Week 8 Adding the Blue Chrissie Hynde (1186 – 1190) 03/07/2021 ID 1190
Jack Larimore American born 1950 –
River of Love…or Tears , 2003
Ash, Douglas fir, steel, bronze
The subject of this work is a bit dark. Tom Waits’s bleak song “Misery is the River of the World” (2002) inspired its title and imagery: “Misery is the river of the world/Everybody row! Everybody row!”
Made as the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, River of Love…or Tears references the artist’s and the nation’s bitter mood. Larimore considers this sculpture an important bridge to his more recent work, which is couched in deeper and more serious subjects.
Song of the Day: Tom Waits Misery is the River of the World
youtu.be/Tw-u2X5EaGY
or
youtu.be/Oq-84Y1EviE
On Loan from the collection of Charles and Margo Todd
From the Placard: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
www.jacklarimore.com/portfolio/new/ohno.html
Jack Larimore
Growing up on a farm in Michigan, Jack Larimore (born 1950) understood at an early age that tools meant you could “do stuff.” He began his career as an environmental planner after studying landscape architecture at Michigan State University. But it was in the early 1970s, after fixing up a house in Philadelphia, that Larimore fell under the spell of the city’s booming furniture scene.
Largely self-taught, by 1983 Larimore had established himself as a sculptor and furniture maker. Recognized early on as an innovator in the field, his work addressed issues of culture, nature, and humanity. While maintaining a private studio practice Larimore taught at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia from 1993 to 2005. He is also a founding member of the Furniture Society and a trustee at the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia.
Seeking change in 2009, Larimore came across artwork incorporating tree trunks: it “knocked me on the head, and I realized there is more to wood than sanding it up…so it looks like plastic.” Without cutting wood into pieces or using complicated joinery, he began working with salvaged timbers. “In those materials is the history of a living tree,” states Larimore. A naturalist at heart, the artist became aware of the beauty in the processes of nature.” Maintaining a studio in Bridgeton, New Jersey, Larimore continues to seek renewal in old timbers and trunks, his work provoking contemplation on recycling, reparation, and ecology.
