About HJ (aka Harvey) BOTT
"CUT-TO-THE-CHASE" BIO:
Born 1933, Gill, Colorado. Attended adult life-drawing classes, summers, for five years, Greeley State College, starting age 9; first major exhibit (2-person) at 14, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX. At 15, developed scale model business working with architectural firms. Thereafter began Tri-Coastal & European education AND exhibition adventure; including galleries, art centers and museums in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Denver, Köln, Dusseldorf, Mexico City and others. Over 80 solo exhibitions, 16 solo ROBOTT™ performances, 24 in-situ installations (including 12 deep space/luminescent drawings), more than 700 group survey exhibitions. Over 70 public (museum, city & university) and over 130 corporate collections include the work. Completed 20 government and over 160 private and corporate commissions. First American sculptor to win the "Premier les plus Sculpture," Prix de Paris, Logia Duncan Galleries, Paris, 1965. Only American to win the "Plastik Reisestipedium/Europa," "Köln Kunstuerein, Plastik Kunste," 1956. Invented Tobinite™, a non-toxic plastic that moulds like clay, forty viscosity/texture formulas.
Current studio concentration: painting & reliefs investigating the 24 basic marks/scribbles found in all cultures; therewith, addressing my on-going concerns with the geometric variables of the Phenomena-of-a-Line tiling processes discovered March 7, 1972 with the
Displacement-of-Volume (DoV)™ System Concepts used since then in all work.
A strong education advocate of cross disciplinary uses of art/geometry/math/science.
OR, ANOTHER QUICKIE STATEMENT BIO:
From German-Russian family. Tri-coastal school-housing and across the A-pond. 1st solo: bus-depot restroom, Wendover, Utah, 1951. Making art since 4 years of age, way too much stuff. Museums, universities and other public spaces own the goods, lots of unsuspecting government and corporate spaces, as well as, numerous "very discriminating" private souls. Hundreds of invitational juried affairs around the planet and pages of group shows; but, most bio lines no longer mean anything to anyone but the artist, and there are hundreds; including essays, reviews, ads and puff articles. I try to make a few memorable things that span time and cultures, using a systemic foundation; and, maybe that might mean something to someone before it all dissipates.
AND, NOW COMES A VERBOSE statement APPROACH
BEFORE hitting the RESUME':
As stated in the DoV System Concepts section, herein (note: to the left, Table of Contents) I perceive myself as a dedicated Baroque-Minimalist obsessed with the formal aesthetic issues of the Phenomenon-of-the-LINE, and its inherent context combat with circle/square/1st-issues; AND, much non-overt social commentary through simplistic cross-cultural symbols. I have very catholic tastes but very discriminating about craft/ content/context mix and projected sense-of-purpose. Since quality is always subjective hopefully we recognize craft as our first responsibility; therewith, we develop our own language of freedom that means to resolve issues of aesthetic "progress" and sociometric dynamics. Internally we just might seek quintessential endorphin demographics, an unique Zeitgeist for a very personal vocabulary while avoiding the temptations of the studio becoming a factory; and, let us absorb every bit and throw of technology, yet principally hands-on. So much like life itself, ALL art is narrative, quite simply, PERSPECTIVE & AGENDA for the living.
I have a strong proclivity for the proliferation of both verbatim content and inherent context of equivocal clarity found in what we may call quotes making a difference; to wit, as Marlene Dietrich is to have said, "I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself."
Finally, a very heavily paraphrased thought from Michael Milligan from an essay by Criss Hedges (Truthdig, July 21, 2014) that is very meaningful to me as an artist:
Effort in all of the arts is ephemeral. It is about personal transformation, accurate empathy and self-reflection. It does not define its worth by profit. It posits that our visions extoll roles in life that make the world a better place. May we also include advocating to protect the weak, care of the sick and to love our neighbor as our self, bringing new visions of non defensive genuineness through our respective art. May our arts celebrate the majesty and musicality of the imaginative vocabularies of all languages, obviously including the visual arts. Those who dedicate their lives to the nuances of beauty and truth all too often seem to have no place in the corporate state. What does not feed the manias for profit and "fame," thus the cult of the self, is too easily deemed superfluous and often ridiculed even within the hierarchy networks of corresponding elite institutions.
