picture across the room

I walk into my local library, and over there in the corner I come face to face with a black and white image on cream colored paper. It is not a drawing. It is not a Photo Shop concoction. It is not painted. It is not a watercolor. What am I looking at? Four things come to mind. First, there is excavation involved. Think about scratches dug into plank of wood. Second, there are steps followed each time an image is made. And after all those steps are carried out the image can be seen. Third, there are particular steel tools used. Fourth and lastly, the artist must give it her approval. It must measure up. It must be dark enough, light enough. Without the approval of the artist, the print is worthless. It usually has a signature in pencil at the edge of the print.

An inked print is not a xerox, not a mechanical multiple, not a photocopy. It is labored over, fretted over, and deemed as a precious, glorious creation.

To gain some appreciation for Geary's craftsmanship, I have taken some close ups of his Bullfight scene courtesy of the Carrollton Public Library. and added some of my own comments.(left) See the bullfighter. The solid black background is black ink rolled onto a wood plank. Paper is placed on the inked wood.The back of the paper is rubbed down. The paper is pulled up off the plank and the image transfers to the paper. Now, the white area around the bullfighter has been dug out of the wood, extracted. If you look at the outline of the bullfighter's head and shoulder, you will see tiny white lines. Those are scratches into the wood. Look at his cape. Those cross hatched white lines are scratches into the wood. The dark areas are not scratched or left alone.

The next closeup (right) is an arena in shadow. The railing, the people seated, the columns of the balcony are tiny thin scratches on the plank of wood.


(left)
The thick horizontal line at the top is the edge of the print. There is a flag, two open arches, the hint of a wall, and horizontal lines up in the sky. The two open arches are dug out of the plank. The white area around the thin flagstaff and flag are dug out of the plank. The horizontal lines in the sky represent atmosphere, perhaps clouds.


The thick border (right) is the edge of the print. The white columns and railing are precisely plowed out from the plank with a steel tool. The seated figures are both silouette and have tiny scratches. See the atmosphere created above.

(left) The word "Caudrillas" had to be carved in reverse, because the printed image is all in reverse. So, if you have words in your design they need to be in reverse when you dig in the wood.




(right) There are various kinds of texture. Some shadows are solid black. Some have parallel lines. Other areas are solid white.

(left) The bull is a solid silouette shape in black. Tiny thin scratches create the impression of muscles. Cross hatching along the edge of the bull's shadow softens the edge of that shadow. Many details that don't just happen, the wood engraver puts them exactly as they are. To add to this discussion and give some insight to this medium I have asked Abigail Rorer to share her thoughts.

KM: If you would, please: Say something about the discipline required to do wood-engraving or woodcuts. As an artist in that medium, what problems are there to solve?

AR: I am a wood engraver. Wood engraving is a finer medium than the woodcut in that you get a lot more detail because you use the endgrain of a hard wood like boxwood or maple and you use engraving tools such as the burin and graver instead of curved gouging tools. It is a relief medium because the ink is rolled out on the surface then printed. Some of the issues that need to be decided as one engraves are working out textures and image edges with white lines or black lines, whether to stipple or cross-hatch and basically remember that everything taken away will print white. It is a very exacting and slow process and requires a steady hand and sharp tools. It is also very meditative when one is engraving.

KM: What problems do the handling of the tools or materials present?

AR: As mentioned before, your tools need to be sharp or you will slip all over the place. Plus the tools need to be adjusted to fit your hand. It takes a lot of practice to get to the point of a sure and steady hand. Everyone slips and there are various methods of repairing those errors depending on the extent of the mistake. Sometimes the wood will warp so you have to store the wood carefully. You also need to wear a magnifier because the lines are so fine. Printing the engraving also presents a lot of issues. It can be done by hand (rather difficult) or with a press. The main thing is not to fill the very fine lines with ink and to get a nice solid black.

KM: Unlike drawing, where you can immediately put down your impressions on paper, how do you go about creating a design and work it out on the wood surface?

AR: I work out the composition before hand, transfer the sketch to the block, then use pen & ink to complete the drawing on the block. I then tone the block with a sepia ink so that, when engraving, any lines that I cut will show up lighter than the block and I can see what I'm doing.

KM: Myself, generally, I paint rather quickly and prefer not to stretch the project out forever. It is my understanding that an engraver is in it for the long haul. I am guessing you don't jot scribbles down and willy-nilly scratch random marks, and then say "Good, I'm done with that." Am I right?

