Consider this description of a
12-year-old work as a not so simple, but
revealing portrait of local philosopher/artist
Jeff Strayer: The piece, enclosed in a
30-by-50-inch frame and behind glass, defies
photography. It is hung upon a narrow upstairs
hallway wall in a weathered early 20th-century
wooden home in the city’s near west end. The work
once hung briefly in the Fort Wayne Museum of Art
and contains mounted 35-mm expended film
canisters, some black and white photographs and
other documentation which amount to archival
evidence. It was part of a mid-1990s exhibition
“For the Love of Art,” initiated by former museum
Director Emily Kass and designed as a way to
involve local artists and raise money.
“Emily had this idea of giving out first chairs,
then, later, small hobby horses to artists who in
turn were to paint, decorate or otherwise
manipulate and submit them for a showing,”
recounted Strayer who has lectured Philosophy,
Ethics and Aesthetics at IPFW since 2002. “The
Dadaists took their name from the French word
“dada,” which translates as hobby horse. So
rather than just decorating the horse I devised
another, two-part approach.”
Strayer first photographed the interior of the
City County Building lobby from eight positions
then mailed the undeveloped roll of film to an
address picked randomly from the local phone
book. Simultaneously he packaged the hobby horse
in a plain box and sent it, also without
instruction, to the mayor’s office.
“You have to remember,” Strayer continued, “this
was in the ‘Unabomber’ days. But Mayor Paul
Helmke just opened the package and placed the
miniature horse on his credenza without much
attention.”
If you want a definition of conceptual art,
that’s it. Taken a step further it was a case of
a Trojan horse of a different color. For Strayer
the actions were a composition using elements of
chance, historical reference and humor. A
performance that resonates with the dictum that
artistic knowledge trumps the art object
itself.
The 55-year-old Strayer began his pursuit of the
subject-object relationship while growing up in
Warsaw. The oldest of three children (his father
was an insurance agent and real estate investor,
his mother a homemaker), his early readings in
philosophy (especially Bertrand Russell) and art
led him to earn a BFA at the University of Miami
(Florida) and. later, his MFA from Chicagos Art
Institute.
To support himself Strayer embarked on a
teaching career, first at Saint Francis and then
onto IPFW, concentrating on Philosophy. For a
measure of the depth of his studies visit his
online syllabus where you will discover an
intimidating outline of readings in essentialism,
epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of logic
and aesthetics.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, the home he has
shared for 10 years with Angela Boerger, the
well-regarded marketing and political consultant
and their cat, Zeus, “the real ruler of the
house,” Strayer cultivates the time and space he
needs.
The artist moves easily between three separate
spaces in worn leather shoes and rumpled pants.
The largest space, converted from the original
first-floor parlor/dining room is his working
studio, replete with a drafting table and a
large, specially lit table surface and assorted
tools. On the second floor a small room is
equipped with a computer and serves as his
writing room. Across the hall is another small,
book-lined enclave where I suspect most of his
work goes on. Two of its walls are filled floor
to 10-foot ceilings with books on art criticism;
the third is laden with works on philosophy, and
the fourth with a collection of scientific
treatises ranging from evolution to quantum
theory.
In the center of the room sits a small desk upon
which rests two thick unabridged dictionaries
opened as one would find them in a classroom or
public library. Cradled on top of the science
bookcases rests another pair of large
dictionaries.
It is here where Strayer smokes his tobacco pipe
and where he conjures up the content of his book
manuscript due to the publisher in September. Its
title: Subjects and Objects: Essentialism, Art
and Abstraction (an earlier abbreviated
version is contained in the above mentioned
citation on Strayer’s IPFW Philosophy of Art 575:
Advanced Problems in Aesthetics).
Okay, stop and take a breath. I know this is
thick stuff. but it is relevant to our subject
here. Maybe Keats’ lines closing his Ode On a
Grecian Urn will help us with some
disambiguation:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,-that is all
“Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
To a large extent philosophers don’t always
make the best writers, Hegel and Kant for
example,” advises Strayer. But that is not the
case with his own work, as he has had several
papers published. In addition, as a member of
both the American Philosophical Association and
the American Society for Aesthetics, he has
presented papers at those association conventions
and several other academic settings, including
upcoming appointments in Milwaukee and
Toronto.
As to his art, Strayer continues to produce,
although less frequently with writing deadlines
looming. Subtle-colored, abstract and text-driven
pieces are the core of his collection. Major
painters like Rothko, Mondrian, Reinhart and
Newman have impacted his earlier paintings. They
have been shown as part of numerous local and
regional galleries and museum exhibitions.
In his most current work can be found traces of
the likes of his favorite minimalists – Joseph
Kosuth, Donald Judd, Carl Andre and Sol
LeWitt.
“Some art is so technical and intellectual that
it is like philosophy, theoretical physics or
advanced mathematics,” Strayer said in response
to a query about the conventional assumption that
one must be an intellectual to appreciate art.
“Artists who are producing work of this kind, me
included, are concerned with establishing
boundaries that certain kinds of creative
investigation allow. And just as theoretical
physics cannot be understood without a great deal
of education, the same is true of certain
artworks.”
Strayer’s reoccurring theme exploring the
object-subject is very evident in a series of
five small saddle-stitched paper bound books
variously titled Decisions, Untitled
No. 5, Still Life with Fruit, Wine,
Audiotape and Projections, Intentions
and Portrait of An Unknown Lady.
Originally published in New York in 1982, the
limited-edition collection is part of several
prestigious American museums, including the
Metropolitan and Modern in New York, the Art
Institute of Chicago and the San Francisco Museum
of Art.
These personal and sometimes confessional
anecdotal slices of his life incorporate concrete
poetry, 35-mm slides, typographic expressions and
film negatives which give the viewer X-ray images
of what the artist was up to at the time. Like
ribbon-tied bundles of letters retrieved from the
attic or imbedded codes launched into space via
Voyager, these chapbooks have become
archeological clues to their time and place.
Strayer is not a one-or even two-dimensional
man. His outside activities include hiking
(10-15-mile treks), food and cooking (he’s never
met a cuisine he didn’t like, including black
bear in a Norwegian restaurant), traveling (he
gets to Europe as often as he can and would like
to settle there), the cinema (he loves foreign
films; Fellini is a favorite) and music,
especially classical (his favorite 20th-century
composers are Elliot Carter and Ralph Vaughan
Williams).
Taken together Strayer’s accomplishments and
interests make a classic recipe for a supreme
cosmopolitan and citizen of the world.
He’s been known to sit as a panelist in the
“Crit!” series at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art,.
Catch the next one and experience him first
hand.