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Dean Stockwell
“His Life in Pieces”
La Fonda Hotel is
considered the end of the historic Santa Fe Trail,
and for people who love the Southwest like myself, it is a most splendid
ending. It is unequaled in its abundance
of history, folklore, authentic cuisine and the overall flavor of the New
Mexican way of life. It is a good place
to end.
However, for Robert
Dean Stockwell, the so-called “end of the trail” made a sharp turn to the North
and then hit the High Road to Taos
– where “all great souls eventually come,” or so they say.
Arriving at this
destination in 2004 was in no way a terminus for Mr. Stockwell; in actuality it
was just a beginning. Of course, we all
know about the real beginning, some
150 films ago. The Boy with Green Hair would go Down to the Sea in Ships, visit The
Secret Garden during The Happy Years
and The Careless Years, experience Compulsion, Rapture and Blue Velvet in
The Gardens of Stone. He would be Married to the Mob with Friends
and Enemies – Be the Player with The
Chasers as well as Mr. Wrong – be
in Midnight Blue with the Rain Maker and The Buffalo Soldiers during the Venice
Project. He would find Mr. Wrong or Right in Paris, Texas and experience the Rights of Passage with the Manchurian Candidate and the list goes
on and on and on, after all, what should one expect from an actor actually born
in Hollywood?
And now, that having
been said, let us project ahead to this present moment.
“Deep is your longing
For the land of your memories
And the dwelling-place
Of your greater desires.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
Having had a longing
to experience the mystical Taos for myself for
quite some time, I laid my plans, and so one fine day in May, with a driver, a
photographer and a few friends, we too hit the High Road to Taos for our scheduled visit with the elusive
and illustrious Mr. Stockwell.
As we arrive at
Dean’s house, with Taos Mountain towering in the background, we feel the
heavy presence of his beloved Pueblo. We are greeted on the porch by Dean, with
several dogs at his heels.
Knowing of his
weakness for three so-called vices; “Guinness, golf and good cigars,” Fernando
De La Garza, a part of our group who is an avid golfer and an aficionado
himself of a good cigar, comes bearing such.
He speaks appreciatively of Dean’s graciousness while they were acting
together in one of my favorite movies – She
Came to the Valley – in Texas. Fernando recalled Dean taking the time to
speak to his class of school children about the making of the movie, and how
they were in awe of a real life movie star!
While movie roles
are by no means declined these days, they are a far cry from what is uppermost
in Dean’s life at this period of time.
As we enter his house, we see the art . . . . and we know.
His good friend,
Doug Coffin, says “If you know Dean, then you know he’s been on the inside of
the art scene his whole life. Art and
artists are what make his personal world go ‘round. His passion and commitment are apparent as
soon as you enter his home. It is filled
with art. Discovering Dean’s level of expression means uncovering the depth of
understanding of a totally mature artist.
His work is both exciting and thought-provoking.”
As we are shown
around we understand that our friend Dean has made a “Quantum Leap” of all time. We see the Collages – everywhere! We are told that a collage is a composition
of cut and pasted pictures and the word Spagyric means to take apart and
reassemble – to make new from old. To
paraphrase some of the quotes from the foreword of his fantastic new book – The
Spagyric Eye – will help one to grasp the meaning of it all – perhaps. His book – a huge one – is full of numerous
collages. Dean’s works have been shown at
galleries across the country – Dallas, Los Angeles, New
York, and others.
But as of now, he is content to have his works and his book at the R. B.
Ravens Gallery in Taos.
Walter Hopps says,
“Dean Stockwell’s collage works are superb.
The compositions are varied, inventive and complex and generally take on
a mysterious narrative character. His
collages have a degree of intensity both in composition and color rarely seen
in the work of his contemporaries. In
oblique ways, the work addresses contemporary concerns at the same time as it
addresses concerns basic to Surrealism – life, death and eroticism. In and around Stockwell’s social critique,
there is a sharp edge of humor.”
My personal
favorite, as we are shown around the studio, is the Eye of the Beholder, and I
realize that all of this is indeed, just that.
One sees what is within one’s own mind, with no explanations from the
artist.
“No man reveal to you ought
But that which already lies half
asleep
In the dawning of your knowledge.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
Ralph Gibson says,
“As an artist, Dean has taken the most basic visual elements of the vernacular
and reconfigured them into visual tone poems lingering between the abstract and
the real. This place could be called the
echo of memory because once seen, it hovers in one’s thoughts.”
