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Interview: Fred Gordon
August 2, 2005
1. How long have you been a resident in Siskiyou County? Let’s see, It must be about fifteen years but I have had a house up here for about thirty-five years.
What brought you here?
The forests and the rivers. It’s just a much more pristine kind of country here, less people. I actually fished up here when I was a child with my father. I enjoyed the area and decided I wanted to spend a lot more time here so I bought a house up here.
2. Can you give a short explanation of your specialty or your artistic medium?
My specialty is probably aquatic environments. Mostly its sculpture work but I have done a fair amount of paintings. I have done a lot of landscapes although I have never marketed any of that. I have also done a lot of more contemporary, aquatic themes. Maybe some are a little bit cynical about man's relationship with the environment. Some of it I try to show just the beauty of it, the fish and different animals and their relationships with their environments and so forth. Like fish moving through kelp or moving through water. In other things I try to express man's relationship with that environment which is sometimes destructive. Also, some of the things I have been doing are about magic or fetishes, making masks and things that primitive people used to use to keep themselves more aware of whatever they hunted and more attuned with the environment. I enjoy working with that concept. A lot of the work has that kind of overtone. I guess I wouldn't call it magic exactly. That still intrigues me a lot, the ceremonies and rituals behind even modern day fishermen; the rituals that we have before we do any sort of thing. Rituals that make us more aware and more attuned to whatever we are going to do.
I have always liked contrast and conflicts. I like dynamic things that move. I am kind of an artist in everything I do, the way I design things and the way I design my life. I am also a fisherman and a fishing guide you know, I do that a lot. So I jump back and forth between talking about fishing and talking about art. You are dealing with different people with different jargons and sometimes it’s difficult to have command of the right words to be expressive. Fishermen don't see that fishing is an artistic experience. But really, it's not about catching fish it's about an emotional response to an environment. And that encompasses all the colors, the moving water, it encompasses all of that. It just depends on how that person approaches it. If we make it an artistic experience that makes life a lot richer.
3. How long have you been making art (professionally and unprofessionally)?
My father was an artist, he was a watercolor painter. As long as I knew him he was painting things and selling paintings. He also worked for the state as a commercial artist. So, I started drawing when I was ten years old or something. I have been doing it as long as I can remember. I probably sold my first thing when I was eighteen. Ever since I have been having shows here, all over Sacramento and the United States. I try to stay more regional now, Medford and Sacramento are as far as I go.
4. Is art your full time career?
No, it's probably about a third. I have a rental next door where the fishermen stay and then I have the guiding and then I have the art. I am putting much more energy into the art now because I am older. I need to spend less time with the people on the water and more time by my self on the water to reflect on what I want to do as an artist. I don't know about you, but there are people that I know who are artists and can't do anything but art. There is no way I can just stop doing it and go get a regular job at the bank or something; it's just not that easy. I am always going to do the art whether I make any money at it or not or whether anybody ever saw it. It wouldn't make any difference. You still have to do it. It’s funny because if you don't do it you start to get this anxiety and you start to think, what’s wrong, something is wrong here. Then you realize, I need to work in the studio. I need to do some kind of art. I don't know what that's about exactly. Some of it is just being able to live with yourself.
5. How have you learned your art? Have you had any formal art education? If so, where, when and for how long?
I received my master's degree and a teacher's credential from Sacramento State.
6. Have you had any special mentors that have influenced you and your style?
Larry Weldon, he is a water color painter. I had him at Sacramento City College. He was a friend of my dad's, actually. Then, I had my dad of course. I took some of his classes at Shasta College in Redding. I could kick myself because he was such a good painter and I just took him for granted for years and years. He was so good. He could do a whole water color in forty-five minutes, you know. Actually, I was never influenced by anybody's work as much as just the way they handled their medium. I had my own ideas about what I wanted to do as far as my imagery and concept.
