Public and Private Commissions Welcomed
have to fight anyone for the title or pass a test. If you say you are one then you are. It's up to history to decide if you are telling the truth.
Freeman
Loughridge Jr.
I guess I've always been an Artist.
I remember being two years
old playing beside the creek on our old farm. I
would make mud
balls and stick branches in them for arms and legs.I would
make entire communities of "Mud People". I didn't turn pro until age
8.
I sold a drawing of a horse to a classmate for a nickel so he
could
use it to impress a girl.
I
was a professional potter for over 30 years. I retired from the
clay medium
about three years ago and picked up a torch. I have
always been fascinated
by junk and discarded things that no one else wanted . My wife learned years ago
not to send me to pick
out the Christmas Tree. I never brought home the best
tree.
I always picked the one that needed a home.
I
try to make my sculpture "about" something. I've always been impressed
by the ridiculous .
The sublime doesn't appeal to me at all. I like to take
a perfectly simple thing, like a sculpture of a
horse, and
add a twist, such as a Stick Shift. I like for people to see my work from afar
and think
they know what it is only to be surprised upon closer inspection.
I also try to use as few fabricated
parts as possible. I prefer to use actual
objects and leave them so they are reognizable. Even an
abstract sculpture
is not so alien to people when they recognize the parts that make it up.
The bigest influence on my work has
been popular culture. I grew up with Tv., Hot-rods, Motorcycles,
and Mad Magazine
(you were right mama it did rot my brain ). All the while being bombarded by
a continuous stream of advertising and news events. My heros were Ed " Big
Daddy" Roth,
Jerry Lee Lewis, Mighty Mouse, Don Garlits, Hoppalong Cassidy,
Monty Pythons Flying Circus,
Little Richard, Johny Cash, and A southern preacher
/ philosopher, turned comedian, named
Brother
Dave Gardner.
I'm still just 16 (with 42 years of experience). I'm too
old to grow up now.
Credentials
Here's
where I'm supposed to write in the third person
and carry on about all the
schools I've attended and all
of the awards I've won (ad nauseum ). Well,
It took
about 20 years to forget all the useless and misleading
information
I learned in college and just do my own
thing. I've won my share of awards
and have my work
in private and public collections all over the world. All
of this doesn't make my work any better or any
worse than it is. I prefer
to let my work speak for
it's self. I've always believed there are only two
important
works in an artists life, The one you've just finished
and
the next one you will make.
Besides, only mothers read that stuff
anyway.
However,
I would like to acknowlege and thank three Teachers
in the Ardmore, Oklahoma
School system that helped me
become what I am.
Miss.
Rose Seren, M y First Grade Teacher.
The second week of school she took
us to the old Carnegie
Library. She told us that all of mans knowledge was
written in
books and that if we learned to read we could teach ourselves
anything. This is possibly the only important thing I ever learned
in
school.
Mrs.
Mynah Johnson, My High School art teacher.
She taught me that art was
something special. She encouraged
me, tolerated me , inspired me and nurtured
my creativity.
She also told me that , if I followed my art that I'd never
have to
work a day in my life . Just what an 18 year old kid wants to hear.
Mr.
Cowan, My High School Shop Teacher.
A kind gentle man who helped me figure
out the mechanics of
how to construct the sculptures I wanted to build and
then had the
confidence in me to turn me loose in the shop alone with all
that expensive equipment when everyone else was in study hall.
" I don't have to show you
any stinkin' badges ".
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1948
