I spent much of August outside of the studio. The morning after my
opening at Gallery 360, I headed up north to Mallard Island on Rainy
Lake for two weeks. I slept, swam and enjoyed relaxing with just a
handful of people. While there I worked on four still-lifes for the
exhibit at the Landmark Center. There are thousands of books on the
island. I was looking for an image of Saturn Eating His Son by Goya to put into a painting but instead found the book Wild Men in the Middle Ages
by Richard Bernheimer, 1952. It was a fascinating read about the
European myth of the wild man who lives in the woods. These men started
as the mentally ill who could not live within society and ended up
living in the woods outside of towns and villages. Soon, stories
circulated about their "wildness" in order to scare children and keep
polite society in line. These myths eventually blossomed into many local
legends and eventually evolved into the harlequin of French culture,
the monsters of Grimm's fairy tales and even our modern stories about
yeti's and Sasquatch.
Many festivals arose to pay tribute to the Wild Man. During these
festivals, men dressed as animals and fantastic beasts would enter
people's homes stealing their food. The Wild Man, generally a very large
man, protected the other animal-men by threatening anyone who tried to
stop them. Soon, it became very popular to establish secret societies of
wild men, similar to today's more benign Saint Paul Minnesota's Winter
Carnival Vulcans. One story has it that a French King, Charles VI,
wanted to participate in a Wild Man festival. He dressed up as a Wild
Man and, with others, invaded the queen's quarters. Unable to recognize
the king, he was soundly beaten by the queen's guard. Not having learned
his lesson, the next year, 1393, he wanted to have a wild man event
again. The queen convinced him to hold a masquerade ball, the Bal des Sauvages. With an organized event he could not get beat up by her guards, or anyone else.
That evening, with everyone in costume, the king entered chained to four
other top officials dressed as wild men and proceeded to perform a
dance. Unfortunately, an onlooker carrying a torch accidentally set one
of the dancers on fire. Soon all five dancers, being chained together,
were aflame. The four officials died while the king was only saved
because a woman in a costume with a large train covered him with her
dress and smothered the flames.
As I read the book I began to recognize the Wild Man in many of today's
stories: that character that is out of control, unsophisticated, only
interested in the moment and his own needs while at odds with society
and progress. Sometimes the character becomes a part of society only to
eventually revert back to the woods. Characters like Shrek, The Joker,
Frankenstein and The Beast from Beauty and the Beast come to mind. In
movies, the Wild Man is often layered over the personality of murderers
and serial killers. I couldn't help but notice in contemporary political
storytelling, the red state rural followers of Trump are presented in
this manner. The urban Democrats are presented as the cultured
sophisticated elite. It is a powerful myth that reaches into our deepest
feelings and reflexes.
The Wild Man eventually made it into one of the paintings I was creating while on the island (see the above Feature Painting). I love the myth of the Wild Man and think he will be appearing again in my art, in concept if not actually in person.
