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JULY 17, 2009 |
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With me, it happened at the age of 21, during my senior year at the University of Texas. I was taking a class in American studies, and my teacher, David Gaines, introduced me to her: Pauline Kael. It was through her book Reeling, a collection of film reviews she wrote for The New Yorker from 1972 to 1975, that I grasped a new idea of what criticism could be. Her reviews were brainy but fun, sometimes brutal and sometimes rhapsodic (and which pictures she loathed and which she loved was often surprising), with descriptions so vivid that it was as though her words flicked on a projector in your head. But most significantly, these reviews were personal and passionate. Films got under Kael's skin, and she repaid the favor by getting under theirs, scratching away at their shiny celluloid surface until she struck meaning. She could mine insights from even the frothiest, most formulaic Tinseltown product and connect what was happening inside the darkened cinema to the bright and bustling world outside, to the week's events and the moods of her fellow citizens. I wasn't yet a working critic, hadn't considered that as a possible calling, but when I was offered the opportunity a few years later, I took it, with Kael having shown me the way. Now, 25 years later, criticism has become my life's work. The Chronicle invited a dozen local artists to tell us about their first time, that initial encounter with the muse, mentor, or project that set them on the path of their life's work. Their stories may be found here. Jared Theis Sculptor The influence of my late mentor and friend Steve Reynolds played a powerful role in my decision to become an artist. In 1999, I was an undergraduate at the University of Texas at San Antonio and was pursuing a major in the visual arts. I had been in the program more than a year and hadn't found a medium that particularly inspired me. Extremely frustrated, I actually flirted with the possibility of studying music instead until I took a ceramics course with Steve. I did so reluctantly because I had always associated ceramics with vessel making and pottery, but it was a requirement to proceed in the program. The next two years proved to be the most pivotal in my creative and intellectual development. Steve opened up a universe of ideas to me and taught me to focus and channel my energy into making thoughtful art. I never met a man with such a prodigious intellect accompanied with a desire to share his knowledge with others. Perhaps most compelling was his generosity. I had taken his sculptural ceramics course during the 1999 spring semester and was planning on taking the summer off. Steve asked my plans and insisted that I study ceramics through the summer, and in perhaps the most generous gesture I've ever received, he paid my summer tuition. This meant the world to me, especially coming from him, and changed the course of my life. I made my first serious body of work that summer and discovered a true passion for exploring my ideas in clay. He put me on a path that is rich and stimulating, and I will always be grateful. Works by Theis will be on display July 23-Sept. 5 at D Berman Gallery, 1701 Guadalupe. Click to read the full article
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