Richard Hunt... (sweet home Chicago)

it was a dark and stormy night in Chicago...

🎶 Sweet Home, Chicago 🎶

hey, welcome back to kristo.art...

in this episode, I’m gonna go a little bit off script...
meaning:

we’re not only gonna be looking at somebody’s art...
(in this case, something by the great contemporary sculptor, Richard Hunt...

[“that is excellent”]
00:25

but we’re also gonna be looking at my art...

[“ta da!” &an exasperated “oh boy... oh boy...”]
00:29

in this case, a few photographs I took of Richard Hunt’s work...

and I’m not gonna talk so much about looking at the sculpture... or even at the photographs...

[“really?”]
00:41

you’ll be able to see a couple of them on the website...

[“hmmm”]
00:44

instead, I’m gonna let you in on what happened the night Richard Hunt’s work became a part of who I am as an artist...

[“that’s nice...”]
00:53

and in the process, I’m gonna introduce you to one of the ways your own Muse might tend to show up and lob you a softball...

just beware: it might be a 16 incher...

 which, as anyone from Chicago would know...
is not as easy to hit as you might think...

[“watch out...!”]
01:14

🎶 Thief in the Night 🎶

I was walking home from my office one very mild October evening... and just as I was passing the northeast corner of Jonquil Park... (where Sheffield meets Lincoln and Wrightwood...)
it began raining like holy hell...

🎶 Driving in the Rain 🎶 + [thunder strikes & storms]
01:51

now, unlike Owen Wilson’s character in that Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris — a film that just tickles my love for Paris and all things Hemingway — I’m not a guy who likes walking in the rain... especially without an umbrella...

but there I was...

and as much as I like, (and maybe even love) Chicago — hell, I lived there for 30 years — Chicago is NOT Paris...

[“ooh, la, la...”]
02:19

but that night, in a strangely amazing parallel to Midnight in Paris, something magical was about to happen...

Sturm und Drang

as I said, the weather was pretty mild... at least temperature-wise... Indian Summerish, you know...?

but this was no summer shower... this was a full blown, wild and crazy thunder storm... real Sturm und Drang stuff

[scream...! (3 women)]
02:54

with lots and lots of thunder and lightning... and I gotta tell ya, those lightening bolts, they were not only all over the place, they were coming on practically non-stop...

so despite all that rain (and the obvious danger), I stopped to watch... I just somehow knew that this was a show I shouldn’t ignore... of course, I didn’t know, intellectually, why I felt that way... but that’s because it was my intuition telling me stop and watch... even though, at the time, I had no clue that I even had such a thing as Intuition...

I also didn’t know that this was a moment of pure kairos...

🎶 ¿cuál campo? 🎶
03:54

no, no, no...not chaos...

kairos...

[huh...?]
04:09

well, I’m with you on that, because one reason I didn’t know was because I’d never heard of the thing...

to put it as simply as I can, kairos is the sudden confluence of:

  • right place
  • right time
  • right circumstance, and
  • the right person

[“who’s that?”]
04:28

(who, by the way, had better take the right action—or else)

also, it’s one of those things that can never be predicted...

what it amounts to is a moment that’s perfectly ripe for your creativity, and it’s something that your intuition is always on the lookout for...

now as I said, at the time, I didn’t know any of this... but my intuition did... and that’s why I stopped...

so there’s this one thing you should know about kairos...

[what’s that?]
05:00

it’s that you can’t miss it... and that’s because every single one of us has intuition... 

🎶 kool kats 🎶

and there will always be moments that are perfectly ripe for our creativity...

you just have to cultivate that creativity, otherwise those moments of kairos are gonna be few and far between... which is bad enough... but worse, even, is that if you don’t take the plunge and act on it... it’ll turn on you!

[angry dog snarl & growl]
05:27

and become something you will never, ever forget — but will always, always and always regret...

[“oh no!, oh no”]
05:34

believe me... I know... because I’ve flubbed it way too many times...

[“oh crap!”]
05:43

but this wasn’t one of them...

[“hooray!”]
05:46

and I’ve got the photographs to prove it...

[“Oh...very nice!”]
05:50

I’m not even going to try and describe them to you... you can see them on the website... and I really do hope that you take a look... because once you see them, I think you’ll understand kairos a whole lot better...

[“roger that”]
06:03

but it’s okay if you don’t — or if can’t see them... I’m gonna describe the moment in a little more detail, and that should give you the picture...

a particular place to go...

as I said, it always involves a right place... so let me tell you a little bit about that particular right place...

🎶 octoblues 🎶
06:31

this corner I was walking by... it’s just another one of those typically Chicago intersections of 3 roads... but since there’s a large park right there — a wide open space without buildings or tall trees — it made for a great unobstructed view of that dramatic, Sturm und Drang sky...