AR: Every engraver is different - there are some that engrave as you describe above - quickly jot down a rudimentary sketch then engrave in a free-form manner. I am totally the opposite - my engravings are extremely detailed and I am in it "for the long haul" as you say.

KM: How, then, is an engraving different from crayon scribbles on paper?

AR: The discipline, limitations of the medium, and the skills needed to get an image on paper; it's time-consuming and requires a lot of practice.

KM: In an other example, I tell my students at school that I am always doing "homework" on my paintings. They look at me funny, like grown ups don't do homework like they do, but, really, we as artists do, don't we? Not settling for a ho-hum presentation, but that which stretches and builds up our skills.

AR: I guess you could call it "homework" but it's almost like "life's work" in that we live and breathe our work 24 hours a day almost. If not doing it, then we're thinking about it or constantly observing, however unconsciously, the world about us and getting inspiration, and we're always perfecting our skills and technique.


KM: To make this kind of art, Geary followed certain steps, used steel tools, and spent lots of time digging in wood to make each print. Abigail, where can people go to see more of the wood engraving you do?

AR: My website is: www.theloneoakpress.com


Bullfight by Fred Geary. Image measures 8 by 11 1/2 inches. Printed on yellow-tinted paper. Courtesy of the Fred Geary Print Collection, Carrollton Public Library, 1 North Folger Street, Carrollton, Missouri

who?

Who can track the life of an artist? Who would want to? An artist's life is FLUID. This much can be said about Fred Geary. He worked in Kansas City. He was active in the art community of the Fine Art Institute, which always consisted of a pocket of people doing, learning, teaching art. The structure of that institution changed location through the years, but at its core, it was people lending a hand to build, encourage, share "what you know" with another, have moments of "creating art apart from the community," and then rejoining, sharing, and expounding on each other's work, critiquing as it were, laughing, hanging out, being a part, being affiliated with relationships. (Below photo, west side of Kansas City, near Alta Vista, where The Kansas City Society of Artists once met--future post is promised)

Records are scarce. WHO was in WHAT group? WHERE did they gather? All very fluid. The artist's life. Here, Geary's name is given credit for the Institute Brochure, when the school was still at the Phil R. Toll home, on the southwest corner of Warwick and Armour Boulevards.

"Interest in the Art Institute was increasing, as was enrollment. In 1922, a brochure listed classes in design, illustration, interior decorating, costume design, fashion, wood carving, drawing, lettering, commercial art, sculpture and industrial art. There were also special classes in jewelry, home crafts such as batik, gesso, lamp shades, ceramics, weaving, basketry. The catalogue was profusely illustrated with examples of student art including work by Ruth Alexander, Illah Marion Kibbey, Lora Wilkins, Fred Geary, Doris Prat, Gene Thornton, Leroy D. MacMoris, L.F. Wilford, Delle Miller. Costs were day classes, per week, $3.50; evening classes, per week, $1.50; children's classes, Saturdays, 50 cents; holiday classes Sunday mornings, 60 cents." (A History of Community Achievement 1885-1964 by Mazee Bush Owens and Frances S. Bush, page 9, accessed from Jannes Library, Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010).

Geary took part in the Midwestern Artist Exhibitions in 1929, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936, 1939, 1941, and 1942 (Midwestern Artists' Exhibition of 1928 by Cynthia Mines, Kansas City Art Institute, 1920-1942, accessed from Kansas City Public Library, accessed Saturday, February, 20th, 2010).

He was the treasurer of the Kansas City Society of Artists in 1933.(Fred Geary, Missouri Wood Engraver by E.H. Deines, 1946, unpublished, page three, courtesy of Ms. Jane Metz and the Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton, MO, accessed January 10, 2010)

All the while he was rooted in daily graphic art assignments through the Fred Harvey Company at the UNION STATION where he has his studio. (Below photo, printed label of his studio location, attached to backside of framed print in Carrollton Public Library,
Fred Geary collection)


It's like the "Missouri Art Icon," Thomas Hart Benton. It is a given that Benton talked with students in his painting class while at the Kansas City Art Institute. He listened to the ideas of fellow faculty members. He invited persons of like-minded interest over to his house for social interaction. He was on the same committee as Geary when Graphic Art entries were being selected for the 1939 World's Fair held in New York City. Still, it is difficult to peer into "the-unseen-world-of-artists-forming-relationships" and then "map out" how they grew in their own work because of their interactions with those they admire. Geary had this, I am sure. This blog will explore the facets it can find. The rest of it will be left to another to find, to savor, and publish his or her findings.

