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By Joan Leslie Woodruff
Mountainair – With his Dyeing to Resist, a 20-year mid-career perspective exhibit, Gary Fey offers the public a view into his life's work of applying paint to silk. His batik art designs vary dramatically in size and complexity. The exhibition at Tohu Bohu Gallery stretches across the vast walls of the gallery as through a time stratum. The viewer is introduced to Fey's work in a series of "choreographed" pieces hung as if dancing along the east wall. These are materials left from his years creating exclusive dress material designs.
The actual gallery is a study in Fey's more creative pursuits and his recent forays into spiritualism.
Fey was born and grew up in Chicago. He first applied color to paper at the age of four, discovering a passion that remains: "What drives me to paint, to create is an unending passion for life and color," he states.
Gary was formally trained at the Art Institute of Chicago but says in his retrospective that he did not receive a degree and "in fact, school almost killed my artistic life."
He moved to Southern California, lived on the coast and learned to pull more than the clouds, the sky and the ocean onto silk with his paints. His creations attracted some big names, and he eventually sold a piece (for a large amount of money) to Capriccios, La Jolla, California.
Fey’s career as a designer for the rich and famous was launched, and Marion Wagner Boutique in Beverly Hills became a regular buyer. Not far down the road, Fey painted silk designs for Nolan Miller, who then draped them on actress Linda Evans during her “Dynasty” days. Fey also provided textile designs to Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta. Swim suits, dresses and even wallpaper showed off Fey’s talent.
Somewhere into the late 1980’s Fey felt a need to shift his gears for creative purposes. He and his wife picked up and moved to Good Thunder, Minnesota. There he began painting silk batik, mostly as framed art. Rural life dramatically transformed Fey’s creative perspective. Good Thunder is a very small town and Fey reminisces that people will talk for hours at you through their screened doors without ever inviting you in for tea.
"In Good Thunder, landscape scenery proliferates like rabbits, then jumps onto silk as easily as toads into a pond." Fey likes to make comparisons between Garrison Keillor’s "Prairie Home Companion"
Minnesota, and the ones he found. They are one and the same, he says. Fey fell in step with his fellow Good Thunderians and painted what he saw. Eventually the town acquired a grant and provided the funds to Fey so that he could encompass their 150 year history into a mural type piece of art, which they preserved as a historical landmark.
Gary says his greatest influence upon his work has been the people who have been his friends. "My favorite quote," he says, is William Blake: "The fool, if he persists, will become wise."
"I encourage people to pursue their creative foolishness," Fey says.
He also quotes Joseph Campbell: "Follow your bliss. If you do, the invisible hand of God will open doors for you."
These days Fey lives in Mountainair, New Mexico, where he continues to create silk batik, and he also continues teaching. He'll be giving a workshop during Sunflower Festival, Aug. 31.
For more information about Fey’s summer show, or to find out about any future batik workshops, leave a message at Tohu
Bohu. Good Thunder Studio, located at Tohu Bohu Gallery, 600 North Summit Road, Mountainair, New Mexico (1-505-847-2825).
You can pick up a copy of Steppin Out in stores
and visitors centers throughout the state. Subscriptions are also
available at $15 per year. Please send check or money order with address
to Steppin Out, 616 Nicholas, Socorro, N.M. 87801.
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