[3 screams...! (a woman)]
07:02

and this corner has another decisive feature: Richard Hunt’s sculptural homage to John Peter Altgeld...

now Altgeld — in a somewhat clichéd Chicago context — was one Illinois Governor who DIDN'T end up behind bars, and get this, the guy was actually voted out of office for his integrity...!

these day’s he may not be so famous, but there’s even another public sculpture dedicated to him less than a mile away in Lincoln Park... that one’s a figurative work done by a guy named Gutzon Borglum,

[“what...?”]
07:50

who just happens to be the guy who designed the faces on Mt. Rushmore...

this memorial in Jonquil Park was done in Richard Hunt’s more abstract, signature style and consists of 3 bronze columns surmounted by representations of eagles...

Richard Hunt happens to be an extraordinary modern sculptor

[“oh yeah...”]
08:14

whose work I was very familiar with from an exhibition at Chicago’s Terra Museum...

it was an exhibition that took place just a couple of months earlier, in fact, in the summer of that same year... 1992... but I had also spent a good amount of daylight time pondering these eagles on the corner, since I passed them pretty often... and funny enough, his atelier, his studio, just happens to be right across the street from that park...

something else I didn’t know at the time was the fact that corners like this — the meeting of 3 roads — were considered sacred to the goddess Hecate... and you can read about her in all sorts of places, but what I understand best from my own reading — especially that of Carl Jung — is that she is and always was a conceptual representation of Intuition...

make of that what you will... I just appreciate the synchronicity of it...

so now that you know about the place, let me tell you why I was the right person to be on that corner at that time, and in that wet, wild and stormy circumstance...

me and my Arrow... 

🎶 semi-funk 🎶
09:29

first of all, this was a time in my life when I never went anywhere without at least one, and sometimes 2 cameras... and fortunately, that night I was carrying a third one: my plastic Arrow camera...

The Arrow was a super-cheapo copy of the famous cheapo Diana camera that was actually a toy camera with a really quirky plastic lens... and this was something that Robert Clarke-Davis had introduced us to in the photo class I was taking at the time...

The Diana had been in vogue with fine art photographers for some time, but they were no longer being made... and so originals were not only rare and expensive — just finding one was considered a real coup...

[“ooh!”]
10:21

But Clarke hooked us all up with an Arrow — which was essentially the very same thing... and it cost less than 5 bucks...

it was a hoot to use... but unfortunately, the shutter spring on mine gave up the ghost after way too FEW rolls of film... something like 6 or 7...

but even more unfortunately: the chinese company that made and sold them... well, they just abruptly stopped selling them right around the time my shutter spring blew...

[“damn!”]
10:52

so there was no way to replace it... and that left me with a toy camera that was pretty much useless EXCEPT in two very particular situations:

One of those situations was meant for the near future, because I had decided to turn it into a pinhole camera. The shutter could be held open by hand or by tape, and closed whenever I figured I'd waited long enough for a decent exposure... and boy oh boy... that waiting... did THAT ever get me into trouble... but that's another cool image and a story for another episode...

So this other ideal situation for my poor, overworked Arrow was unfolding right then and there... and it was staring me right in the face...

First of all there was no way I was gonna use either one of my main cameras in the pouring rain... cameras and water just don’t mix...

[“roger that”]
10:52

but I knew for sure that rain couldn't hurt my plastic camera in the least...

and second... more importantly, I wouldn’t have to worry about camera shake causing a typically useless blurry image...

kairos kicks in...

🎶 faster does it 🎶
12:06

holding the shutter open in the near pitch dark of the night would produce no image until one of those bolts of lightning would enter the frame... kinda like a giant flash attachment made by mother nature...

and so there I was: in the right place, at the right time, with the perfect tool... all that was left to do was to yank out my Arrow and take the right action...

now what’s so special about that right action isn’t the photographs that came out of it... even though they’re awesome, and pretty much self-explanatory... and I have to admit... I’m really proud of them...

but the thing that’s so much more important: was the feeling I had... because that’s what kairos is all about: the feeling you get while you’re taking the right action...

so the object that resulted from taking the right action — in this case, photographs...

well, they’re wonderful... but they’re really just artifacts... souvenirs of the moment...

yeah, they’re genuine art... but the important thing is what taking that right action does to you as an artist and as a person... and that can only be found in the feeling you get in the moment, while you’re doing it...

And now, looking back on that unforgettable moment... this thing that I now know as kairos... the feeling it gives you...  well that tells you it’s not only real magic... but that the magic is transforming you...

that kind of transformative magic is a gift whose appearance you can’t predict... you can’t set it up or arrange it in advance... and you sure as hell can’t buy it...

it’s something you can only prepare yourself to be ready for...

the one thing you don’t ever have to worry about, is recognizing it... because you can’t ever miss it... and there’s the rub... because you’ve GOT to accept it... which means you’ve got to act decisively...

and if you don’t... it’s gonna bum the hell out of you... for a long, long time...

the career of the great street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson is associated with that very term: the decisive moment... he actually once said:

...you must see...an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.

knowingly or not, he was really talking about kairos... but kairos doesn’t just apply to photography... or even the arts...

and you can’t see what kairos actually feels like... you can only feel it for yourself... and I think you all know what I’m talking about...

my decisive moment...

so that moment I’m talking about here... it happened to me in 1992... but it was only about 10 years ago when I tried to put that feeling into words... and here’s what I came up with...
(so I’m gonna quote myself)

🎶 uberpunch 🎶
15:30

“I can't even describe to you how excited I was to be standing there in the rain and catching lightning on film...  it was here it was there it was left it was right... but I was catching it...

