Current exhibit:
“the eyes have it” by joel haertling
―at age 4 i had a traumatic injury caused by my brother age 3 to my right eye which left me with a detached retina caused by my brother age 3
―it was the freshest eye injury that next-door neighbor ophthalmologist dr. firmon hardenberg had ever seen
―2 surgeries were required, one at boulder community hospital & one at boston eye, ear, nose & throat 2 years later performed by the foremost eye surgeon in the usa
―i was left in my right eye with impaired central vision (like looking through 2 screen doors) but rather good peripheral vision
―i also was left with an intermittent bright visual aberration that appears, changes shape, then disappears
―my earliest eye drawings were taken away by my mother and given to a child psychologist, my memory is that they were similar to the illuminated eye on the back of the one dollar bill
―eyes turned up in lots of my elementary school and junior high art class projects
―only the linoleum print survived
―i had always been told by my mother that my brother did not mean to do it
―she also referred to my injured eye as my “bad” eye
―at age 28 in conversation with dr. bob macfarland i was told that my brother did mean to do it
―i began to see approximations of my eye aberration in my filmmaking for raves created by passing 16mm sound slug film under a dremmel tool operated by my brother
―i began to piece together my interest in the cinema of stan brakhage as it related to my impaired vision and eye aberrations
―i first viewed brakhage films in 1974 at the library and met him personally here when his son bear and i competed in the young filmmakers’ competition hosted by the library in 1977
—brakhage & i went on to collaborate on 10 films*
―concurrently i had great interest in mycology, especially mushroom spore prints
―i became aware that mushroom spore prints very closely resemble the iris of the eye
―previous to that i had gained interest in thrift store art, which in that era consisted of so-called “sad-eye” paintings of the 1960s as epitomized by walter & margaret keane
―i began to paint “sad-eye” paintings, mainly society portraiture, in oil and acrylic
―i then combined by interest in sad-eye painting with mycology to produce this body of work
―my malady was revealed to me as the inspiration for my filmmaking and painting
*fire loop, kindering, loud visual noises, i…dreaming, faust film: an opera, faust’s other: an idyll; faust iii: candida albacore, faust iv, through wounded eyes, song of the mushroom
Joel’s artwork is on display in the Arts Resource space for the months of July and August.