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Charlie
Bullock"Art’s
a luxury" by
Byron Browne
Photographs by the author | |
“Art’s a luxury,”
Charlie Bullock says. And who would know better than an artist like Bullock who,
every day, waits patiently for any of us to decide that we crave such an indulgence?
Of course, Bullock is talking for us non-artists. For himself, art is
as much a necessity as eating. Charlie Bullock picks up a paintbrush with the
same alacrity as the rest of us would a fork or the telephone. His is that rare
talent that the rest of us only dream of, the demonstration of extraordinary ability
that is spoken of with awe and witnessed with wonder. A short time ago my wife
and I visited with the Bullocks and saw, first-hand, the extraordinary workings
of this Texas artist.
The Bullocks, Cindy and Charlie, live in Malakoff,
Texas. Malakoff, being one of the few towns in the state with a Russian name
(Odessa, Sebastopol, Moscow among the others but, as some will undoubtedly tell
you, Odessa is Ukrainian, not Russian.) and a modest population of around 2500
is home, according to Mr. Bullock, to “several fantastic artists.” This magazine,
in fact, on its Malakoff page, lists
a couple of these artists. However, the magazine’s mention of Bullock is misleading.
The entry describes Bullock as a “muralist” and leaves the story there and bare.
Truth of the matter is, Charlie Bullock will paint, draw, sculpt, sketch or print
on just about any material and if a wall is what today’s canvas might be then
well, so be it. Bullock’s eye is his inspiration and whatever is handy is the
preferred material. In fact, according to Bullock, ordinary house paint has, on
more than one occasion, risen to preferred status on the materials hierarchy.
|
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| Cindy
and Charlie Bullock |
| Studio,
School and Gallery |
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| When we first arrived
in Malakoff, meeting at the local
Brookshire’s market, the Bullocks loaded us into their SUV and headed, just
up the street, to Athens, Texas
where Mr. Bullock’s art studio is located. The studio, just east of the town’s
main square, is a long, rectangular space comprised of a couple of classrooms
and a single office area that doubles as Bullock’s personal work area. The larger
of the classrooms, in the back of the building, was stocked with art supplies
and the work of several of Bullock’s students. As we wandered around the area
both Mr. and Mrs. Bullock remarked to each other about the artwork and progress
of the student’s work. The comments were those of proud teachers. It was
clear that they regard their students as family and the work of their students,
as it was in varying stages of progress throughout the space, propped on easels
and spread atop tables and shelving, showed real development as led by a talented
and caring hand. It was around this large workspace table that we sat and discussed
Mr. Bullock’s career and its meanderings through Texas, Mexico, Colorado, Arizona
and New Mexico. |
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| “I kinda’ paint in
series. I get into a groove of one subject and stay with that for some time,”
Bullock remarks as he tells us about his time in San Miguel, Mexico and then in
South Texas painting landscapes, ranch hands and cowboys. And the work in his
office area and the hallway bears out this Southwestern theme. There are several
paintings of mountain landscapes from Colorado and Arizona, cowboys at work on
the range, etc. and Bullock is quick to point out that this is what he associates
himself with, i.e. the western art themes that are so prominent in this part of
the country. Indeed, when asked for artistic influences Bullock first declares
an affiliation with the Cowboy Artists Association and several of the artists
that are members. He appears to define himself, if even somewhat loosely, on the
principles of outdoor, Western scenes reanimated on canvas. However, his education
(he obtained his degree in Art in 2002 from UT Tyler) and his recent work reveal
a more modern and eclectic style. In the hallway of his studio are a few, oversized
collages made of newspaper clippings, photographs, oil paint and pencil; representational
and themed works centered around the 9-11 tragedy. In the corner is a wonderful
rock bust of an African man, carved during an association with a group of visiting
Zimbabwean artists a couple of years ago. Additionally, many of the newer pieces
that he has catalogued in his portfolio illustrate portraits and drawings that
involve the use of vivid, base colors that are reminiscent of such modern artists
as John Wesley or Roy Lichtenstein. All of which are clear departures from the
Southwestern genre however, I suspect that the switch in aesthetic is not so much
a planned redirection in artistic intent as it is the result of Bullock applying
the materials necessary for whatever project he is involved in at the moment.