As we stand, admiringly,
in front of his so-called “crown jewels,” Dean explains, “Bruce Conner just out
of the blue, sent me this most amazing collection of collage materials. It was the likes of which it would take a
lifetime to collect! And he gave them to
me! So, in 2003, to honor that great
friend, I put all my energies into working with these exquisite pieces.”
When I ask Dean if
it is some primal urge to divulge all that is in his mind, he replies “I
wouldn’t doubt it – it certainly feels primal.
Early on, I felt I might be able to make some interesting pieces, but I
refrained until the time was right. That time was in 2003.”
His first collage called
"Shot of Life" sold for $12, 500 and he was off and running! When I inquired as to whether his images were
premeditated, Dean replied, “Not really. I go through a process of a kind of
discovery of what each one will be and then it takes over and takes on a life
of its own.” He laughingly acknowledges,
“It’s news to me too.”
And indeed, it’s
news to us and to the general populace.
How do you explain the logic behind The Pope’s Secret Girlfriends, Two
Heads Are Better Than One, Mussolini’s Office and Bikeface?
Throughout our tour,
we have heard an almost dreamlike, lilting voice singing bits of song from an
innermost part of the house and we have wondered. Eventually, a beautiful young lady bursts
softly into the room in a glow of youthful radiance.
“It was but yesterday we met in a
dream.
You have sung to me in my
aloneness.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
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| Photo by Ed Breeding |
Her name is Carol
and she is his wife and they appear to share a unique love. Dean explains, “We met several times and I
don’t even recall it. I certainly had no
intention nor reason to be looking for love.”
“Your soul is oftentimes a
battlefield,
Upon which your reason and
judgment
Wage war against your passion and
your appetite.
For reason, ruling alone is a
force confining:
And passion unattended is a flame
That burns to its own
destruction.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
Carol, interrupting,
says, “Oh, I have been obsessed with him since I was 13 years old! I saw all
his movies, many times, and I loved him!
I arranged to be where he was twice and he didn’t even pay any attention
at all!” Dean tells us, “But on the last
time, she had on this cute little uniform, and she caught my eye. But I still was wary of love with this very
young lady.”
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| Photo by Ed Breeding |
“And think not you can direct the
course of love,
For love, if it finds you worthy,
directs your course.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
In all actuality,
Carol came marching into his life with a well laid out strategy plus a well fitting military uniform. It certainly paid off! We romantic ladies everywhere give her a
sharp salute! A well-deserved victory
indeed!
We see how Carol has
brought, in the last few years, a bright happiness to Dean’s life. He smiles softly at her and says, “Well,
things happened and now here we are.”
“And beauty is not a need but an
ecstasy,
But rather a heart inflamed and a
soul enchanted,
But rather a garden forever in
bloom,
And a flock of angels forever in
flight.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
Carol is fresh and
outgoing and is a great contrast to Dean’s chronic wariness. His eyes soften when he speaks to her and
they seem to need one another. Carol laughingly
says, “I know how he feels even when he doesn’t even know himself. I know how he feels right now.” Solemnly, Dean asks, “And how do I feel right
now?” Voicing all our thoughts,
collectively, she retorts, “Hungry!” We
all agree, as we had earlier made plans to have lunch together at the historic
Doc Martin’s Restaurant, not too far down the road at the historic Taos Inn.
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| Photo by Ed Breeding |
But first, Dean, now
ready to share some more outrageous works, leads us from one collage to
another, each one more salient than the other, and as we observe, we marvel at
his state of mind, admiring him tremendously!
Again we use a quote
from his book, The Spagyric Eye. From Peter Sarkisian: “These are the private exclamations of a man
in touch with the soul of things. He
turns the world on end by mining it for images, and then he hurls those toward
us with some of the pieces missing.
Dean’s work embodies the graceful delinquency we exhibit while quietly
breaking the law in our dreams; we breathe underwater; we run but go nowhere –
always with a freedom that rings true while doing it. Playing on the tension
between image and context, he chooses to surf in the turbulence caused by their
pairing. His collages are bright
carnivals filled with bits and pieces of dreamlike material, which together
tell stories born of imagination.”
