just got around to reading the short walton ford piece in men’s vogue. i was sure i’d done a full feature post on ford before, since i love his work, but a quick search proved me wrong. i don’t intend to write a lengthy post now though just wanted to pass on a quote from the magazine i found kind of funny. first off if your not familiar with his work (links: art21, paul kasmin, paul kasmin2, artnet, artnet2, artseen) the artist he’s most often compared to is james audubon for obvious stylistic and thematic similarities. the article mentions this, it’s obligatory, and adds: ford’s accomplishment has been hard to measure. there is just nothing to compare it to: watercolorists have never worked on the scale that he does. they compare his mastery of this most difficult medium to sargent, winslow homer, and georgia o’keefe. fine, but let’s get back to audubon…

concerning the comparison the article has this to say: his works are almost always compared to audubon’s, a comparison ford has encouraged by including the figure of the artist in several works, face down in the snow dwarfed by an escaping eagle, silhouetted by fire and painting furiously beside a heap of slaughtered birds. that sounds like someone slightly tired of the comparison to me. it’s artistic provocation like “duck amuck” in which bugs bunny (as animator) erases daffy duck’s bill mid-sentence, changes the background on him, gives him a flower head, and whatever else. in terms of nitty gritty comparison of skill the article comes down squarely in favor of ford saying by the time he entered art school in 1978 he was already a better draftsman. the question of course is what does ford himself have to say about it?

which leads me to the quote:

here’s audubon, he’s painted his entire life. he gets to the quadruped project after he’s finished painting every bird in north america. he’s an old man. he should be a master. he should be rembrandt painting self-portraits. but he’s painting a hog-nosed skunk, and he can’t figure out how to foreshorten- at all. he still can’t take the animal’s face and convincingly make it go back in space from the tip of its nose to the ears. it looks cobbled together out of three different heads. and the background looks like the way kids draw hills: zoop, zoop, zoop, zoop! here in america, he told people that he studied with david. but he wouldn’t say that when he was in europe, becuase i’m pretty sure he knew he’s get busted. ford imitates a european, but gives him an accent that’s pure georgia bulldog ‘boy, you couldn’t shine the pimples on dah-veed’s ass.’ -walton ford.

haha. usually when an artists says this kind of thing about another artist it’s seen as an attack, sour grapes, good ol’ fashioned assholishness, etc. might leave you thinking “man, this guy’s got gorilla balls on him!” might even give you the idea he’s an arrogant prick. who knows? maybe he is. but i would say rather that he just has hawk eyes. he sees the truth of the matter and isn’t afraid to just say it. i have to imagine it would be irritating to be forever compared to an artist who was less talented but remains far more recognized and celebrated none the less. i think ford’s work is truly exceptional where as audubon’s is mainly pretty. course that’s just my opinion, though ford seems to be in agreement.