October 2008: “Fruit n’ Hands and Stuff” Oils on Canvas

“Fruit n’ Hands and Stuff” Oils on Canvas
By Murro Van Meter

September 28 through October 30, 2008

Falmouth – An exhibition of oil paintings titled “Fruit ‘n Hands and Stuff” by Pocasset artist Murro Van Meter was on display at the Maser Gallery at FCTV Community Television, 310 Dillingham Avenue, from September 28 through October 30, 2008. Reception: Sunday, September 28, 3 to 5 p.m.

With a sly smile Van Meter jokes that painting as a young man was about painting “model airplanes and boats and piers on a lake in Indiana.” And though his life was “full of tools, materials and a certain kind of creativity” the “artistic” painting on display this fall developed much later in life. It is more than simply an endeavor resulting from tools and materials–it is now painting for the purpose of expression and creativity, without limits and without utilitarian purpose. Van Meter’s father and grandfather were engineers and he was formally trained in Industrial Management at Purdue University.

“Painting is found, not sought. It emerges, perhaps not easily, but directly, from the well of the unconscious. The art of painting is true only when completely emancipated from the prejudice of naturalism and technique…It is the artist’s challenge to let go of the external, the symbols, the rules, the expectations and to relax and allow the painting to arrive.”

In the mid 1960’s as a USAF pilot living in Japan Van Meter was greatly influenced both visually and philosophically by Japan’s art and cultural lifestyle. “There was an elegance, simplicity, and artistry to everything the Japanese did - their mindfulness and great respect for tradition and beauty.” Returning to the states he designed and built his family home inspired by Japanese architecture and landscaping.

“I live in a world of images, music, fragrances and touch, but mostly images. When I paint, I access the subconscious accumulation of images, knowledge, experience, my very being.”

Van Meter has been married for forty years and his wife Joanne has been a source of encouragement and indulgence. He settled on the Cape in the early 70s. An entrepreneur to the soul he owned several businesses first the Nickelodeon Cinema showing Film Noir and Hollywood B movies, then a contracting company specializing in Shingle Style houses on Nantucket. Searching, possibly for a creative outlet. Van Meter thinks of himself as a “self-motivated actualizer; one who makes his own opportunities and then figures out how to realize them.”

A culmination of years of training, travel, adventure, business endeavors Van Meter is now practiced at the practical arts of building, repairing, problem solving. Which might explain why “When (he) talks, (he) often sketches, doodles, diagrams to explain, fidgeting with a pen or pencil restlessly,” until finally his daughter said “If you can only talk with a pencil in your hand, you may as well be trained” and gave him a gift of an art class.

Now Van Meter paints only to make visual sense of the world as he sees it. “I know that a painting makes visual sense if and when it looks right to me. I know it’s good when I come back to it in a couple of weeks and think to myself, ‘who painted that? – Couldn’t have been me.’ Those are the paintings I can look at for a long time.”

Exhibit Hours:
Sunday & Monday, 2-10 p.m.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.
Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m