0.39 Dick wray, b. 1933  (Page 3/3)

After a california sojourn

I lived out in L.A. for about eight years, but I’d come back every couple of years. When I came back in ’69 most of the art that was being sold here was all decorative—as it still is. There’s two things that sell very comfortably in a conservative environment that we have now and one of them would be decorative work and the other would be blue chip conservative. People like to buy a name because it’s like buying stock and putting it up on their walls. Then they call themselves collectors. Louise Ferrari sold a lot of artwork—top dollar, good looking, beautiful stuff—to people in Houston that had money. They would buy things like Hans Hoffman because they were very expensive. It shows a certain amount of taste. But they wouldn’t have bought Hans Hoffman when Hans Hoffman was alive. It’s too controversial.

The galleries in ’69 were Kiko…there was Cushman Gallery. Meredith Long of course had his. I will say this about Meredith, that I’ve been pretty harsh about the type he shows and stuff like that. I’m very outspoken about things. But the one thing I do admire about Meredith is when he was at the University of Texas at Austin he would go to the art department and buy works from the students…and he would sell pieces, make a little profit…but he was interested in art—and that’s to his credit. That’s a quality a lot of people don’t know about Meredith. So Meredith always had the heart for it, but he also wanted the good money—and now he has the good life, or presumably the good life.

I think each of us has our own interpretation of what’s “the good life.” I think I’m probably the most successful person I know of, because I get to do exactly what I want—but I’m 72 years old and didn’t get that way till it was just about time for that Social Security check.

On the importance of making something

I was speaking to some young people [recently] that were at my studio for the first time. And I said, “Do you know anyone that makes anything, physically makes anything?” They said they knew people who wrote stories and so on. But that’s intellectual property. I used to have an uncle that would make furniture. He would come in at night and he would talk about his work that was made by his hands. And he felt good about himself because he did it.

I have to come up with something new every single day. Every day, every day I’m challenged. It’s essential…like breathing. The reason I do it is because I don’t want to see something I’ve already done before. So I have to kind of stretch it: every day stretch a little bit more, a little bit more every day.

When you start living with art…art is something that is totally unique. My books I make are unique. My paintings are constantly changing. And to be around original art, to have this exposed to you and your family and your friends and your children…this is something that’s totally unique. I told my son one day, “Do you have anything in your house other than your dad’s artwork that is totally unique?” And he said, “Yeah, my car, my Volkswagen. I’ve fixed it up.” And I said, “No—it’s still a Volkswagen. You’re just trimming it out, but that’s not original. You’ve got to have another original.” And it dawned on me, hell, my kids don’t even know the concept of original art.

I feel strongly that my obligation is to create something that has not been created before. Good or bad—we’re not talking about that. I feel like that was my destiny and I’ve done it, and I’ve gotten through the bad times and now I have my integrity.

Dick Wray was interviewed on May 15, 2006. You can listen to the interview here .