Member Newsletter: Spring 2022

A longtime supporter of Kirkland Museum and our Artist on View—see Carl Hartman’s works, Far Away Place (shown on left) and Hooded Visitors, in the Sculpture Gallery.

Kirkland Museum: What do you love about Kirkland Museum – and how did your work end up on display here?

Carl Hartman: The Museum provides inspiration; it is a place where I can visit and think about creative possibilities for my own work. Where else can you go to understand that there are more than 1,000 ways to make a vase?

Over the years, (Founding Director & Curator) Hugh Grant has admired and complimented me on my sculptures while attending different events at our loft and indicated that he would like to have a piece for the Museum one day. He called me the night before the Museum opened on Bannock Street, came over to our loft and picked out two pieces. I was thrilled to be part of the Museum.

That same evening, he gave me a tour – before the Museum had opened! I was so impressed with his knowledge of and enthusiasm for every piece on display; I hope you have the opportunity to hear him talk about all the wonders he has acquired for Kirkland Museum.

KM: Why did you first give to Kirkland Museum?

CH: I live just a few blocks from the Museum – you are an important part of our neighborhood! I enjoy walking over with our friends and family to visit your marvelous collections.

You provide a unique environment that allows so many visitors with varied interests to find that one room or that one piece which inspires wonder at the act of creation.

I also enjoy surprising guests by showing them my sculptures on display – they are amazed.

KM: Tell us about your works on display.

CH: My smaller artwork, Hooded Visitors, consisting of two pieces, is made of plasticine clay and painted with epoxy paint. The larger piece, Far Away Place, is made of high-density urethane and also coated with epoxy paint.

I have particularly enjoyed working with high-density urethane because I can buy it in any density, and it carves like wood with no knots; it is easy to work with.

Since making these smaller pieces, I have now made much larger sculptures by piecing the blocks together.

Just as with all of the sculptures within the sculpture gallery, my pieces celebrate a different vision, technique or approach – and they encourage the visitor to make their own meaning.

I hope you enjoy them.

KM: What does your work aim to say?

CH: These two pieces reference life and other worlds that exist in outer space.

KM: What motivates you to create?

CH: I enjoy painting and sculpting; the challenge of each piece motivates me to see and feel our wonderful surroundings.

I grew up on a farm in southern Ohio, 10 miles from Wilmington. We had cows and pigs, and we raised soybeans and corn. During the third grade, I loved to draw airplanes, and had to be stopped by the teacher.

I vividly remember being in second grade when my teacher pulled me over to a window pointing out the building adjacent to our school. She gave me a lesson in perspective – examining the roof’s lines, its angles, the shade and more.

Later, when I was still too young to really have a job, at 14, I hung out at a gas station helping to wash windshields and check oil. When I learned that an artist lived across the street from the station, I decided that I wanted to talk to him and see his art. I knocked on his door, and soon he was giving me painting lessons for $1 per session while playing his radio – my first introduction to the Cincinnati Symphony. My mother found a retired art professor who also taught me. Both these men taught me to appreciate art.

By age 15, I was lettering people’s names on mailboxes and company names on sides of trucks, and, after graduating from high school, I worked in a neon sign company designing and painting mock-ups for neon signs. I had several other jobs before I attended college acquiring a degree in civil engineering and afterwards my master’s degree in environmental engineering. And after three and a half years in the Army, I joined the company that I have been with for 54 years.

I sketch on vacations and paint, sculpt and build on weekends. I get a tremendous satisfaction from figuring out how to approach a problem and solving it – whether in work or in hobby.

KM: Where do you find inspiration?

CH: Throughout my life, I have been interested in art and design. It is fun to experience the many opportunities we have to learn and enjoy art and craftsmanship. It gives me personal satisfaction to think of what to paint, draw, build and to be able to complete the project.

In terms of my pieces at Kirkland Museum, I frequently work on our loft to make it better – either on its visual appeal or its function. For years, I looked at small holes that were high up in the brick wall of our living room above where I paint. Eventually I decided to fill each niche with a sculpture. The pieces at Kirkland are from that first series of 30; since then, I have made another series with pieces twice the original size – they stand on small platforms jutting from the holes. I have significantly increased their scale; groupings of figures (each 3 to 6 feet high) stand on a beam across the room from the smaller ones.

KM: What brings you back to Kirkland Museum again and again?

CH: Your organization gives the visitor the opportunity to see wonderful unique fine and decorative art seamlessly positioned that represents many different artists through time. In addition, it celebrates the work of Colorado and regional artists. It serves as inspiration for all levels of knowledge, whether novice or expert.

The Museum also provides an opportunity to view the growth of an artist through their lifetime. My favorite gallery at the Museum is the one right behind the welcome station; it catches my attention each and every time I visit. I enjoy seeing Vance Kirkland’s artistic journey: how his work, including subject matter, methods, palette and tools developed over time and how it related to other concurrent artistic movements.