2022/3/2 TOC: INDEX: City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant Exhibition 2017

City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant Exhibition 2017

Administered by the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, sponsored by the

Rauschenberg Foundation for the City of Fort Myers, Florida

Sidney & Burnie Davis Art Center

Fort Myers, Florida September 1st, 2017

metaphysician Mark Cranford conceptual artist

1. table of contents

2. cover photographs

3. introduction to the “Collective We”

6. December 2nd, 2016 Grant Exhibition

7. December 3rd 2016 Unit A, Lawrence Voytek

December 7th 2016 Rauschenberg Gallery, Curator Dan Cameron, Director Jade

Dellinger

December 22nd 2016 Charlotte , Charlotte Observer Art Critic Richard Maschal,

Architect Murray Whisnant

January 17th, 2017 City Hall Chambers

8. Janurary 22, 2017 Story Corps

June 5th 2017, Lawrence Voytek

9. Conceptualized Found Light 2017

10. James Kalm, Hudson, Mamie Holst

11. Director of the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery Jade Dellinger

12. Social Practice For Painting and Sustainability For Painting

13. Equal Access / Computer Equality / American Civil Right

15. Photo : “COLLECTIVE WE” SBDAC 9 / 1/ 2017

16. Photo : Equal Access / Computer Equality / American Civil Right Sign

17. Photo : text, Equal Access / Computer Equality / American Civil Right

18. Photo : Self Evident Truth

19. Photo : Recycle Symbol

20. Photo : text, “your work is of fundamental environmental importance”

21. Photo : December 2nd 2016 Grant Exhibition

Photo : postcard mail SWFL Community Colaboratory invatition

22. Photo : text, December 3rd, Unit A

text, December 7th, 2016 Rauscheneberg Gallery

23. Photo : text 22nd 2016 Charlotte , Charlotte Observer Art Critic Richard Maschal,

N C Architect Murray Whisnant

Photo : text, Janurary 22, 2017 Story Corps

24. Photo : Lawrence Voytek, artificial intelligence. Mayor Henderson

25. Photo : Found Light

26. Photo : Sustainability For Painting

Photo : Southwest Florida Community Collaboratory

27. Photo : Rauschenberg Foundation

City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant Exhibition 2017

Administered by the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, sponsored by the

Rauschenberg Foundation for the City of Fort Myers, Florida

Sidney & Burnie Davis Art Center

Fort Myers, Florida

September 1st, 2017

7. December 3rd 2016 Unit A, Lawrence Voytek

December 3rd I went to Marcus Jansen’s Grand Opening of Unit A. I introduced myself to Lawrence Voytek who was Rauschenberg’s long time fabricator and friend. He told me “few create as most are critics” and cited Marcel Duchamp. I was deeply humbled by Lawrence and h9s humility and his affirmation of my achievements. Associating my conceptual artwork to Marcel Duchamp the world’s great master of conceptual art and art history was profound for me. Marcus Jansen was very gracious. Many have wanted to invent the new form in painting, many felt they could and some came close I am not saying mine are the only innovations or extensions to Rauschenberg’s legacy but mine are explicit.

December 7th, 2016 at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, Fort Myers, Florida I went to hear American Curator Dan Cameron lecture on Arturo Vega. I was met by Director of the Rauschenberg Gallery Jade Dellinger. He presented me with a scrap paint tube from conceptual painter Wayne White. I was greatly appreciative. Curator Dan Cameron after lecture looked at the two art pieces I had brought in hopes of showing to him. He stated “ as curator I state these two art works are self evident truth to your claims for two new conceptual arts in painting and new forms in painting”. He smiled slowly and broadly as he spoke the name of my extracted found paint painting “The Fountain” as it has physical , psychological, conceptual linage with the most famous conceptual art icon, The Fountain by Marcel Duchamp. There is not much art in the world that can be said to be “self evident truth” and indeed this is great distinction and honor. This record should be for inclusion in our cultural record and promotion for the institutions of our City of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant.

