“A conscientious working artist may encounter real genius a dozen times in a lifetime. What distinguishes such work is a unique mixture of technical mastery combined with a compassionate engagement of a grand vision. In the words of Camus, this may be as simple as recapturing two or three metaphors of our lives or as complex as intercultural mythopoetics or even both at once. Neither greater vision nor technical mastery alone is sufficient. In some way, the gift must be earned to be realized, which requires discipline and generosity.
On the one hand, the task is Sisyphean; there is no success without failure. On the other hand, it is like the Zen monk raking the garden. Success and failure become almost meaningless in one’s act of selfless devotion. Galen Garwood has the richest palette of any artist I have ever known. Whether working in oils, acrylics, on canvas or paper, as a painter or printmaker, or behind the lens, his work invariably embodies the true qualities of genius.”
~Sam Hamill, poet, translator, essayist / from the introduction to PASSPORT,
a collaborative book of paintings on plexi by Galen Garwood and poems by Sam Hamill.
