Farewells to Moristotle & Co.

By André Duvall
[with a few words from
Billy Charles Duvall]

I cherish knowing that my father and Morris are first cousins and have a great respect and affinity for each other (their mothers, Florine & Stella, respectively, were sisters). I’m blessed to have found myself in the middle of the thoughts and creations of these two amazing souls by way of my contributions to Moristotle & Co. I’m grateful to Morris for his unwavering encouragement, inspiration, and direct but always respectful nudging of my continued engagement with his blog.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [12]

Detail of a photo below

By André Duvall

Beyond the 31 works of art I’ve catalogued so far in this column, there are still other paintings in Dad’s oeuvre worthy of sharing. He recently rediscovered a few more completed works, owing to searches motivated by the evolution of our Father’s Art project. He also discovered several unfinished works from many years ago that the project has inspired him to work on completing.

Parting Words from Moristotle

Portrait of Moristotle
by Susan C. Price

By Moristotle

Why am I retiring from blogging? For a long time, I have known my sun was slowly setting, but it seems now to be sinking fast, as memory and memories fade. Some mornings even my fingers can’t remember what was the best way I’ve yet found to hold the coffee grinder to brush out the shards of bean.
    But the existing content will still be here, and more posts are already scheduled for August – a few more statements of farewell (suggested by Maik Strosahl, to whom I’m indebted for the idea), a “Father’s Art” column by André Duvall, and poems by Maik, Michael H. Brownstein, and Eric Meub, whose sonnet “Afterlife” will appear last because its title rather caps my going off.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [11]

Billy Charles Duvall

By André Duvall

La Vision de Guillermo: The idea for the first painting (see below) came from a pamphlet purchased at a book sale at the Little Rock public library entitled “Bolivia,” from Nov. 1, 1917. The pamphlet contained many photographs, including one taken at night with the caption, “A Pack Train of Llamas in La Paz, Bolivia – Twilight.” Dad’s llamas are based on the first two shown in that photo. Lights from the buildings are shining, casting shadows.

Links to André Duvall’s Father Billy Charles Duvall’s Art

André
Duvall’s
Father

Billy
Charles
Duvall’s

Art

A Visual Index

By Moristotle

In case you haven’t noticed, the sidebar now includes a table of images representing each of my cousin Billy Charles Duvall’s artworks that have been presented in his son André’s column, “Father’s Art.” The images are not just for decoration; each of them links to the original image in the “Father’s Art” column it appeared in. All you have to do is click on the image.
    The table looks just like the one shown here, and you can get to it in either of two ways: 

• Click on its link in the Sidebar Directory, or 
• Scroll down to it (quite a ways, because the sidebar contains lots of elements, concluding with the entire collection of #tags associated with Moristotle & Co.).

The table of artwork images came about, because…Well, I’m not entirely sure now, because it was a while ago, and I actually got bogged down at one point and finally decided to just forget the whole thing. But within 24 hours my muse graced me with an avalanche of ideas for taking a better approach than I had started out with.
    Originally, the ratio of each image’s height to width (H:W) was the same as the artwork referred to. The problem with that was that I had to have a separate table for each row of images because their column widths varied and they wouldn’t stack into regular rows.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [10]

Detail from “Origin of
the Hattieville Bison”

By André Duvall

Almost all of my father’s art that I’ve presented so far have been oil paintings (except for one with acrylic and a couple of sketches). Oil painting is Dad’s preferred medium and comprises the majority of his work.
    Today’s presentation, in contrast, shares two pieces with three-dimensional elements, both created within the last eleven years. Both were inspired by objects he collected while taking walks along the several curves the Arkansas River makes between Little Rock and North Little Rock. From its banks he has collected rocks, driftwood, and plants such as trumpet vines. Both works featured below were also inspired by the bio-evolutionary and geological processes on Earth.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [9]

His Only
Self-Portrait

By André Duvall

After a long hiatus, I am excited to resume sharing more artwork of my father, Billy Charles Duvall. If you enjoy this post and his artwork, I invite you to visit any of my eight earlier Father’s Art posts on Moristotle & Co. In the first installment, on September 25, 2019, you can read some background on Dad’s hobby, and about my inspiration for this project.

Reflections on a Hugging Sestina

Photo by @MichelleEvansArt

By André Duvall

[Note from Moristotle: When I asked André to please read and comment on a sestina I had written, his response was so thoughtful I asked him for permission to share his response publicly. The sestina appeared yesterday. I wrote it in September of last year, the same month André wrote his reflections, and I presented it to Dennis & Jan Huggins in October.]