On December 22nd, 2016 I met with North Carolina architectural icon Murray Whisnant and long time Charlotte Observer Art Critic Richard Maschal. Over a delightful two hour lunch they affirmed my status as conceptual artist, genius and American Revolutionary. This was a great honor to have two of the most distinguished aestheticians from my home state of North Carolina recognize me for these accomplishments.

On January 17, 2017 I went to our City of Fort Myers City Hall Chambers and spoke to the Public Art Committee about the report I had compiled of my record of accomplishments for my City of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant 2016. The City wrote me afterwards and thanked me and expressed I had communicated clearly with the City.

9. Conceptualized Found Light 2017

Essentially the conceptualization for Found Light is the cause and manifestation of my condition of metaphysician in which the foundation practice has been with me all my conscious life and from my first memory. This Found Light is a conceptual art built on the conceptual art of John Cage’s Found Sound. In Cage’s Found Sound the random sounds you hear create “music” if listened to them with fresh ears. This “Found Sound” can produce perceptive intelligence. This is not known about generally. He created music compositions based on random found sound from his great conceptual art Found Sound. In my Found Light there are similarities. Found Light is in part the accumulation of color (light) brush strokes that create a painting. Found light and random found color can produce compositions that can be experienced as “painting” or art. Found Light can be perceptual intelligence, the sequence of finding light can lead to perceptual intelligence. Found light can be the random experience of light sequences such as you might experience on a walk. Found Light is also the light of ideas and people. My life has been in this pursuit of following these “lights” of people and ideas and values. As an infant and child my father thought I could not be educated. I was very happy. I was building a mind with “Found Light”.

I have described my “vision” as being conscious of seeing outside and inside my mind at the same time. I see my thoughts, my subconscious and unconscious mind and creative interactions and three planes of visual perception as well as objectively observed reality. It has taken all my life to be able to navigate life and is potentially an every moment struggle. Science would call this experience “turbulence” and is now recognized in the paintings of Van Gogh. Being able to extract form from turbulence is genius and indicative of metaphysician. I demonstrated this ability with Extracted Found Paint as Painting and Open Scrap Paint Tube as Painting.. I read this past week that now science realized artificial intelligence needs deep image resonance and which is created by compiling multiple image planes. They just realized this in 2012. I see in three planes which indicates and functions as multiplicity which is the infinite. It is the culmination of following “found light” my entire life that I have the deep consciousness to invent , create and express such as I have. This consciousness is I believe inherent in all people and all people potentially have the ability to experience such “Found Light” in their own lives if even just a little. It is possible in the future this perception will be more broadly utilized as it is utility, perception and recreation for me. This writing on Found Light is very brief compared to it’s complexity and possible extension in myself and others. Found Light is a metaphysical practice I conceptualized in 2017.

pg 10 James Kalm , Hudson / Mamie Holst

I studied and studied with our Fort Myers, Florida Guggenheim Fellow Mamie Holst for five years from 2008 to 2013. I came to know about James Kalm – aka Loren Munk and the late Hudson through Mamie. Mamie had been written about by Bob Nickas in his 2008 Painting Abstraction: New Elements In Abstract Painting. Nickas is a vibrant and relevant and sought after art historian. In this book Mamie Holst is historically noted for psychologically extending the form in painting by painting. Hudson was Mamie’s art gallery dealer in NYC. His Feature INC gallery was pivotal in the desire to have the “death of painting “ healed through and the recognition of historic form in painting. I was inspired by Hudson’s “Intentionality” which is to bring forward hippy actions with less confrontation for the healing of the death of painting. Mamie and I watched and participated in his last webinar where he described his “Intentionality”. Hudson was famous in art world circles for exhibiting Jeff Koon’s early conceptual artwork and much more. James Kalm is the performance name of Loren Munk who is one in five of the top art writers in NYC, number one on You Tube for video documentation of gallery openings in NYC, mostly on painting. He is a very noted painter himself of art history and paints graphs and maps of artist lives and conditions. Loren provides a coherent art history and example for activism for the recognition of the historic form in painting. He is a great inspiration and why I video record as I do. Loren has affirmed by “like” in the social media of FaceBook “Extracted Found Paint’’ as a new conceptual art in painting. Mamie told me she would only talk to me or Hudson about her painting and especially while being created. She called Loren “GOD” though and as he is so respected by both sides of the “death of painting” and has a particular encyclopedic knowledge of visual art. Loren has written that the computer (social media) is the six gun at high noon. He has written that he believed painting has a certain predictive quality, these things electrified me. Mamie Holst received her MFA from the very influential School for the Visual Arts NYC and how I came to know current institutional values in culture and art direction. Mamie Holst had given me her scrap paint tubes and ancient cans of house paint from her father. It was from these that I opened the first Open Scrap Paint Tube and Extracted Found Paint. This is where my “The Fountain” came from. Mamie wrote her distinguished friends in NYC and told them “I was by far the most talented and intelligent artist here” – she was and will always be a great inspiration and light for me. She does not know Marcus’s work or mind though.

