DICK
MJ Miller
2/10/11
"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing." Dick borrowed a jazz expression and made use of it in all he sculpted, painted and drew. Probably the most well known statue was the one of John Roebling by the bridge that crosses the Ohio River. The arms and the coat really swing. Another one that swings is the figure of a father and two children in the back of Temple Emanuel. The children are climbing a helical curve that represents the first ten books of the Bible.
Dick's first commission actually didn't have much swing to it. That may be because of the limitations of space. It portrayed two saints each with his own niche on the outside of Hinkle Hall, a residence for faculty of Xavier University. That was followed by several commercial commissions.
The description of Dick in his high school year book was fairly accurate:
"Dick was never known to refuse a friendly argument, especially with teachers. He makes it a practice to know both sides of a thing so he can argue no matter which side you are on." Miss LaBrant, a counselor, recommended that Dick and his parents visit Olivet College in Michigan. Dick's father was on the faculty of Ohio State University in Columbus. This was not a major trip. And they went. When they arrived they were escorted by the College president who introduced them to the artist in residence, Milton Horn. Dick was impressed. He said later that he never heard anyone make sense of art the way Milton Horn did. To quote Dick, "Here was this short, fat guy with a beard who never finished high school who talked about art and his large commission that made extreme sense"
He was fascinated by light; the way that light came from windows or overhead light from fixtures. He used to claim that museum curators knew nothing about light. In his house, which he shared with me, there were no lamps. It was all overhead fighting. If the light was not on, you could not see the carved reliefs, nor could you read. There were two small wood reliefs in the living room, the wood panel less than 1/8 th inch deep. One was Jonah and the Whale, the other a group of skulls. You could hardly see the figures unless the overhead light was on.
When computers came in, of course we had to have at least one. He used it to plan his statues and he also used it to "paint" pictures. Another thing he used it for was to create a web site. He started his web with the following:
"Receiving the muses' call, delighting our eye, shaping our myths, and placating our nightmares, what more could we want?"
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and I might add:
*I was about four when R.J. was working on those Jesuit saints for Xavier University,
and since Mom was working, Dick and I walked down Reading Road to the studio where I spent the day trying to pop air bubbles in the clay he wasn't using.
*The era is long gone when a university professor would introduce an art program by "talking about art and his large commission" (instead of how he could help the student realize her own creative potential )
*MJ does not refer to "our house", but "his house, which he shared with me"
*Though not intended as such, this does serve quite well as MJ's last testament. She had a series of small strokes a few months later that carried her into those shadowy lands that lie between life and death, and never wrote anything again.