Contemplating
reflectively on the answer to my question of what comes most into play-color,
form or inner meaning – in all his artworks, Dean puffs on his ever-present, and I mean, ever-present cigar. He
answers, “They all apply. I choose very carefully the color balance. I
make decisions about sepia tones or light tones – where each goes and then I
make the decision about the inner meaning.”
When I questioned
him about his patterns of black and white being often interspersed with blocks
of red, he simply replies that, “That really can’t be explained.” Then, with a quick glance toward Carol, he
quietly says, “Carol knows.” And you
begin to understand and appreciate the inner connection between the two.
Likewise, when asked
if he ever studied art, his terse answer of “No” makes even more fascinating
this observation of his friend, Paul Shapiro:
“What I see in these collage pieces is that Dean is a true saboteur of consensual
reality and his creative mind is inhabiting an alchemical territory from which
hidden authentic art manifests. He seems
to understand how to push reality through a grinder, blending the resulting
mixture into a new confrontive, mythical reality which contains its own rules
and metaphors. This is art that derails
the comfort zone.”
Speaking of comfort,
Carol says the energies from all the art was overwhelming to her at first, but
now, she says, “After about a year or so of it, it is a comfort to pick up on
the energies.”
In answer to my
question of whether he interprets his works, Dean wryly comments, “No, I don’t
interpret them; a sensitive person can see and
maybe understand, unless he has a mud puddle mentality, of course.”
“He does not bid you enter the
house of his wisdom,
But rather leads you to the
threshold of your own mind.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
As we pass the
little kitchen area, we notice all the exotic bottles of seemingly mysterious
libations Dean and Carol collect. We
welcome the brief respite for our senses after all we have seen, as Dean
boyishly, like a kid with a present, breaks open the bottle of White Dog that
we have gifted him with. Being as close
to Kentucky
moonshine as we could legally maneuver, it has quite a bite!
As we all enjoy a
round of the White Dog, our eyes are drawn magnetically to the items on the
wall. Seeing our interest, Dean points
out the gold record inside the Neil Young album that he is famous for – it is a
collage entitled American Stars and Bars.
Quite a collaboration between good friends and one to be proud of!
Now Dean and Carol,
to our delight, offer to show us the work studio where all the magic takes
place! Lisa Law sums it up wonderfully
in her quote from the foreword of his book:
“Time warp; bent mind; glue; x acto knife; sharp scissors; paper Life;
digital imaging; electric painting with high end Epson printer; 50 years of
mental digestion of visual impact on psyche has spewn forth a plethora of
imagery from the agile mind and nimble fingers of Robert Dean Stockwell –
images that will delight your mind and imagination like brain food just
digested.” And indeed, we see all these
images reflected in front of us on the workbench and the materials used to
produce these wonderful works!
So now as we again
begin to discuss our sojourn to Doc Martin’s with thoughts of his famous chili
rellenos and the giant margaritas, we begin to focus in now on another amazing
subject – dice! Yes, dice – fascinating
sizes and shapes! Is there no end to
this man’s surprises? Now some might
surmise that this latest “craze” came about for the lack of another stimuli,
but Dean tells us otherwise. “Doug Coffin, just out of the blue, and for no
reason whatsoever, sent me six white dice and a hummingbird head.” Just that – no explanation at all. Dean says he paid no attention to them for a
long time, but one day just started playing around with them. Then he bought more and it all exploded, as
no doubt his friend knew it would.
Dean explains, “When
I went from collages to all of a sudden making dice pieces, that was an
entirely different thing-it was big-really cool!” Continuing on, Dean relates, “I got to
thinking – What would be the greatest contrast you could do with them? It came
to me to make a cross from the dice! To
make a very interesting statement – one is tactile – it’s only function is
motion and is the exact opposite of the severity of the cross! So I made several crosses and I just love
them. When kids come to my house, they
gravitate to them. Children – they know how to listen, and they understand.”
“Let the voice within your voice
speak to the ear of his ear.
For his soul will keep the truth
of your heart…..
When the color is forgotten and
the vessel is no more.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
So finally, after
our fabulous dinner, Dean relaxes with yet another huge cigar, and says, with
great conviction, “I am so fortunate to be exactly
where I want to be at this end portion of my life.”
