seriously. It's important to him to do everything he does more than just well - he tries to do all things with excellence, and because I know how time consuming teaching can be, I had assumed that he wouldn't have much time to be in the Residency at Field Colony. But he had found what looked like a great deal of time, and unless he's found a way to stop the clocks, he must have been working around them. The work is stunning, and very moving, and became more so as I spoke with Walter and learned more about his background.
Born in Havana, Cuba, he came to this county with his family when he was 14. Living first in Union City, he had to learn to speak not only English but Spanish in the way that the other people in that community did. Dialects and pronunciation vary, and it's amazing that he was able to communicate at all, never mind learn a new language that is as difficult as English is and learn it so well. As he told me his story, I stopped him at one point and said how impressed I was by his ability to move beyond what could have been barriers that might have kept another person back. I am a native English speaker, and I'm also somewhat of a careful listener of the English language - I love words and linguistics, and very often I hear interesting colloquialisms even in the most well educated people. But Walter speaks not only like a native, but one who has had the best education and the best opportunities to learn and excel. He has had a great education and wonderful opportunities, but they are things he fought for, going beyond and past what was normally suggested and expected of a young man who had come here from another country with very little except for the skills and talents and drive that have created a life far beyond what even some people with an easier road might have accomplished.
As we spoke that afternoon, I asked Walter what had made him want to begin drawing. His answer was a beautiful one to me, simple and profound, because it reminded me of my own history and why I had wanted to act and write. He told me that he had always been drawing, from a very early age, and that he found a great deal of enjoyment in it, as well as a way to find peace and a place of his own. The community he grew up in when his family lived in Cuba was not a quiet one, and it was not in an affluent area. When his family came to America, they moved first to Union City, and at the time that they moved there it must have been very different than it is today. Throughout our conversation he never once complained, something that was surprising to me because I've heard so many people over the years complain about the places where they grew up in and where they've had to live. But Walter just seemed to take it all in stride, knowing with a quiet purpose that he wouldn't stay in the Union City of twenty years ago and that somehow, in spite of recommendations from school counselors and advisors that were at times limiting, he would work to make a better life for himself and his family and to honor the commitment his parents had made to come to a new country for a better life for their children.
And he has done so much work over such a short period of time, gaining a B.F.A. Degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and an M.A. from St. Peter's College in Jersey City; his work has been shown in group exhibits and solo shows in New York and New Jersey and is included in many private collections. If he did not look so young I would have thought he would have to be a much older man because of the length and breadth of his experience and expertise. There is a seriousness about him that keeps him focused, but then that smile shines through. As we spoke about his current project, we talked about passion, the passion of the forefathers of America who felt so strongly that the world could and should be a better place, and how that kind of passion is at the root of what can be great change for good. His working title is Power Is Not Love, and we talked about that too, how sometimes people can mistake one for the other or think they can gain one by using the other. And we talked about Walter and his vision, why it is that he chooses the topics he chooses, and the answer I kept hearing was healing. Though that word was not said, it's what I kept feeling, and as I thought later I realized it's what Walter's work is capable of. Helping people to look at the seemingly familiar in a new light, opening up a visual space for personal reflection, investigating what something means to him in a deeply personal way while allowing each person to interpret what they need to in order to discover meaning for themselves. This is the power of Walter John Rodriguez and his work, and somehow it feels very close to love.
Walter John Rodriguez
At Field Colony
1001 Bloomfield Street
Hoboken, New Jersey
New Work From His Current Project
In Residency At Field Colony
Past Projects
With Eileen S. Kaminsky
At The ESKFF Residency Program
Following Three Photos
Courtesy Of Walter John Rodriguez
With Eileen S. Kaminsky
At The ESKFF Residency Program
Following Three Photos
Courtesy Of Walter John Rodriguez
With Aaron Boucher, Founder Of Field Colony
At The Inaugural Hoboken Waterfront Arts Gala
With Artist and Venetian Plaster Artisan Zac Scott Gross
And Aaron Boucher, Founder of Field Colony
At Field Colony
At The Opening Of His Solo Show
At Paul Fitzgerald's N Gallery
With Paul Fitzgerald And Jannie Wolff
Blessings,
Jannie Susan
No comments:
Post a Comment