K.M.

Influenced by Winold Reiss

"After an elementary education which was followed by several courses at William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri," wrote E.H. Deines in 1946, "the starting point of a nurtured longing was realized. (Geary) was about 20 years old when he received training at the small art school in Kansas City, MO. It was not a very great distance from his home town of Carrollton...."
In his eleven page biography, FRED GEARY, MISSOURI WOOD ENGRAVER, Deines sought to remember a fellow artist, whom he admired and no doubt held conversations with. As to the accuracy of his record, it did point me to locations and dates when I first began this research, but some dates have been proven inaccurate,







For example, Deines named instructors that Geary may have had when the "fundamentals of art" were given to him.











These include "the teachings of Charles A. Wilimovsky, a Chicago-born painter, etcher and woodcutter - (Robert) Merell Gage, well-known sculptor and teacher of anatomy - and Norman Tolson in the commercial branches." (Fred Geary, Missouri Wood Engraver by E.H. Deines, 1946, unpublished, page one, courtesy of Ms. Jane Metz and the Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton, MO, accessed January 10, 2010-----YMCA postcard, above, courtesy of the Missouri Valley, Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, MO)

However, after checking with school records, none of these instructors were available between 1914-1918. Nancy Warren, Archives Clerk with the Kansas City Art Institute, relayed: "You asked for the dates when Charles Wilimovsky and Norman Tolson taught at KCAI. Wilimovsky was at KCAI from 1920 through 1922 as was Merell Gage. Norman Tolson taught illustration and poster work here from 1920 through 1926. These dates don't seem to coincide with Geary's stint at KCAI as a student."(Email, Wednesday, April 21st, 2010, Nancy Warren,Archives Clerk, Jannes Library, Kansas City Arts Institute.) Ernest Deines had been a pupil at the Kansas City Art Institute. Perhaps, these were the instructors he had known when he attended.



"Interest in a variety of subjects was augmented later on by a brief period away from Kansas City...."(Deines, p.2)When Geary took figure drawing at the Art Students League in New York City (photo below),
Deines presumed the art instructor was George Bridgeman, when in fact, it had been John Sloan. Editor Stephanie Cassidy clarified that when she wrote: "I found one record for Fred Geary, who listed his city address as the President Hotel, West 48th Street and his home address as Kansas City, MO. He enrolled in April 1928 in John Sloan's life class." (Email, Thursday, March 25th, 2010, Stephanie Cassidy, Editor Art Students League of New York, 215 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. Area Of Design, www.areaofdesign.com, accessed Saturday, May 22nd, 2010)The later date of 1928 made more sense in light of Deines following remarks:
"In New York Geary sought out an admired mentor, Winold Reiss, whose realistic (and colorful) drawings of the Blackfeet Indians on their Montana reservation, aroused in him a strong enthusiasm."
(Fred Geary, Missouri Wood Engraver by E.H. Deines, 1946, unpublished, page two, courtesy of Ms. Jane Metz and the Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton, MO. Book Rags, www.bookrags.com, accessed Monday, May 10th, 2010)
 
Records show that in 1928 Reiss showed fifty-one works from the Louis Hill Collection of his Blackfeet portraits in a solo exhibition, at the Belmaison Galleries in John Wanamaker's Gallery of Decorative Arts, in New York City. It was quite likely Geary visited Reiss' studio on 108 West 16th Street and may have seen the exhibit as well. (Winold Reiss, http://www.winoldreiss.org/works/portraits.htm#10-20,  and http://www.winoldreiss.org/life/chronology.htm, and http://www.winoldreiss.org/works/exhibitions.htm, accessed Jan 18, 2014)Deines: "Coming in contact with Reiss was a useful experience, utilized afterwards many times in the course of (Geary's) regular work..."

(Fred Geary, Missouri Wood Engraver by E.H. Deines, 1946, unpublished, page two, courtesy of Ms. Jane Metz and the Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton, MO)

pen in hand - fred geary

According to public records at the city library, Fred Geary was born in Clarence, Missouri on May 19, 1894. His parents were James F. and Sophia Stuetz Geary. He and his family moved to the city of Carrollton, in Carroll County, around 1895 when he was 18 months old. His father transferred to the area as a Santa Fe railroad agent.

