On the Anniversary of My Father’s Passing*
Richard J Van Wagoner was a visual artist. He died Christmas day 2013. I post something in remembrance of him this time of year.
Of his few self-portraits, the one below is my favorite. It hangs in a bedroom at my brother Rob’s house in rural Washington, on the west side of the Cascades along the banks of the Skagit River, where dad and mom lived for the last stretches of their lives, very near where they both are buried. He found beauty in most things, subjects others often found ordinary, or even unsightly.
Renee, his lifelong muse, is depicted in the portrait below, painted around the time of his self-portrait above. Glimpses of her beauty, personality, and character, and Richard’s interpretations of them, are revealed in art for which she was his fascination and a primary subject for over 60 years. She passed on March 10, 2016, just shy of her 83rd birthday.
Among his many genres, he was known for his watercolor washes and landscapes.
Richard strongly encouraged his children to be artistic but discouraged them from attempting to survive as artists. I took a basic drawing class from him in college; we both knew I would be heeding only his latter advice. My siblings, however, enhanced their lives and those of others with rich artistry in music, dance, theatre, and creative writing. Sadly, my sisters, both older than me by a few years, passed away.
Dad’s advice not to become artists was informed by at least two underlying themes. First, earning a living for most artists is difficult. Second, tied to the practicality of the first is the more complex struggle among motive, intrinsic and extrinsic meaning, relevance, purpose, self-definition and -determination, external influence, and value. He never solved the problem but reconciled with himself that the tension enriches the experience and, with few exceptions, the product. In the end, he erred on the side of self-reflection and -determination as his art revealed highly personal and intimate growth and introspection.
Dad was quiet. When he spoke, it was usually poignant and succinct. Through realism, impressionism, and abstraction, he became more and more unabashed in communicating and revealing himself and the disorientation he encountered as he became wiser and less convinced of his certitude. He taught his children through visual example that every concept and conflict was worthy of robust examination.
My parents together embarked on a transformational journey. My youngest brother’s private barter with god hadn’t worked: he returned from his Mormon mission just as gay as he’d left. Recognizing the truth in this truth, my parents engaged in an advanced form of self-directed conversion therapy, not calculated to change immutability and thereby destroy their son but to exorcise from themselves the received homophobia fueled by procreation theocracy and sectarian over-againstness. They, not their son, would become the converted. Richard and Renee renounced ex-gay Mormon ministries. They vowed their son mustn’t be encouraged to identify as or be converted to un-gay. In Search of the H Gene was included in Watercolor Now, the 1993 Fourth Biennial Exhibit of the Watercolor USA Honor Society in Salt Lake City, an exhibition at the Salt Lake Art Center. Given some of Richard’s writings on the subject, I believe the painting is a visual expression of the beginning of his mourning process, his deconstruction and efforts to rebuild those portions of his belief system he came to understand were deeply flawed. I have written extensively about their transformation and commitment to tolerance, acceptance, and love without condition. See, e.g., Church Court (For ‘Homosexual Behavior’) ; Character Witness: A Father Testifies At His Gay Son’s Church Court; A Church Prosecutes My Brother For Being Gay. See also Déjà Vu — A Church’s Quest to Dehumanize Transgender People.
On October 6, 1998, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson beat, tortured, and left for dead Matthew Shepard. This painting, Sheparding, is tribute to Matthew Shepard who eventually was interred at the Washington National Cathedral. That hate crime was only slightly more primitive than the religiously inspired programs advocated by some on the right to solve the serious social and moral scourge of homosexuality. The next year — and six years after our folks came out as the parents of a gay child to said gay son on his 22nd birthday — my father joined that cacophony with Sheparding, a haunting piece which I choose to believe comments on the horrific ignorance and over-againstness that define most hate groups, particularly the religiously inspired, some of which take the form of government bodies gerrymandered into power by a similarly inspired electorate. Should it surprise anyone that official marginalization does little to discourage and much to encourage unofficial physical, emotional, and social violence against the marginalized?
Richard’s artistry included a long period of urban American realism. He used his talents to capture beauty in many of the things we find ordinary or take for granted. Below are some of my favorites.
R.VanWagoner https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner publishes. https://richardvanwagoner.medium.com/subscribe
*My brother the very talented fiction writer and novelist, Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, deserves considerable credit for offering both substantive and technical suggestions to https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner. Rob’s second novel is a beautifully written suspense drama that takes place in Utah, Wyoming, and Norway. This novel, The Contortionists, which Rob himself narrates for the audio version, is a psychological page-turner about a missing child in a predominantly Mormon community. I have read the novel and listened to the audio version twice. It is a literary masterpiece. The Contortionists is not, however, for the faint of heart.
**Richard J Van Wagoner is my father. His list of honors, awards, and professional associations is extensive. He was Professor Emeritus (Painting and Drawing), Weber State University, having served three Appointments as Chair of the Department of Visual Arts there. He guest-lectured and instructed at many universities and juried numerous shows and exhibitions. He was invited to submit his work as part of many shows and exhibitions, and his work was exhibited in many traveling shows domestically and internationally. My daughter Angela Van Wagoner, a professional photographer, photographed more than 500 pieces of my father’s work. The photographs of my father’s art reproduced in https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner are hers.