As he stated, “If Cindy shows me a photograph I might say ‘That needs to be a
watercolor or maybe if I see a landscape I’ll think that it needs to be oils or
acrylic. Whatever is right for the scene.” And yes, that could include ordinary
house paint. |
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| Even
while fading, the mural is still a bit more than the building deserves. |
| We left the studio
and began to drive around Athens
in search of those murals that have, for some, defined Bullock as an artist. We
first came on the mural painted onto the old Athens
train depot. This is an enormous painting, stretching the entire reach of the
building, depicting a nineteenth century Athens
as the depot area itself may have appeared with a colossal train steaming into
the foreground. Much faded now, Mr. Bullock remarked that he should return
soon and remove some shrub that has grown up at one point, obscuring a portion
of wall where he had painted an image of himself. (There was a sort of pattern
to this, i.e. Bullock, like Caravaggio, furtively re-signing his works by incorporating
an image of himself and or his wife into the canvas.) As we drove through town
it seemed that there was no part that did not have some point of relevance for
him. Passing an office building Mr. Bullock remarked, “Oh! And I have an oil painting
in that attorney’s office.” A little further on, “See that door over there? The
one with the ark and Biblical scenes painted on it? That’s mine.” This event repeated
itself many times during our drive through the area; it seemed that each segment
of town was represented by Bullock’s work. |
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| We came to the local
high school and Bullock showed us the enormous lion mascot that he had painted
onto the back of the grandstand of the football stadium. Literally picture perfect,
the animal leaps from the wood and, in fact, reaches beyond the boundary set by
the frame of the space. Charlie described how he had had to paint the pressboard
canvas inside the school’s gymnasium, straddling the wood, Pollack-like. Like
the train depot mural, the school’s mascot is sun-blanched and faded and it seemed
a shame that so much quality work had been left to the elements. |
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| Back in the truck
and a phone call later, we came to a home of one of Bullock’s patrons. Commissioned
a couple of years ago to give some life to a downstairs bath area, Mr. Bullock
had painted a prairie landscape onto all four walls of the room. The effect is
that the room’s area is seemingly opened to the outsid. In fact, opening the door
to the room is almost equivalent to opening the back door onto the expanse of
grasslands that were the grounds of this enormous home.
When we left this
gated community we drove a few blocks back towards town and Mrs. Bullock detoured
through a neighborhood to show us a mural that Mr. Bullock had painted onto the
façade of an outdoor tool shed. Mr. Bullock tried a couple of times to get the
resident of the home on the telephone so that we could have access to the backyard
and a closer look at the painting. Having no success with the phone, we drove
past the house to have a look from the street. Unfortunately, the door of the
shed, that portion that holds the focal point of the work, was open and the majority
of the painting was hidden from view. Nevertheless, we did get a decent look at
the mural as it exists on the walls and the vibrancy of the colors and the equine
scene that it featured fully demonstrated Bullock’s experience and talent for
the pastoral.
As we passed the house my wife noticed the cause for the
home’s occupant not answering the telephone - he was asleep, sunbathing on the
roof. |
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| The last stop on the
tour was the Bullock’s own home. We were intent on viewing Bullock’s first mural,
a life-sized portraiture of a scene in a New Orleans jazz club. The painting is
of a group of musicians in full sway and, in what would become, literally, a signature
move, Bullock painted himself off in the corner, peering into the club through
a side window. Originally commissioned for and residing in a restaurant,
the restaurant has closed and the painting is now placidly waiting, in the Bullock’s
hallway, for a new home. Bullock showed us the postcard that had been the model
for the work and I was reminded how he had told us earlier in the day how some
of his commissions have been to paint replicas of famous and or extraordinarily
expensive works of art so that the owners can more easily insure the paintings
by keeping the originals safely stored somewhere besides the living room wall.
The representation of the postcard was flawless. |
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| Salvaged
bricks from the Malakoff Jr. High
School |
Near the bottom of
the page of this magazine’s entry for the town of
Malakoff is a picture of Bullock’s
mural for the Malakoff junior high
school. Near the top of the driveway at the Bullock home is a small pile of colored
bricks. These are, of course, the same entity. The junior high school demolished
the building holding the mural some time ago during renovations. The Bullocks
were able to salvage some of the bricks but most, sadly, were hauled away like
so much detritus. For many years the icon of the town, this mural, like so much
of Bullock’s public work, has been discarded. Several other pieces of Bullock’s
work seem threatened by the same spirit of indifference. Nevertheless, Charlie
Bullock continues to teach, inform and create. Every day Mr. Bullock teaches his
students, engages himself in those projects that he is drawn to produce and waits
for the letters and phone calls asking for the portrait of the children or the
landscape of the new home. He seems perfectly patient in these endeavors because,
as he stated, “Everything I’ve ever done has been to get back to where I can just
paint.”
Copyright Byron Browne
Notes
From Over Here
May 27, 2009 Column
Byron Browne can be reached at Byron.Browne@gmail.com
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