In 1914, the year the Panama Canal opened for boat traffic, Geary graduated from Carrollton High School. The east entrance of the three story red brick building, circa 1912, is shown (above). The west entrance is shown below that.




(photos courtesy of the Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton)

Records at the University of Missouri at Columbia indicate that the following students graduated May 21st at Carrollton's 43rd Commencement program: Francis W. Audsley

Harold M. Austin

Charles E. Benjamin
Merrill B. Burruss
Floyd W. Casebolt
Melvin E. Crispin
Aurelia Cruzen
Fred F. Fisher
Edgar G. Fleming
Fred Geary
Oscar Hanaway
Aileen Harper 
Alpha A. Herren

Mary E. Liller
Bessie L. Lungren
Wilda A. Martin 
Oakland Maupin

Edward L. Minnis
Elizabeth A. McQueen
Fay Minnis
Thomas S. Mobley
Ray F. Parkins
Ione Rhoades
Clyde Spotts
Arthur Sturges
Mayme Thomas
Pete Trotter, Jr.
Jack V. Woodson
Jewell Wood

(Mary Beth Brown, Manuscript Specialist with the Western Historical Manuscript Collection, at the University of Missouri, in Columbia, MO, told me in a email Monday, March 22nd, 2010, from the Fred Geary Papers, 1903-1917 (C3515)

Fred Geary attended William Jewell College with Pete Trotter, where they both were members of the Sigma Nu Fraternity.
Tanna Campbell, Director of Alumni Services for that school, confirmed that "....Geary attended Jewell from 1914-1918." (Email, Monday, April 19th, 2010)
The Sigma Nu Fraternity General Catalog, 1918
in 1915, listed Pete Trotter as a student living at 204 North Main Street in Carrollton, MO. While Fred Geary was listed as an artist at the Fine Arts Institute, 1020 McGee Street in Kansas City, residing at South Main Street in Carrollton, MO.

The American Art Annual of 1911
has the Fine Arts Institute listed:
"Y.M.C.A. Building, 1020 McGee
Street, Kansas City, MO
Charles W. Moore, President
Howard E. Huselton, Secretary
J.C. Ford, Vice-President. 201
Junction Building. J.F.Downing,
Treasurer."

"The Fine Arts Institute was
incorporated in 1907 under the
laws of Missouri for the purpose
of securing to Kansas City a fine
arts museum, to collect, preserve
and exhibit objects of art; conduct
schools for instruction in drawing,
painting, modeling, sculpture,
illustrations, decorative designing,
architecture and the arts and crafts,
and by other appropriate means to
further the cause of Art..." (YMCA
photo, courtesy of the Missouri
Valley, Special Collections, Kansas
City Public Library, Kansas City, MO)




A cub reporter by the name of Ernest
Hemingway borrowed this location to
write a piece for the Kansas City Star
called "Mix War, Art, and Dancing."
It began "...Inside in the Fine Arts Institute
on the sixth floor of the Y.M.C.A. Building,
1020 McGee Street, a merry crowd of soldiers
from Camp Funston and Fort Leavenworth
fox trotted and one-stepped with girls from
the Fine Arts School while a sober faced young
man pounded out the latest jazz music as he
watched the moving figures...." You can read
it in its entirety HERE.

During his first year in college Geary drew pen and ink illustrations for the "1915 Carrollton High School Nautilus" yearbook.
Double click on images to view enlarged picture. Sophomores, page 31.



September entry, page 67
" New faces--quite a few. That, however, is not the rub. New faces mean new experiences--but the old ones. Why, Mr. Dietrich and Miss Hess were the first to greet us, Howard Standley and Arbuta Clark were next, even Paul Rea was there (next to Mr. Dietrich)."







The artist and his college buddy Pete stopped by their old stomping ground (high school) in a Monday, March 29th entry, page 73: "Messengers Geary and Trotter visited their former place of knowledge today."























Literary, page 55.

Organizations, page 37.



















Text below his header graphics identifies names of Superintendent George Dietrich, faculty members: Professor Eugene Briggs, Mrs. Mary Gentry Briggs, and Miss Inna Northcutt.


























And upper classmen: Glen Minis, Paul Rea, Arbuta Clark, and Howard Standley. The rival Brookfield football team is cited.