7. Can you talk a little about your experience as an artist in Siskiyou County? (In other words, what is unique about being an artist in this area?) (Pros and Cons) (economic, cultural, physical/geographic)
Most of my contemporary work goes down to Sacramento and it seems to move pretty well down there. Up here, we don't have the people who are willing to spend $1,000 or $500 on a piece of work. My ceramic fish, I sell a lot of that stuff around here. They range from about $45-150. That's the commercial part. As far as being an artist, it's a wonderful place to be.
8. Do you feel like living in Siskiyou County has influenced your art? What aspects have you drawn inspiration from?
The inspiration is deeper then the river, the sky and the colors and all that, although I am sure that's part of it. I think its a protection kind of thing for me. I want to make sure what I do is for the environment out there.
Also, I think for a lot of artists especially me, it’s like when you pick up a ferret or something and it's kind of wiggly and smooth. You want someone else to feel it too, you know what I mean. It's such an interesting feeling that you want to share that with someone else. Fishermen want to do that to. They get out there and catch a fish and it feels good. They want someone else to have that same feeling. Or the beauty we see in something, we want to share that with someone else. That is why we paint it or make it, because we want to have it again or we want somebody else to have it too. That is also why I think people teach other people.
9. If you had to describe your style in a few words how would you do this? First 5 words that come to mind?…
Contemporary, aquatic sculpture. (points to ceramic fish on the wall) All though, some of it is pretty conservative stuff for people. Some of it reaches out a bit further with some mystical things and some magic in it (points to a more contemporary piece). The fish are more about surfaces mostly. The fish stay the same but the surfaces change. It's like abstract painting. As I move along the water, all those colors are there somewhere whether it’s on shore or in the water. That's what it is about, mostly.
10. What is it about making art and the creative process that you find most interesting or are most passionate about?
It's always interesting taking that bag of clay right there and turning it into something like that (points to sculpture on his desk). Taking that mud and making that. You are now occupying the space with what once was this and now is that. Then, it's also about where other people carry that image to. They carry that image around with them as some piece of energy in their head that maybe goes somewhere else and influences something somewhere else.
Also, you know, I have this bond and connection between fishermen which has been real nice. It has worked a lot of different ways that has made me feel real good. One of those ways is that it has brought people into the art world that wouldn't have ever been there because they are not very interested in art but are interested in fish. In the interest of fish they have gotten themselves interested in art and they have gone one step further and they start to see this thing as more than just a fish. There are surfaces and colors and their is movement. Pretty soon they're involved in the arts too. But then it goes one step further. People start to look out and see that maybe those things need to be protected too, they need to be lasting. You end up having people who donate to the river center or take part in some sort of river clean up, or some river conservation organization. My ultimate goal was not only about myself. I think that in the end we like to think that we left the world with something that was beneficial to people or animals or rocks or whatever it is. To me it's all the same. That makes me feel good, that I can make other people feel good, and they can do things that make other things feel good. That’s my ultimate goal as an artist.
11. Do you teach art in anyway or are you interested in being a teacher?
I taught at Sierra college (close to Tahoe) for about eighteen years. I taught ceramics, sculpture, 3-D design and art education. I taught a bunch of different things. Then I also taught at Sacramento State for a while.
12. Is there any way you would like to see your county arts organization better assist you?
No, I think you are doing great. I think the Old Oak Ale House a few years ago was great. I don't know how that came together then.
13. Because of current trends in funding for art programs, all SAC involvement is done through volunteers. Is there anything that the SAC is doing that interests you and that you would like to help us with in the future? Some options: art walk volunteer, teaching program, becoming a member…
I would be happy to give demonstrations anytime I am here. I wanted to do fish drawings for people. One of the most fun things I ever did was one time when we were in the Bahamas on the beach and they had florescent finger paint. We had all these black lights. So I painted everybody. It was the coolest thing, it was unbelievable. Everybody was dancing and it was just incredible. It’s like painting with a neon light. I would love to do that sometime.