I decided to write some thoughts about the show at Egan Gallery...for those who might be interested in reading a couple of pages. THOUGHTS ON MY EXHIBITION AT THE EGAN GALLERY. BY STEVE METZGER AUGUST 1, 2013 It was 1966 when I graduated from Valencia High School. Viet Nam was everywhere, and I was the right age to be drafted. I was pretty sure that I would be drafted and was very uncertain about my future. I took the SAT exams, did pretty well, and enrolled at FJC as a pre-dental major. I had started painting on my own in high school and really liked the escape into my private world of art. My folks met at the Kansas City Art Institute, so I grew up with art. My dad didn’t have a particular style and painted abstract and realistic paintings. My mom made sculpture and did a Pollock-like drip painting on the coffee table in the living room. The best times in my somewhat troubled youth were connected with the process of making art. Sometime in 1967 or 68 I took my first painting class with Robert Egan. I instantly felt at home and knew that I would be painting for the rest of my life. He was, for me, a great teacher. He didn’t teach me “how to paint”. There were no academic exercises that I remember. What there was… was a lot of support and encouragement along with tough, (but not brutal), honest criticism. I began, in his class, by painting the seascapes and landscapes that I had been doing (and selling) since high school. My favorite artists were Robert Wood and Violet Parkhurst. I had learned a lot from their “how to” books that I had bought a the art supply store. One day, Mr. Egan put a picture of a Jackson Pollock painting up on the bulletin board, and it really opened my eyes. I started going to the school library whenever I could, and spent hours and hours looking thru the art books. It was amazing! I soon found out that I liked almost everything about art. Mr. Egan ( I never would call him “Bob or Robert”) was open minded and encouraged creativity. I painted drip paintings and cubist paintings and Picasso and Pollock replaced Robert Wood and Violet Parkhurst as my favorite painters. I began learning about 20th century art, and was really excited about it. I didn’t sell paintings anymore, but I didn’t care. I would try anything for the experience of it. Mr. Egan also took us on field trips to LACMA and art night on La Cienega Blvd. in LA. It was my first introduction to the art world. I’m really thankful for the creative environment that Mr. Egan created in those classes. It shaped my life. I was drinking one afternoon, when I was in my 20’s, living in Costa Mesa, and I looked him up in the phone book and called him to tell him that I was making paintings that looked like Bradley Walker Tomlin. (He was the only one I knew who would know who Tomlin was) Surprisingly, he remembered me and said I was an “experimental” painter. I still am an “experimental” painter. His words and the memories of his classes, kept me going thru my 20’s, when I was fighting the draft board and playing Rock and Roll in bands to make a living. When I was 28, I enrolled at CSUF. Special thanks to Stephan Baxter for this show. It means more to me than words can express. And thanks to Bob Egan and those who keep the fire burning! Cheers.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 20:04:13 +0000
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