May entry, page 75: "The Nautilus staff, who were to be seen for the last two or three months going on among us with long-
drawn, tired, and worried faces, are beginning to brighten up in spirit as well as their countenance, as they see the finish of their many months of worry and labor drawing to a close."

(1915 Nautilus yearbook images courtesy of
Ms. Margaret Gentry and the Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton, MO)

Heading caption:
"Cram-
ming for exams," page 71

Story Within A Story's Story

This blog is about one man who lived in the town I now live in. He did wood engravings. He was from Carrollton, Missouri. The clippings I have found at the library say he took up xylography on his own. His artist life seemed to be isolated. Was it really all by himself???? Or, was he aware of the new wave of art which was being birthed across America???? This is one thread.

Another fellow who left no paper trail about himself left a BIG IMPRINT on the art scene with the Woodcut Society he founded. With no internet, no computers, no technology, he brought a variety of modern wood engraving into many places. When the Woodcut Society prints were presented to the Nelson-Adkins Museum in Kansas City, FIVE OF FRED GEARY'S WOOD ENGRAVINGS were among the 212 examples. (McKenna, George, Prints 1460-1995: The Collections of the Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art, 1996, p.269) How did H. Alfred Fowler meet Fred Geary??? This is one thread.

Did Geary interact with any of the artists represented by the Woodcut Society???? Some twenty-seven artists from four foreign countries. This is one thread.

Together, these threads hold my interest.

I am a teacher who helps students master math and reading. I am a painter of acrylics. I once did pen-and-ink illustrations for my high school yearbook. I have done editorial cartoons, murals, some self-publishing, and enjoy promoting the art of my friends. How did a no-name grain broker further the print scene so well??? I belong to some art clubs. Did Geary enjoy the company of other artists also???? Could the art left behind by some dead guy find renewed respect today????

As this blog proceeds forward, I wanted to frame it for you, my reader. Please share any links you find relevant to my quest.

Questions

In a newspaper clipping dated January 21st, 1949, Miss Eunice Goodson gave a talk about Fred Geary to members of the Carrollton chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She said that Geary "received distinction when he was selected as the regional judge for art work to be displayed at the World's Fair in New York. He also had work on display there."

Hello, my name is Karl Marxhausen. When I moved to Carrollton, Missouri in 1990 from California, I knew nothing about the wood engraver Fred Geary. After reading the file clipping on Geary (above), taken from the Carrollton Public Library, questions rose in my mind. How did someone get picked to jury art for the World's Fair? It seemed to me that you would have to know something about art in a given region. I did some digging of my own and learned this from researcher David J. Cope in Pennsylvania.

"At 1939 World's Fair there was an American Art Today exhibit with a catalogue. Copyright May, 1939. The United States was divided into regions. Each region was represented with "painting, sculpture, and graphic art." Region 2 included the states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and a sub-class which included Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Arkansas. The four Graphic Arts representatives from Missouri were Ernest Hubert Deines, Fred Geary, John de Martelly, and Rossiter Howard, Chairman. There were 22 other people in Graphic Arts in Region 2. There was a Preview committee on which Thomas Benton served. The Preview committee met at the Kansas City Art Institute. Both Deines and Geary exhibited one piece at the World's Fair. Deines' entry was a wood engraving entitled "Pippins Comes Down," No. 888. It looks like an apple orchard. Geary's entry was a linoleum print entitled "On The River," No. 925. It looks like a steamboat on the Missouri or Mississippi River." Mr. Cope, who owns that same catalogue, confirmed that the image above was the same linoleum print of Geary shown in the catalogue.
"So glad I could help you. Here is the bibliographic information - this was a hardbound catalogue of the exhibit at the fair, black and white pictures only: "American Art Today" was published by National Art Society, Blanchard Press, New York, May 1939."
(email to Mr. Marxhausen, Friday, January 22nd, 2010)
Thanks to Paul M Van Dort for his help also.

Kansas wood engraver Ernest Deines wrote a paper on Geary, in the Public Library collection file. In his remembrance he made this curious observation: "In a print entitled "The Chickens," a side-glance was given to Agnes Miller Parker's rhythmic style - an English woman's smoothly designed handling." With more digging, I wondered how Geary might have seen the wood engravings of Ms. Parker who hailed from Scotland?

The Challenge by Agnes Miller Parker, wood engraving print

I wondered, what if Geary's interest in xylography was not born out of isolation? This blog will hold findings along this line on thinking. I welcome your insights and comments.