“But if in your thought, you must
measure time into seasons,
Let each season encircle all the
other seasons,
And let today embrace the past
with remembrance
And the future with longing.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
Here in this
spiritual, mystical place is where Dean finds peace. Having said, “I always knew I would end up
here,” he has found his place – “the first house I looked at” and is settled
in, with his wife, his dogs, and all his art. The legendary Mabel Louhan,
perhaps Carol’s prototype, once said that “Nothing ever happens here in Taos – yet every day is a miracle!” And to quote
from their friend, George Herms, “Where one might read the morning news printed
on the wings of butterflies – in blood.”
The famous writer,
D. H. Lawrence, also a resident of Taos
at one time, has been quoted as saying: “One gets something out of the wind
here – something wild and untamed – cruel and proud.”
“We wonderers, ever seeking the
lonelier way,
Begin no day where we have ended
another day;
And no sunrise finds us where
sunset left us.
Even while the earth sleeps,
We travel.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
For an actor whose
first words ever uttered on the Broadway stage in 1943 were, “ I won’t be damned,” inspiration must have
come occasionally, if not often.
When asked, from
whence comes his inspiration, Dean reflectively lists a few. He says, “D. H. Lawrence for sure, for
various reasons. His Sons and Lovers without a doubt –
probably my favorite movie, and also, Long Day’s Journey into Night – the play
by Eugene O’Neil.” Having just seen his
brilliant portrayal of the son and the amazing rapport between he and Katherine
Hepburn, I was taken aback by his fantastic soliloquies, but mainly by his, and
for want of a better word, for there is no
better word – his “beauty” at that time of his Young Manhood!
Further ruminating,
in complete harmony with his cigar, Dean says, in an obvious understatement,
“Inspiration came for me also from Wallace Berman and Doug Coffin, for
sure.”
With the majestic Taos Mountain
looming in the distance and the Pueblo
in the background, both of which he has portrayed numerous times in all shadows
and colors and forms, we question him further as to whether he is a satisfied
man. His reply, “I don’t think I will
ever be perfectly satisfied. I don’t see
that as being possible for anyone,” and then softly, “except for children. But I’m very close. I know that.”
Paradoxically, for a
man whose peace at times seems almost tangible, we learn that the condition of
our Mother Earth is a major concern.
Dean states emphatically, “My primary interest is the creation and its
reflection of man. I think anyone with a
brain has to be an
environmentalist. Evolution is something
nature is in control of, but this rape of the planet is something that the
egocentric and egotistical race, the human race, is doing.”
“The timeless in you is aware of
life’s timelessness,
And knows that yesterday is but
today’s memory,
And tomorrow is today’s dream.”
The Spagyric Eye and Kahlil Gibran
Again, a longing
indeed for the continuation for this peaceful space – and his place in it is
Dean’s desire. He ends the subject by
saying, “We all have this nest; at least we can try to keep it clean.”
Dean, who was
called, in his Hollywood days, the King of
Quirk, no longer needs such titles. He
now lives, or reigns, if you will, in the realm of the Sacred Mountain
– and that in itself is quite sufficient.
Leaving Doc
Martin’s, many Irish whiskeys later, we are all ready to bid farewell. Dean and Carol, huddling close together with
their ponchos encircling them, seem to be one entity – complete and needing no
one else as they wave good-bye.
As we leave Taos and head down that long road to Santa Fe, we are quiet, lost in our own
thoughts. My conclusion, after much contemplation is that, after reflecting
on, but not listing them, the numerous people who have left their mark on Taos: It is where
ordinary people do extraordinary things, under the inspiration of Taos itself. It is where fireworks explode in one’s mind,
but silently and in slow motion, lit not by peyote, but by joy. . . . .
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| Photo by Ed Breeding |
Dean, having been somewhat taciturn and reserved
throughout our interview and with his eyes always wary, had nevertheless opened
up to me a glorious word picture of a recent occurrence.
One evening, after a
very long dry spell, the sky suddenly darkened and threatening winds came
up. Dean and Carol and the dogs burst
out of their house, welcoming the ominous clouds and loving the wildness of it
all! And then, just as the storm clouds
centered over their house, they stopped and with one paroxysmal ‘dump,’ the
ecstatic couple was drenched!
As Dean tells it,
they embraced the storm with arms outstretched and with complete abandon, even
as the dogs raced for cover under the porch!
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| Photo by Ed Breeding |
What a glorious
scene, but after all, and above all, what can one expect from a young lady who
trills melodiously in Japanese, and from Dean – aka forevermore as Al Calavicci
– the legendary Gent with the SPAGYRIC EYE?!
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