| Summary: | ARTIST EXPLAINS NEEDS OF CRAFT : Rockwell Kent Backs Work as Drawing Aid ARTIST EXPLAINS NEEDS OF CRAFT Rockwell Kent Backs Work as Drawing Aid BY DAVID W. HAZEN Staff Writer, The Oregonian "What does it take to make an artist?" Rockwell Kent was asked as he helped himself to a third piece of well-done toast at the Benson hotel yesterday. He is one of America's most famous artists, and lectured last night at the Portland Museum of Art. He has written many books, illustrated them, and is editor of Creative Art. "Gosh, that's a poser," he replied. Then he declared, "Well, it takes sensitiveness, it takes intelligence, and it takes energy or whatever it is you call that that makes a man a hard worker. Hard work is no use without the other qualities, and the other qualities are of no use without hard work." "Does it come as an inspiration?" the author of "Wilderness" and "N by; E" was asked. Steady Work Backed "No, definitely not," he snapped back. "If you flirt with inspiration she will lead you a long chase. The more a man develops a system of regular hours of work, and sticks to; it, the more likely he is to do something worth-while, if you dependj on inspiration its visits will be far- ther and farther apart. Art is less an expression of what you feel like than of what you know. The less one talks about what he is going to do, the better it will be for him. "The old Mother Goose motto is still the best thing to follow—early to bed and early to rise. There is more good talent going to waste in Bohemian life than we have any idea of. Bohemia is the graveyard of talent because it is the place where people learn not to work. Personal Integrity Idea "There is only one absolute qual ity that are can possess, that is per sonal integrity; in other words, the most an artist can do is to make his own work—whether it is good or bad must be the decision of pos terity, and there's nothing the art ist can do about that." Rockwell Kent, whose work is in all great American art galleries, was asked about surrealism, and it caused him to drop his piece of well- done toast. "To me surrealism is the most healthy trend modern art has shown," he exclaimed. "It's healthy because it marks a return to representation and to story telling. And when the surrealist begins to tell stories that are of interest to the general public we will then again have a popular interest in art, and we haven't had that for several generations. Furor American Trend "The furor that has become a part of American life will contribute to a renaissance of art in this country. We have been deploring for a long time that we have had no religion—religion has only been important on account of the furor that it aroused in people; now we have social causes that are arousing that same furor." Mr. Kent of Ausable Forks, N. Y., doesn't like to sell his pictures. "I have the finest collection of Kents in the world, I keep them at home," he said. "But I have a new plan— I'm going to rent them to people. I will fix a cost price, not a sale price, then I'll rent them at say 4 per cent on that price a year." The artist lived in Greenland three years. "Yes, Greenland has icy mountains, the old hymn is right," he said.
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