I just stood there with my heart pounding while I tried to calmly frame my shots... focusing on those sculptures I respected and knew so nearly intimately... I just had to wait for the lightning (like some fantastic, sublime strobe light) to do the rest... 

🎶 the gatekeepers 🎶
16:09

and when I finally ran out of film... I was so excited and happy I was shaking inside... I just knew that some of those negatives were gonna turn out to be as exciting as that night and show something of what had just happened to me... and I suppose the concept of a "peak experience" makes sense in this context... but all I knew was that I felt more alive than ever..."

so that’s where I left the writing of it back in 2009... and now, I realize that kairos is the magical moment when all of your hard work and preparation actually transforms what you’re working on into art... and turns you into an artist... in other words, it’s the very thing that’s necessary to turn your life into a work of art...

so there are more of those moments that I wanna share with you... along with the images that came out of them... some of my best work... and that will happen in future episodes... in the meantime, I’ll keep on visiting museums and galleries and talking about other people’s work... and I hope you’ll be doing the same... your own Muse will thrive on it...  

so... thanks for listening... if you dig the show, please share it...

got a question, a comment, or just wanna say hi...? I'd love to hear from you:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

you can find transcripts, links and images in the show notes all at kristo.art

alrighty, then...

ciao a tutti...

music credits:

🎶 Sweet Home, Chicago 🎶
courtesy of SoulMAN
Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0  

🎶 Thief in the Night 🎶

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Thief in the Night" by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.com
License: Creative Commons Attribution 

🎶 Driving in the Rain 🎶

Driving in the rain by Timecrawler 82 is licensed under an Attribution License. 

🎶 ¿cuál campo? 🎶

¿cuál campo? by Hernán Samá & Marcelo von Schultz is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. 

🎶 kool kats 🎶

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Kool Kats" by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.com
License: CC By Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

🎶 octoblues 🎶

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"OctoBlues" by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.com
License: CC By Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

🎶 semi-funk 🎶

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Semi-Funk" by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.com
License: CC By Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

🎶 faster does it 🎶

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Faster Does It" by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.com
License: CC By Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

🎶 uberpunch 🎶

"uberpunch" is by Alexander Nakarada of serpentsoundstudios.com
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License. 

🎶 the gatekeepers 🎶

The Gatekeepers is by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

sound credits 

[“that is excellent”]

“that is excellent” courtesy of MatteusNova
This work is licensed under the Attribution License.

[“ta da!”]

"ta da!" courtesy of isabellaquintero97
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.

[an exasperated, “oh boy... oh boy...”]

“an exasperated, “oh boy... oh boy...” courtesy of AmeAngelofSin
This work is licensed under the Attribution License.

[“really?”]

"really...?" courtesy of juror2
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.

[“hmmm”]

"hmm..." courtesy of agent vivid
This work is licensed under the Sampling+ License.

[“that’s nice...”]

"that’s nice" courtesy of LG
This work is licensed under the Attribution License.

[“watch out...!”]

”watch out...! ” courtesy of daveincamas
This work is licensed under the Attribution License.

[thunder strikes & storms]

[“ooh, la, la...”]

"ooh-la-la" courtesy of Timbre
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial License.

[scream...! (3 women)]

”scream...! (3 women)” courtesy of thanvannispen
This work is licensed under the Attribution License.

[huh...?]

"huh...?" courtesy of Adam_N
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.

[“who’s that?”]

"who’s that?" courtesy of iccleste
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.

[what’s that?]

”what’s that...?” courtesy of balloonhead
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.

[angry dog snarl & growl]

[“oh no!” & “oh crap!”]

"oh no!” & “oh crap!" courtesy of AmeAngelofSin
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.

[“hooray!”]

“hooray!” courtesy of javapimp
This work is licensed under the Attribution License

[“Oh...very nice!”]

“Oh...very nice!” courtesy of balloonhead
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.

[“roger that”]

“roger that” courtesy of theuncertainman
This work is licensed under the Attribution License

[3 screams...! (woman)]

3 screams...! (woman) courtesy of FreqMan
This work is licensed under the Attribution License.

[“what...?”]

“what?” courtesy of Alivvie
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.

[“oh yeah...”]

"oh yeah" courtesy of Tim Kahn and Amy Gedgaudas
This work is licensed under the Attribution License.

[“ooh!”]

oh...!" surprised sounds courtesy of Reitanna
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.

[“damn...!”]

“damn...!” courtesy of Tim Kahn and Amy Gedgaudas
This work is licensed under the Attribution License

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