Words and Images by Michael Acker

Creation is always in the dark because you can only do the work of making by not quite knowing what you’re doing. – Rebecca Solnit

A starting point, for artists or for anyone else, might be simply learning to look around where you live now. – Lucy Lippard

It’s a cruel and random world, but the chaos is all so beautiful. – Hiromu Arakawa

Richard’s Apartment Garden

Sometime between March and November of 2019, Tony started constructing his installation of flowerpots, plants, garden ornaments, lumber, and concrete blocks on the side of the street in front of 67 Central Avenue in Boyes Hot Springs. I originally assumed his name was Richard because of the sign he posted in 2021. The sign, which is not up currently, is a bit puzzling, but I’m glad he gave himself credit, no matter what name he used.

Tony was born in Nayarit state, Mexico and came to the U.S. 50 or 60 years ago (he’s a bit vague on this). He has worked as a landscaper his whole life. “I know how to take care of plants,” he told me.

He has worked at his trade until he got sick. “The doctors took my money, and I’m still sick,” he said. He will go back to Mexico when it’s “time for the ‘cementary’,” he joked. He usually walks with two canes, which he made himself, because he doesn’t like the store-bought ones.

Tony has lived in the apartments next door to his garden for five or six years.

His garden evolves with the seasons. He grows geraniums and plants annual flowers in season. He also uses artificial flowers. Periodically he paints the pots a new color. As of 2023 few plants can be seen. Tony has stacks of equipment he is trying to sell. However, the installation keeps evolving and retains his joyous style.

Under the Influence

The corner of Poplar and Boyes Blvd. is on the edge of the subdivision known as the Hotel Grounds, which was platted in 1909. The houses are all small cottages. At this corner, there grows a lush conglomeration of plants surrounding a white grid trellis. On the Boyes Blvd. side, a vigorous Datura vine spills over the sidewalk. Datura is one of the plants mentioned in the Don Juan books as being used to induce visions, so I imagined the man who lives in the house at that corner is a shaman.

When I showed a preliminary version of Under the Influence to a painter friend, he said it reminded him of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painters (such as Dante Gabriel Rosetti, active in the second half of the 19th century.) This inspired me to insert a few covert references to the PRB, which you can see if you look closely. The supine figure could be dreaming or sleeping in a psychedelic haze. So, I am under the influence of my friend, the PRB, and, possibly, shamanic emanations. Then again, art, too is an intoxicant.

Valley of the Moon Main Stem Project collages 14C Revision and 14C Revision 2

I started the Main Stem Project in 2008 to document and comment on changes in the stretch of Highway 12 between Verano Avenue and Agua Caliente Blvd. It is ongoing.

The sidewalk projects caused interesting upheaval, when digging and underground construction took place at this block between Thomson Ave. and Hawthorn Ave. Later, the house very near Thomson was demolished, revealing the palm tree behind it. The final shapes of the pieces were becoming very important to me at this point. Please see the link for more info.

January Mood

For as long as I can remember I have been in love with the sight of bare branches against grey sky. January Mood is not a psychologically dark mood. It is introspective, and hopeful, despite the implications of January 6th.

Artments

Lucy Lippard talked about artists, or anyone, looking around at their immediate environment. I’ve looked at this building virtually every day for 25 years. One day, it had to become art.

It’s been a strange four years, right?

Four years ago almost to the day, I retired from my job at SCC.

I proceeded to make even more art than I had already been making. I felt it was mostly good, and the process was great. I was deliriously joyful.

In March 2020 I remember Seth Doiinsky saying to me, “this should be over in a couple of weeks.”

As it went on, I became even happier. It was the greatest excuse in the world to hole up in the studio, working, or be in the garden playing with plants. The work piled up and the garden was looking great! I had super high self-confidence.

2021 was the same. Stacks of work. Some sales, some shows. Joy.

2022, I started to notice how high the stacks were getting. This can be a little depressing. You have tons of art but no outlet for it. Who the hell wants it? You may not know this but getting noticed is a huge part of an artist’s job, if he cares about sharing his work at all. And even with all the social media, it’s a daunting task.

By January 2023 the world seemed a bleaker place to me. Politics continued awful. Climate fears and fire fears and war fears abounded. The problem of white supremacy and racism looked as strong as ever. (That is to say, my art-fueled self-delusion was crumbling.) Still looks that way of course. I did January Mood that month. But it is not a dark statement. It’s a statement of my love of bare trees against a winter sky, an image and feeling that’s been with me since childhood.

As I prepared for this show, I actually reworked all of these very recent pieces because my ideas had kept evolving. My mood was of a somewhat grim satisfaction. “At least I got this done.”

And here you see what, or a part of, what I got done.

Technical Note: These pieces start with many photographs, taken from different angles, possibly at different times of day or year. I compose in Photoshop, then “cut” the composition into printable sizes and shapes (I never use 8.5×11 paper). I then print onto watercolor paper, possibly other papers, and physically collage. The next step is painting. Then, if the mood strikes me, I will print portions of the composition again and physically collage again. I’m not above altering the size and color balance of any part of the scene that seems to need it.

I have been an artist for 40 years. I have an MFA from San Francisco State. I construct my own version of reality in my work, combining and recombining images of my environment; sometimes “beautiful” images, sometimes the most mundane. To make a work of art, for me, is like a puzzle that I am simultaneously constructing and solving.

The point for the viewer, I hope, is seeing what, in fact, did happen. I hope you engage with the puzzle, trying to discover some of the possible solutions. I hope you engage with my interpretations of what we all see. I hope you are able to unravel the inherent mysteries of the newly created reality embodied in each work.

I compose in Photoshop, combining hybrid views from many angles. Then I print out onto watercolor paper, and other papers, and collage in the real world. Next, I paint over them and reprint and re-collage so the surface becomes very rich. I always maintain the original composition, but the layer-on-layer effect I achieve becomes really interesting to look at. You can get kind of lost in the surface, and then your eye pulls back to the overall image. That is the oscillation I’m going for.

Click here to visit the silent auction page for the All that is Solid show. For complete details about the images in the Valley of the Moon Main Stem Project, go to valleyofthemoonmainstemproject.org. To see more of Michael Acker’s work go to mca-studios.com, Facebook, or  Instagram.