pg 11 Bob Rauschenberg Gallery Director Jade Dellinger “your work is of fundamental environmental importance.”

Bob Rauschenberg Gallery Director Jade Dellinger had written me and stated “your work is of fundamental environmental importance.” This is an astounding endorsement and by our top academic art director and curator and from the Rauschenberg Gallery and in Fort Myers and Lee County which includes the presence of the Rauschenberg Residency and the Rauschenberg Foundation which is here in our City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant. This is a profound honor to be recognized for such a contribution and larger contribution by further developing and enacting my environmental recycling programs.

Through new conceptual arts in painting I have invented and for the development and implementation of recycling projects through and with the City Of Fort Myers and the City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant and the Southwest Florida Community Foundation and complete LEE: A Sustainability Plan we could fulfill this potential for creating visual art and environmental example and government / cultural leadership to the world. This is a great honor and challenge to live up to for me and all in Fort Myers governance and academic and civil art direction as well. There is vast potential for the Open Scrap paint tube as painting and on a large or tiny institutional scale. This is probably the greatest icon of visual art and most recognizable symbol the artist’s paint tube. These programs would shine a positive light on Fort Myers culture and Fort Myers itself and our region and region’s institutions for the world to see and celebrate. Europe in 2014 almost outlawed the artist’s paint tube as they are thought to be non recyclable.

pg 12 Social Practice For Painting and Sustainability For Painting

By working through the City of Fort Myers and the City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant, our Public Art Committee, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation and complete Lee: A Sustainability PLAN a program could be developed that would provide a vital and exciting recycling and art creation service to the visual artists and institutions and public of our City Of Fort Myers, Lee County and SWFL region.

The artist’s scrap paint tube was almost outlawed in Europe in 2014 and oil painting is not allowed in many universities as there has been previously no recycling program for one of the artist’s basic materials – the paint tube. Cadmium and other newly discovered heavy metals were added to paints in the early and mid 1800s . With the invention in 1830 of the modern paint tube these toxins were taken outside into the environment by artists like Pissarro and Van Gogh and created a new revolution in consciousness through painting and visual art which was Impressionism and Expressionism based on Impressionism. We have this ability now, for our environment and for our culture to treat the artist’s scrap paint tube as an opportunity to create the consciousness of sustainability for painting through a social practice for painting. This is possible because the artist’s paint tube is a world icon and cuts across a broad universal art history as the invention of the artist paint’s tube vastly spread the discipline of painting world wide and created a universal discipline and a shared sense of humankind. Creating a program through our City of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant with the Southwest Florida Community Foundation and Rauschenberg Foundation would shine a positive light on Fort Myers from the world of art and the world at large.

A pan involve a international protocol. small group to assemble. group to further develop ideas of social practice

A recycling plan for the artist’s scrap paint tubes would I believe require a protocol because it involves paint. I would look forward to meeting with our area sustainability and recycling institutions and their individuals to develop and establish such a process with an institution such as the complete LEE” A Sustainability Plan.

