I started making goats in Tobago not because of their symbolism or Picasso, but because the island of Tobago has incredibly beautiful goats. Particularly the kids. Mottled, playful, and absolutely otherworldly; and at the same time direct in the way their curiosity made them stare. That unbelievable stare of a goat. (apparently my father had a pet goat that would butt anyone except my young father. He kept it to eat the troublesome burdock weeds)
Antigua's feral goat population is a completely different beast, and maintained my fascination and so I continued sculpting them. One rarely gets to see Antiguan wild goats. The silhouette of a family at mid-day shading under a far off tree at the top of a hill, maybe. If you're deep in the bush, deep into the prickly 'cassie', you might surprise one, and when you do, they look more like a Coloradan mountain goat than anything on a farm. However, in Antigua, you can always tell when they're around because of that smell,
The beautiful smell of musk that takes some getting used to.
So, I've a long history playing with the form and essence of the goat in my work, but not because of artistic precedent or spiritual symbol. (there were eighteen goat masks in the Tobago exhibit and every one of them are now with happy owners, one who claimed he patted the head of his sculpture each time he entered and left the house!) I think buyers of art, in many cases, more insane than the artists.
In this collection I am likely to make a couple more even though my artist friend Marute chides me that I'm just copying Picasso. I say to him: "fuck that, if I want to make goats I'm gonna make fucking goats." (with a smile) Just because someone else somewhere in the remote past (even if it was Picasso) drew a picture of a goat, that means that I can't! Or anyone else for that matter! What stupidity!
And no fun.
Art is about communicating with those who've gone before.
And to those who've yet to come.
An artist should feel the need to rework 'oldies but goodies'.
Bye the bye, Picasso did make/represent some really good goats, damn him!
For poems relating to goats and Pablo:
see:
http://poetrycritical.net/read/7696/
and:
http://poetrycritical.net/read/15662/
