JaZzInG uP mY LiFe

     A recent Wednesday night I ended up at a Jazz Ensemble performance at BYU in the HFAC. It was incredible! I have been to a number of musical performances at BYU, all of which have been absolutely fantastic! There are so many talented performers in the performing arts and I for one am not as talented in that area but I have greatly benefited from the concerts put on. My first experience with Jazz music was a little bit of practice during my piano lesson years ago back in high school. Oh and then there was one painfully dull and drawn out Jazz concert in high school that I attended all in the name of supporting some young women in my class. I like to think that I have become cultured and can now appreciate things from a wide spectrum of genres. Now I can't say I listen to Jazz music on a regular basis but after the concert I think I am going to have to change that. I love Jazz music! There is something about it that is so exciting and makes me want to move, it pulls at my soul and I am automatically happy and inspired, I feel like I can conquer the world in style, in ragtime.

Luckily we just studied the birth of Jazz music in the United States that came about with the mix of African American slave culture, immigration, and industrialism. The music I heard reminded me a lot of Scott Joplin and his style of Blues with catchy ragtime rhythms. I still remember playing Maple Leaf Rag on the piano, one of Joplin's popular pieces. Joplin’s great talent that he brought to the music world was syncopation. Joplin infused European and African American styles to create a new rhythm now recognized as ragtime. I have played in ragtime and have also felt a sense of liberation with that type of music. Those feelings might have something to do with growing up playing the piano and having to follow the strict count and measure but when I got to learn Maple Leaf Rag I could use a little, very little J freedom in counting. I could play the notes with a little give here and there and “feel” the music and that’s how I felt the other night listening to the Jazz Ensemble.

      Jazz music is a kind of branch that was born out of ragtime. Like blues, jazz is associated with musicians from the south most of which had to overcome some type of obstacle to become a voice and a recognized artist. Jazz musicians and music quickly gained favor with the majority of the population and was soon considered one of the greatest art forms to be born in the States. Jazz music was born and gained popularity within the modernist movement. Jazz is part of the modernist movement because of the leading characteristics of jazz. Jazz is based on experiments, on improvisation, an interest in new technology, and focus on self-creations over the individual piece of artwork. Jazz lyrics focus on secular themes which is a very modernist idea. Further infusion of classical and folk music varied the styles and breadth of jazz as did each musician. Every jazz performer is unique and brings to the stage their own set of ideas and interpretations of jazz. Louis Armstrong, a noted jazz musician, is known for his voice and for his interest in ensemble solos. 

                                 
                                                       {via: Music Liner} Louis Armstrong         
     Armstrong is in fact one of my favorite Jazz musicians and he has certainly made his mark in music history. The BYU Jazz Ensemble was inherently influenced by his style. It was Armstrong who introduced the idea of solo showcasing and highlighting specific musicians throughout a piece, the Jazz Ensemble did that Wednesday night, highlighting certain performers throughout songs. Armstrong was one of the first musicians to treat his voice like an instrument and to make new and different voices. Armstrong's music is unique and can easily be identified by his voice. Armstrong just like many other musicians overcame a difficult childhood he was an orphan and was adopted and became a great musician.
This Thanksgiving season I am so thankful for cultural events, for lots of genres, talented students that surround me, and most importantly for music and the happiness it brings me!

Selections from Maynard Dixon Art and Spirit

More on Maynard Dixon
{via- youtube}

What's Next?

Coincidentally after having written this paper I feel like the paintings theme is very applicable to me. I don't have a game plan for my life, I don't really know what my next step is but somehow I'll figure it out, these things do always seem to work out :)



{via: google books} No place to Go- Maynard Dixon

  

 Maynard Dixon developed as an artist when many different art philosophies were flourishing and because of this Dixon’s artwork became a conglomerate of different philosophies. Modernist and regionalist are two ways that Dixon is described which is very unique because those two philosophies are contradictory. Regionalist paintings came about in response to modernist paintings that were being produced. Regionalists were realists and focused on “true” American values of going back to nature; they were traditional in response to the modernists who were looking to the future. Modernist philosophy rejected tradition and looked to new methods in technology and used a lot of symbolism to express hidden messages in their artwork. Dixon can also be described as a social realist because of his chosen themes of his artwork. All three of these philosophies influenced Dixon and can be seen in his painting, No Place to Go.

Dixon’s background sheds light on his painting style. Dixon’s love of the American land and country was rooted in him at an early age because he was raised by an aristocratic, well to do family that was closely tied to the Civil War. As Dixon began to study art he worked with Arthur Mathews, a tonalist, and associated with many artists in the Bohemian Men’s club in San Francisco. Dixon found work as a newspaper illustrator and moved into a more modernist style over impressionism. Dixon’s love for nature and influence of modernist friends led him to be a mixed artist with both regionalist and modernist styles. Even though Dixon had a hand in the business field and was busy with illustrations, he was known to dress up as a cowboy to fully embrace their philosophy of becoming one with nature. Dixon’s second marriage was with Dorothea Lange, the prominent photojournalist of the Great Depression she had a strong influence on Dixon as a social realist. Dixon’s surroundings and social circle really influenced his painting style to become a conglomerate of many philosophies.

