Color

I believe all of it, for I have seen it with my own eyes and experienced it with all my senses. I do believe artwork has the power, as an idea and as an object, to generate stories all on and of its own.

I am going to try to relay both stories – the artist: how and why – and – the work: how and why. And ultimately, how and why the viewer is so important; how it is that they can add the finishing touch.

Up in Phoenix, way back in 2003 (I can’t believe it was that long ago), I stumbled upon amazingly fresh work from a painter I had never heard of. Several artists in the exhibition encouraged me go to the juried ARTLINK exhibition connected to the annual Art Detour. I did, it was good, but it was not their work that hit me, maybe theirs was all too familiar. It was the color and the stripes Todd Ros laid down that hit me. I will admit it though – beyond the initial impact, I didn’t spend too long with the work. I didn’t have to or so I thought.

I was under the assumption the works were purely formal – concerned with color, composition, and scale. I admired them for that as well as the paint handling, and then moved on.

In this instance, I did not finish the work.

Two years later in the 2005 Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art – there he is again. That is exactly what I said when I saw the work – “there he is again.” Could I be so familiar with an artist’s work after seeing only one piece? No, I couldn’t, but I knew the work was his. It was almost like I knew him, but I didn’t. I found out this time too, that I didn’t know anything about his work – this time though, I took the time and I really thought about what I was looking at.

I was rewarded, and I think the work was too.

Todd Ros’ oil on canvas painting was titled Stellar’s Jay. At 44 in. high by 84 in. wide. it commanded the gallery it was installed in.

It was beautiful.

It was intelligent.

It evoked something small, a bird, and made it heroic.

I connected with it quickly – the vertical bands of blues, of blacks, of white, all of different measure, were composed laterally like a musical score or some heraldic device from the avian world. Looking at the painting formally, I was puzzled by its math and the equations it employed, I spent time trying to solve it. I found the title, Stellar’s Jay, moved the painting away from the purely formal, giving it mystery and content. I learned Ros observes the colors that marks the bird’s body, breaks them into percentages/ratios and dividing the canvas accordingly, painstakingly mixes the colors and applies them with surgical precision.

The color was hard to describe – it was not straight from the tube. These were mixtures with subtle nuance and variation. With the large size of the painting, I started thinking about the artist working hard – a master colorist mixing large amounts of these special colors to cover the entire surface. This guy knew what he was doing. The romance of the story was building.

With all of those things going for it, the painting opened itself up for exploration and discussion. Or so I thought. Some of the people I spoke with didn’t get into as much as I did – the formalism, the stripes seemed to stop them cold.

Nonetheless, I was mightily impressed. Ros’ work stayed in my memory, the impact of my discovery together with my curiosity had me wondering what kind of work would follow. To me the work was technically and conceptually astute, without being ironic or formulaic – extremely fertile ground for an artist to work from.

In this scenario, I think it was me that finished the work.

I wanted to see more of Ros’ work, and I did. It took nine years. In 2014 (time flies), Todd sent in several images for consideration for the exhibition Sonoran Desert: Large and Small. I recognized them immediately and was again impressed. Unfortunately, Todd’s work did not feel right with how the exhibition was taking shape. I had to pass; however, there was a silver lining for everyone – about a year later we would be working on the exhibition Taking Flight: the Bird in Art. I felt Todd’s work would be perfect for Tohono Chul. I contacted Todd sometime later and told him just that – he sent some work in, we asked for more. We selected four paintings – I loved how different they were from everything else we looked at and how well they worked with the pieces we selected. I was happy to be working with Todd and could not wait to see the work in person.

Getting ready to promote the exhibition, I had an image of Todd’s work on the screen of my computer. Jo Falls, Director of Education and my immediate supervisor stopped by for a visit. She inquired about the “screen saver” on my computer. I told her it wasn’t a screen saver – that it was one of four pieces to be exhibited in the Taking Flight exhibition. She was incredulous – “James, that is not a bird – those are stripes!” I explained that it was indeed a bird and reiterated Todd’s process of observing and analyzing the ratios of color across a bird’s body and translating the information into paint across a canvas. Being as curious as she is and being a very experienced birder she started to observe and analyze the image before her – she nailed it. Our trusted volunteer Phil Davis, also an experienced birder and already familiar with Todd’s approach, spun around in his chair and together with Jo they were able to identify every bird that was going into the exhibition. We went to his website – together they figured out the birds that lived in North America, Jo got a few from South America and they came close to identifying birds from East Asia.

They were delighted. So was I.

We all recognized that Todd put the work in, recording the information so exactly that two people were able to determine the subject by bands of color. It was amazing.

Even more amazing – in the three months that followed we heard docents and volunteers sharing Todd’s work with visitors. For a great many people it was a revelation. Entering Todd’s work in the context of that exhibition, with or without a guide, was not so daunting, it was rewarding. Stories developed and were shared of how the experience changed the way they looked at things.

With every story – the viewer finished the piece. Todd’ approach and intent held fast; nevertheless, everyone walked away with a new way of viewing the world.

Much like my first contact with his work, the people drawn to Todd’s work felt like they knew him. For a while he was simply known as the stripe guy – but with works in the exhibitions Day for Night , Arizona Abstract, !0 x 10, Call and Response, Desert Duet (a collaborative exhibition with his wife Erinn Kennedy), and currently On the Desert: the Discovery and Invention of Color we did get to know Todd. We have seen him represent birds, cycles of time, desert plants, a basket, flowers, and now his Sonoran Garden.

Sonoran Garden is 54 in. high and 84 in. wide, it hangs near a window looking out on the desert. The label reads: TODD ROS . Sonoran Garden . oil on canvas. It contains no statement – It doesn’t need one. Look out the window and there it is. Each band of color is a plant in Todd’s garden. Like the paintings before it, it works in a multitude of ways with color being the key and observation the driver. But for me – this painting is different – it is not finished yet; not by me or anyone else.

It tells its own story. It represents a personal space and becomes one itself. It is a meditative sanctuary. It is endless.

To learn more about TODD ROS go to toddros.com