When decorating your office – whether that be at home or away from home – think outside the box. Think outside. Think rocks.
While rocks may not seem like a first choice for decorating, you might want to think again. As far as artist, photographer and blogger Garry McMichael is concerned “Rocks definitely rock.” And few things show strength and stability as much as the symbolism created by rocks.
Remember the saying, “solid as a rock.”
McMichael’s body of work, “Mystic Cairns” is a series of paintings of rocks in the form of still lifes and rock-strewn landscapes.
As far back as he can remember, he has had an interest in rocks and geology.
“When I was in high school, I hung around with three other young men, and we would go cave exploring almost every weekend in Springfield, Missouri, and we would go all over the Ozarks, including Northwestern Arkansas looking for wild caves,” McMichael said. You don’t know what an adventure is until you drive an 11-year-old, 1954 Ford down an old Ozark logging trail, dodging potholes and crossing unnamed creeks.
In college, he took a geology class and joined the college “caving” club.
“They (rocks) have personalities, just as family and friends do; rocks are people I know,” he said. “Some are bright, colorful and make me laugh. Others are secretive, dark and foreboding, keeping all their secrets to themselves. Some rocks are as smooth as a new baby’s skin, while others have sharp edges and carry the scars of a million years.
“Some rocks work together, forming teams, stacking together, while others are loners. Like people, rocks fail, they crack, they slowly erode and they break under natures heavy hand. But don’t ever underestimate a rock. They have strength and the ability to endure in a way that people can only wish for. We can learn a lot from rocks,” he added.
As an avid student of still life painters and their subjects, McMichael said he is always intrigued by the subjects that are chosen. Most still life painters select everyday things such as fruit, flowers, simple utensils and kitchenware.
“In the 18th century, it wasn’t uncommon for painters to create paintings of the game (rabbit, quail, fish) they hunted for nourishment. They would often include their trusty musket and knives in the paintings.
Giorgio Morandi is a well-known Italian still life painter whose subject was wine bottles, tin cans, bricks and simple boxes. He painted hundreds of them in his little apartment by the light coming in his window. They were all titled Natura Morta, with the year each was painted as part of the title. Georgia O’Keeffe was famous for painting bones, horns and antlers, with and without the New Mexico landscape.
“I first saw rocks stacked on top of each other on a Canadian fishing trip,” McMichael said. “They are called ‘cairns,’ and have been used for centuries to mark a trail. I saw them again as works of art stacked on the North Shores of Lake Superior.”
Like Morandi and O’Keeffe, he was immediately attracted to painting these cairns because of their simplicity, textures and gracefulness. Not only does he paint them as still lifes, he’s beginning to see them as part of the landscape, and rocks in general, as the landscape.
McMichael owns Garry McMichael Fine Art & Photography, and has been an editorial and commercial photographer all of his life. He has worked as a freelancer for national publications such as National Geographic, Time magazine, Newsweek, Forbes, Bicycling and dozens of others. Today, much of his work is for commercial clients creating annual report photography, brochures and catalogs, as well as developing websites and e-mail marketing for clients.
“I often tell friends I make art because it’s cheaper than seeing a psychiatrist. There is lot of truth in that statement,” McMichael said. “All day, I run the professional commercial photography studio, and I can feel my stress level rise throughout the day.
To see more of McMichael’s “Mystic Cairns,” as well as his latest painting series, “Elephant Rocks,” visit garrymcmichael.com.
