The Larson Insider
Silver and Gold
December 2022 // Issue Twelve
Worth a Read?
What keeps Jeffrey T. Larson painting smoked fish and teapots…?
It’s that time of the year – the tinsel is hung, fireplace is lit and maybe Sam the Snowman is serenading your family with that 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer classic, “Silver and Gold”. Or, if you’re Jeffrey T. Larson, that jingle may look a little more like a polished teapot and smoked cisco that’s been sitting on the still-life stand for a few weeks too many.
Silver and Gold have been identified as objects of value as far back as 3100 B.C. Classy, contemporary, rich, beautiful, reflective, timeless. My dad just happens to find the value of “silver” and “gold” in ordinary, much smellier objects.
gold
gold
The first smoked fish I remember my dad obsessively staring at was on el techo of a rental home in Althea, Spain. I was six, exhausted from miles upon miles of exploring and relieved my family was finally taking a breather for the evening while my mom hung our laundry out to dry. After being in Spain for over a month, our stomachs had finally morphed into Europeans so naturally it was after 9 o’clock by time we were getting hungry for dinner. My dad hurriedly ran to the nearest market and came back up onto the villa roof to unwrap our anticipated grub. My siblings and I (who were 8 and 10 at the time), were disgusted with his choosing. Tiny, slimy, fishy, FISH. Of all the things. Dad lit the grill and mom carefully seared both sides of the fish. The city was glowing and sparkling all around us and stars were beginning to stud the sky, but for some odd reason, those little grilled sardines were the sparkliest things in sight. Following my parents lead, we took cautionary, mouse-sized bites (larger than the sheep’s tongue we had tried earlier that week, I will admit). They were delicious. Bones/eyeballs/tails and all! We scarfed them down and fought over the remaining until my dad snatched the last couple to claim as models for his next “outdoor figure”.
silver
silver
Reflective objects have always been a fascination for my dad – creating two realities within a two-dimensional surface provides a challenge. For the non-artist (like myself), the idea of even starting to paint a reflection sounds mind-boggling; here, paint this object, but within that object, paint represented objects that have morphed form while also taking on the form and colors of the object they’re reflected within?? I think that’s why my dad likes it. It’s impossible to paint any other way than truthfully. It forces him to see colors as they are because painting the color “sparkle” is impossible. As he finished up his reflection paintings, it was always a joke that he was just as surprised as were to see his reflection pop-up in the shiny object. He had us fooled.
Reflective objects are one of those subjects Jeffrey T. Larson finds himself returning to often. Because of the continual discovery of new beauty and subtleties, silver and gold continue to catch his eye and beg to be explored a bit more.
So, that is my family’s rendition of “silver and gold”. The jingle sounded less like Burl Ives and more like wrestling matches to keep the hungry dog out of dad’s studio, “DO NOT EAT” labels found throughout the fridge, my mom’s pleading to ‘paint the smelly objects fast’ and a whole shelf of shiny teapots…sung all year round.