As a recycling plan concerning a social practice for creating visual art from the processed scrap paint tubes could be further developed greatly. I have developed a number of methods to construct art from recycling the scrap paint tubes. To develop a social practice an inclusive group could be established to work with area art institutions and individuals to devise communal plans for recycle art projects and exhibition. I believe a richer discourse can be achieved through a communal process . As Director of the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery Jade Dellinger has written me that my work is of fundamental environmental importance I seek and would love to implement this through a communal effort and through our City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant and Southwest Florida Community Foundation. The communal artwork of El who is the leader of international recycle art shows guidance for this possible communal operation.

pg 13 EQUAL ACCESS / COMPUTER EQUALITY / AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHT RECOGNITION OF HANDICAP BY COMPUTER EXCLUSION

Perhaps the most important of the conceptual arts I have invented is the Pink Dot Head on the iconic Handicap Sign Figure with USB symbol underneath that I refer to as Equal Access Computer Handicap Sign. Recently Federal regulations were removed for the the contrast requirement for this sign in order for citizens to be able to expand the definition of handicap. By removing the contrast requirement this opened the possibility for including color to the handicap sign.

I have always been mentally challenged myself in fundamental ways. As an infant and child my father thought I could not be educated. It was on his birthday and full moon in 2017 that I envisioned the Pink Dot and Handicap Sign align through inspiration and saw in my mind this new iconic sign for computer handicap – a new dimension in the consciousness of handicap.

It was a great honor to share this invention through my mural “COLLECTIVE WE” in our City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant Exhibition 2017.

Citizens are now more often then not required to use a computer to interact with governance and our institutions and each other. This has created a disparity based on the ability to utilize this new technology as our vehicle and language of communication. Computer discrimination is probably the fastest growing form of discrimination here and on our planet. This Equal Access Computer Handicap Sign promotes awareness of this growing disparity. Care givers of the developmentally disabled are a growing group and many are concerned and influential and cultural people. Having such a sign in the parking lot of such a cultural center as the new Southwest Florida Community Collabroratory or Fort Myers City Hall would signal an inclusion that would delight all and respect a greater inclusion of our citizens. The developmentally disabled can be especially challenging to care givers in the physical space of a parking lot or rest room or any facility. Every electronic computer devise is an obstacle to communication for basic needs without an accommodation for the developmentally disabled. I myself am not able to submit an application for our City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant by myself, I had to go without this past year and last year too I could not submit the images of my artwork .

I would like to briefly state that it is not common knowledge that a “sign” such as a handicap sign can be conceptualized as conceptual art and visual art and public art. This was in part accomplished by Any Warhol in his iconic Campbell’s Soup Can. Here at the Rauschenberg Gallery in the exhibition of Arturo Vega on December 7th, 2016 and lecture an explanation was given of the deep conceptuality of his public signs – graphic signs and symbols. This was the night and by Curator Dan Cameron who also stated my new conceptual arts in painting were “self evident truth”. I am extending this conceptuality to include the Equal Access Handicap Sign as public art.

pg 14

I am seeking to develop a program to exemplify and promote this iconic sign of Equal Access / Computer Equality / American Civil Right through the City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant and with the City of Fort Myers and the Southwest Florida Community Foundation. As a computer handicapped person myself I need community assistance from the City of Fort Myers and the Southwest Community Foundation to proceed further. I am asking the City Of Fort Myers to officially recognize this project as a City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant project and with the Southwest Florida Community Foundation as this is a project of local and world importance and fulfills the mission of the City Of Fort Myers Art & Culture Grant. The Rauschenberg Foundation is seeking such solutions to today’s problems. This is their grant for us that they sponsor. The City Of Fort Myers and the Southwest Florida Community Foundation have the ability to reach the world. I wish I knew how to make this Equal Access Computer Equality Sign appear on a Google search.

In my personal life I have had to recently adjust to being non married. It has been a nightmare for me in trying to pay bills and interact with institutions over the computer as my wife had always done this for us. In a few recent incidents in dealing with corporations it has been easy and useful to describe this Equal Access Handicap Sign in seeking solutions to my problems. Publix pharmacy gave me a $320.00 discount after I described this sign over the phone. Over the phone my insurance agent found this useful to describe to his underwriters as to why my house address and billing address are different (out of town family now handles this for me) which would otherwise raise a red flag and possibly coverage denial. Everyone I have spoken to about this sign recognizes it’s ease of communication and it’s need. Almost all are astounded and delighted by it and they smile broadly upon it’s recognition.