{via: Shorpy - Lange}

  {via: Arts Magazine - Dixon}   
                                             

                                           

No Place to Go is most easily described by Dixon himself as, “honest art of the west” and that is exactly what it is (Bingham). The painting is of a homeless man with a full duffle bag slung over his shoulder leaning hunched against an old picket fence. The overall composition of the painting is very balanced with a rounded hill in the background complemented by a fence in the foreground lining the hill with the man in the center. Clear lines repeat throughout the painting: the hill, man’s cap, fence, and grass slant diagonally down towards the ocean. There is a sense of peace and contentment as one studies the painting. The colors of the painting are muted and although the man is made separate from nature, there is a clear distinction between the two the colors complement one another. The man is wearing a dull navy blue jacket that pulls out the blue hues in the mountain and background and even a little blue in the grass. Similarly, the man’s pants and cap are brown and the shading goes very nicely with the fence and the grass. Even Maynard Dixon’s signature fits right into the painting; it is located in the corner of the grass in a brown used throughout the painting. The colors over all are very naturalistic and muted. The lines in the painting are blurred: the one between the two hills, the one in the foreground that the man is standing on and the background. The color choice and the balance in the painting really pull out the regionalist quality in the painting. The man complements nature like he was raised by the land he is part of it. “That sense of sun and space and silence—of serenity—of strength and freedom—if I can interpret that with what I can master of technical requirements, I will have reached the best of my endeavor" (McKay). If Dixon had dressed the man in a black and white business suit he could not have achieved the naturalistic quality that the painting has.  It seems as though Dixon consciously wanted to portray a man with natural roots that complemented nature. Dixon recognized the power and majesty in nature and he harnessed it and used it to his advantage.

The overall subject of the painting is of man who has come to the end of the road; he has traveled some unknown distance and has reached his destination, the ocean. The tone of the painting is contemplative; the man appears to be reflecting on his past decisions that has led him to here he is now. The subject of the painting brings out the social realism side of the painting. This painting was done during the Great Depression when unemployment ran high and not very many job opportunities were available and men backed up their bags to travel anywhere looking for work. The average American man easily related to this painting because it was a reality for many people during the depression. Social realists captured what life is really like and that’s what Dixon did in this painting in fact he did a whole series of paintings called the “Forgotten Man” which illustrated different affects of life in the depression. Dixon said, “The depression woke me up to the fact that I had a part in all this, as an artist" (Hagerty, 206). Dixon used his passion and talents to paint and depict life. The man in No Place to Go is sculpture like and the face lacks any specific details these qualities allow anyone to become the man depicted. It makes the painting much more relatable which was a very important characteristic to social realists. The average citizens needed to know that their problems were known and that they mattered. At a time when there was so much need and despair, their only hope was to search the nation for a new job. The painting sets the tone for Dixon’s series the “Forgotten man”, which reaches out to the American citizen and gives the “forgotten man” a voice.

Majestic flares in the painting represent the modernist influence on Dixon. The hills are very simple purged of any detail but they are majestic and dominate the foreground over the ocean and small skyline. The painting is set at the onset of the sun setting and is symbolic of the closure of the day but also of the man’s hopes.  The man depicted presumably has searched for a job and a place to start his life anew but to no avail, he has reached the west coast with no luck. Dixon’s emphasize of line, shape, and color supports the claim that he is a modernist painter. It is not so much important that the painting be of an unemployed man standing against a fence on a hillside close to the ocean but use of bold lines, shapes, and color. The lines are diagonal, expressing the sense of decrease, and despair the hills are large and powerful free from adoration, and the few colors used are bold and naturalistic taking into account the time of day of the painting. There specific attributes in No Place to Go make it a modernist painting.

Dixon painted in the 1930’s in America during the Great Depression when many different philosophies were bursting forth and his paintings reflect many of those ideas. Regionalism wanted to simplify life, to resort back to nature and the traditions of America. Social Realists sought to portray life how it really was without any embellishments. Modernists looked to the future and technology and painted with symbolism to portray hidden messages that could only be decoded by specific readers. No Place to Go is one such painting that displays influences of regionalism, social realism, and modernism.

                                 

                                                                



Maynard Dixon developed as an artist when many different art philosophies were flourishing and because of this Dixon’s artwork became a conglomerate of different philosophies. Modernist and regionalist are two ways that Dixon is described which is very unique because those two philosophies are contradictory. Regionalist paintings came about in response to modernist paintings that were being produced. Regionalists were realists and focused on “true” American values of going back to nature; they were traditional in response to the modernists who were looking to the future. Modernist philosophy rejected tradition and looked to new methods in technology and used a lot of symbolism to express hidden messages in their artwork. Dixon can also be described as a social realist because of his chosen themes of his artwork. All three of these philosophies influenced Dixon and can be seen in his painting, No Place to Go.

Dixon’s background sheds light on his painting style. Dixon’s love of the American land and country was rooted in him at an early age because he was raised by an aristocratic, well to do family that was closely tied to the Civil War. As Dixon began to study art he worked with Arthur Mathews, a tonalist, and associated with many artists in the Bohemian Men’s club in San Francisco. Dixon found work as a newspaper illustrator and moved into a more modernist style over impressionism. Dixon’s love for nature and influence of modernist friends led him to be a mixed artist with both regionalist and modernist styles. Even though Dixon had a hand in the business field and was busy with illustrations, he was known to dress up as a cowboy to fully embrace their philosophy of becoming one with nature. Dixon’s second marriage was with Dorothea Lange, the prominent photojournalist of the Great Depression she had a strong influence on Dixon as a social realist. Dixon’s surroundings and social circle really influenced his painting style to become a conglomerate of many philosophies.

Works Cited

            Bingham, Paul, and Susan Bingham. “Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts, About Maynard Dixon, Mt. Carmell Utah Gallery and Museum, www. Thunderbirdfoundation.com.” Thunderbirdfoundation.com. The Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. <http://www.thunderbirdfoundation.com/maynard-dixon.cfm>.

            Hagerty, Donald J. “The Art of Maynard Dixon.” Google Books. Gibbs Smith, 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://books.google.com/books?id= U6UzaYIfIT0C&dq=maynard dixon art work&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.

            McKay, Jayne. “Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit.” Maynard Dixon Documentary. Cloud World LLc., 20008. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. <http://www.maynarddixondoc.com/about.ht

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