I wanted to wait to comment on your sestina until after I had time to re-read it slowly and savor it. I do believe it “approaches perfection,” as you yourself felt. What a wonderful tribute to your friends – I feel the poem is successful on many levels:

Highways and Byways: The Death of the Aerialist

By Maik Strosahl

A recent post by André Duvall sent me back to read his first “Father’s Art” column, about his father, Billy Charles Duvall, and his art. One particular piece caught my attention. Originally titled “The Death of the Aerialist,” “The Last Man” depicts a man falling from a wire. It reminded me of a movie I watched when I was young.
    In 1978, Lloyd Bridges starred in the made-for-TV movie The Great Wallendas. I was ten, but I still remember the tragic tale of a family of tight-rope walkers who were driven to keep going high.
    The father, Karl Wallenda, died that same year, falling from a pretty standard walk, high up, between two buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His wife has been quoted since as saying: “All Karl thought about for three straight months prior to the accident was falling. It seemed to me he put all his energy into not falling – not into walking the tightrope.”
    To this day, a new generation of Wallendas still perform on the high-wire.
    Here is my tribute to Karl, with thanks to both André and Billy Charles Duvall, whose painting “The Last Man” inspired it.

“The Last Man” (originally “The Death of the Aerialist”), 1983.
48" x 24". Oil on masonite

I dreamed of falling,
a drop of rain from an
empty sky

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [8]

Oil and acrylic on masonite; 48" x 34". July 1984.
Photo by Moristotle, 2015

Mujer Tropical

By André Duvall

Today, April 23, in honor of Billy Charles Duvall’s birthday, I offer a new installment of Father’s Art. Happy Birthday and much love, Dad!

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [7]

Detail from
original

Detail from
final

A River Journey to Paradise

By André Duvall

My Father’s Art columns up to this point have featured small groupings of paintings with some unifying theme. Today’s post describes the evolution of a single painting that Dad modified many times over the course of several years, and it was one of the paintings that were among my childhood experiences of home.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [6]

Detail of “Island Woman”

Two Paintings
and a Bonus

By André Duvall

As you may have gathered from the Father’s Art posts so far, Dad favors working with oil paint. “Island Woman” is one of the few cases in which he uses some acrylic, in order to give a flat, two-dimensional look to the black portion of the painting. He also chose to use the rough side of the Masonite to give it more of a canvas look and texture. “Island Woman” is Dad’s second open-frame painting, inspired by the use of black in his first one, which will be featured in a future post.

Mary’s Voice: Posthumously Speaking 18

Detail: signature, year

On the occasion of her 95th birthday (tomorrow)

By Mary Alice Condley (1925-2007)

[Editor’s Note: I am grateful to Mary’s & my cousin Billy Charles Duvall, the son of our mother’s sister Florine, for his discovery of today’s painting, and to his son, André Duvall, for explaining its background in tomorrow’s installment of his Father’s Art column. Thank readers in advance for their 24 hours of patience!]

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [5]

Detail from lead painting

Three Paintings from an Old Triptych

By André Duvall

Today’s three paintings were originally conjoined on one 6" x 12" piece of Masonite, which my father divided with painted black lines into segments of equal length. Dad completed the center and right paintings in 1988, but “painter’s block” kept him from completing the left side until a few weeks ago (32 years later!) – when I told him that I planned to arrive in town to catalogue another set of paintings for a Father’s Art post, he rediscovered the incomplete triptych, and upon viewing the vacant spaces in the left-side painting, knew suddenly, after all these years, how to complete the painting and what it would be titled (the other two paintings are untitled).

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [4]

Detail of 3rd painting

Three Paintings of Dancers

By André Duvall

When launching this series, I envisioned each installment of my father Billy Charles Duvall’s artwork having some unifying theme, technique, or history. Dad easily came up with the theme of today’s three original works: dancing. Each painting shows a dancer in movement, drawing our eyes to the details in the folds and colors of their clothing. Dad creates striking contrasts of each dancer with the colors and stillness of the surrounding environments, yet each dancer seems right at home.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [3]

Detail of “Passing”

Four Original Paintings

By André Duvall

Today I present four original paintings by my father, Billy Charles Duvall. The first and fourth of them incorporated elements from photographs in books.