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David Selzer is a writer of poetry, prose fiction, screenplays and stage plays. He embraces digital platforms to share his work of more than fifty years… READ MORE
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OTHER PEOPLE’S FLOWERS Howard Gardener: Artist
Having been drawing and painting enthusiastically since I was a child in the
southeast of England, it came as no surprise to anybody when I then chose to
embrace printing and graphics as a career. After many years, however, its lustre
inevitably dulled and so, in 1994, I upped sticks to Bournemouth, retrained as a
chiropractor, and moved again in 2000, when I relocated to Chester.Released from the necessity of doing graphics to earn a crust, I realised that I
was actually free to start producing the kind of work I’d been aching to do for a
long time, and soon found myself doing more drawing than ever. A childhood
obsession with the Beatles had spawned my lifelong fascination with music and
my father, until the day he died, was convinced that I only moved north in order
to be nearer to John Lennon’s ghost in Liverpool. Whatever the reasons, I liked
the northwest and stayed.Consequently, when I first got to know David and Sylvia Selzer, it was while
grappling with them on a chiropractic bench. I did wonder briefly whether their
curiosity about my extra-curricular activities was just a ruse to make me go easy
on them but, since they continued to return, I had to assume that said interest
was a genuine one. The fact that I no longer pull them around and
they still show an interest (albeit no longer through gritted teeth) makes me glad
that I followed my instincts to the point where I am now proud to call them both
friends.I’d like to say thank you to David for generously allowing me to step briefly
into the Other People’s Flowers spotlight – see PDF below. It was a challenge to know what to
put in and what to leave out because over the years I seem to have amassed so
much work in various formats. In the end I allowed a fuzzy chronology to
determine the content. Songwriting served as an apprenticeship for the prose,
and the predominance of drawings reflects its continued importance to me,
while the late inclusion of some ceramic work indicates a possible new
direction.For interested parties, there’s more on my website at
https://howardgardener.co.uk
9 responses to “OTHER PEOPLE’S FLOWERS Howard Gardener: Artist”
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This is really very interesting, Howard. Having read it through twice, and seeing different perspectives each time, there will be other ‘meetings’ with your work. A little unsettling in places – a mirror held up to one’s own experiences and thoughts, and all the better for it. It has made me re-think some details of a few projects I am currently working on. Many thanks and best wishes.
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Thank you very much, Jeff. There’s nothing I enjoy quite so much as having a work of art (or anything really) make me question what I actually think, so to hear you say that you are doing the same pleases me no end. I can get quite obsessed about motives (especially my own!) and I sometimes wonder whether the ability to change one’s mind about something might be the most human quality of all.
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Hardly had time to go through seriously yet, but what an amazing collection!
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Thanks very much, John. I hope that it has given you some pleasure and maybe made you smile once or twice.
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So many treats, Howard!
I am familiar with your work and admired it over a number of years in situ, in books and exhibitions but seeing it laid out like this is just mind blowing. To see the different aspects of your work and the accompanying explanations of technique, motivation and the sheer passion is just – words fail me
Highlights for me are:-
Five Love Songs – THAT RIVER. The illustration has echoes of Chagal’s Over The Town 1918 and is so powerful.
The drawings – JOHN-PAUL STRUGGLES WITH 7 Down. All those jokes about Sartre from Monty Python! A more subtle but hilarious view. Your drawings are frequently witty but never cynical, provoking laughter and thought.
Small Lives – ELIZABETH and THE PANTOMIME DAME. Delicious dark humour…
THE WITCH’S HAT – The same quality as the drawings – detailed, atmospheric, sharp. Great to have the illustration as the story unfolds.
A great way to spend a Saturday morning in a virtual gallery. Of course, a virtual experience can never show the real thing. Time for another exhibition, Howard!
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Ah Sylvia, you are far too kind. What you can’t see in the Jean-Paul drawing (at such a small size) is the fact that all the completed crossword clues are words such as ‘chat’ and ‘chien’. I’ve always been a great believer that a humorous twist can be used to throw light upon serious subjects and have lost count of the times that a clever play on words is what has initially got me hooked, two good examples which spring to mind being Jake Thackray and Flann O’Brien.
I once heard my mother say to a friend of hers, ‘All those horrid things Howard says, he doesn’t really mean them’, which is quite ironic considering it was probably her from whom I inherited my – ahem – occasionally subversive and irreverent sense of humour. Sometimes though it can get me into trouble, when the lure of a good line proves too strong. Cynicism and humour though – they make excellent bedfellows when kept under control.
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P.S. I’d never seen ‘Over the Town’. Isn’t it glorious? Thank you.
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Thank you and David for sharing all these wonders. What stumps and amazes me is the time on task of producing this work…would that God took as much time with each of us creations. Beautiful, inspiring, thrilling…and the Beatles in the midst of all this. Lucky.
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Thank you very much, Harvey. I was quite a sickly child but, ultimately, fortunate to have a lot of time to myself, as I think it made me independent. Brian Eno once said that he had parents who encouraged his own solitude, and I suspect he had similar experiences to my own, if for different reasons.
I whittled away all my time by drawing and painting, and when I discovered the Beatles, aged around seven, I went through a phase where ALL I drew were pictures of them. I wish somebody had kept some so that I could see them now – but maybe it’s better this way. Whatever the cause, I think I must have developed quite an imagination – always preferring to draw and create things that never took place (and I see no reason to change this point of view now!). The time it takes to produce these monsters is probably directly proportional to how much I like the finished result.
Thanks again for your interest.
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