|
| The Ram (and Birds), 18 x 14 approx, oil on board |
|
|
| Pre-Taos, Courtesy Private Collection, Thank You. |
Whether or not there was a God in the Beginning, I do not know; but, that there will be a God in
the End, I am certain. Bill Rane
No one needs paintings in the Summer but in the Winter... Bill Rane
I have tried other paths, other meditations, but painting has been my main pursuit, my best metaphor.
It is real for me. It is my travel, my history, my anthropology. It is my whale song, my past and future mythology. Bill
Rane
[A]ll of these moves are of a single piece -the
primitive and the modern. They are not specific to time or place - they are reversible.
Bill Rane (our emphasis, not Bill's)
Humor is the greatest of all intelligence.
Bill Rane
While I purchased my Bill Rane paintings and I own them as mine,
the truth is that they are a precious gift to all humanity and they only ask my responsibility. I am but
their temporary custodian and I will provide for their care as one of the rare timeless treasures of my culture--they
are as important to me as Moon is to Sky--and it is my cherished duty, my great pleasure, really, honor, to be able to
protect them for all generations to come exactly as I care for the precious lands and the sacred rivers. I
cannot be here forever and always, but I will have done my small part as a but one loving caretaker in what I am certain will
be a very long, perhaps endless, chain. Dr. Douglas R. Davis, Taylor, Mississippi.
I was saddened to hear about the passing of Mr.
Bill Rane. We have one of his paintings, which I look at every day, as it brings to light daily events that we sometimes
take for granted, as a table setting for dinner in Matisse like figurative imagery with colors and technique that define the
objects in a very practical manner. This is very different from the paintings that he has been famous for, with horses or
Indian motifs. I am sorry that I never told him this personally. Larry in Ask/Art blog, as retrieved,
01.02.07.
| China Coast |
|
|
| Mid Taos Period, Circa 1986-1988 |
I don't know if [Bill's] is a painter but he sure as hell is an eye doctor. M. W.
Koons, Taos, NM
For me, painting is my Aegean shore, my anthropology and
my whale song. It is my past and future mythology. I ride it like a stick horse and visit freely with the cosmos.
Bill Rane
Bill used to compare himself to a bowerbird. For
me, he surely was that--my own sweet bowerbird. Judith Rane
Bill Rane explaining the Pharoh's Orders to his Tomb Painter: And, so, The Pharoh
said to the Tomb Painter, "[Do not paint me as an Ancestor God, a Fearsome Warrior
God, a Killing God, as my Great Predecessor Pharroh Ancestors have instructed their Tomb Painters of the
past to do for them . . . no . . . no . . . do not do as they have done.] Paint no battles,
no accomplishments [as has been done in the past]. [Instead], [p]aint the feeling of the great river winding through
the land and lovers lying on her shores. Paint children at play in the bulrushes. Paint the graceful Ibis wading. Paint fishermen
in their boats catching fish and the great muscled flanks of my horse, his exquisite head, his nostrils flaring. Paint the
beauty of the Queen’s sad eyes, the curve of her neck and bodice. Paint the great ocean with her sea birds. Paint the
feminine… paint women washing clothes at the river’s edge, women in the market, mother with child. Paint musicians
playing and villagers dancing. Paint the great mating rituals of men and of beasts. Let your brushes and your paint celebrate
the beauty of life, tomb painter! It is the remembrance of the light [alone] that
ferries the soul to the [furthest] shore."
The Greatest Pharroh's instructions to his Tomb Painter. [according to Bill Rane].... As
attributed to Bill by Linley Solari at Taos' Public Memorial to Bill, October 2, 2005].[As further interpretted
with subsantial liberty by the Bill Rane Story. The blame for any hubris is ours alone--with apologies to all.]
Very little could escape Bill Rane's Observation. Linley Solari
Painting is as exciting for me now as the day I began. It quickens
the pace of my life. It is almost as though I have worked out my entire life span on a single canvas.
Bill Rane
All Around the globe people go into local galleries
and appreciate the paintings on the walls that the local artists have created. There is one thing that
happens here in Taos quite often that doesn't happen so much in those other places though--the
people buy the paintings--and they take them home--respectfully as if their very own creation. I hope this is always
so. Bill Rane
He painted a path for all of us--a path to a
brilliant future. A. J. Rane
My father for me was always "twinkly". It started a little
girl thing but it lasted and lasted--to this very day. Rosa Beatrice Rane Herrington
This man will not only endure within his own lifetime but will
succeed into the anals of timeless art history. [1980] Robert Curtis, Tokyo,
Japan.
Only if could only get the opportunity, I would eagerly lay down my life for my wife Judy or any one
of my children. Bill Rane
"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a
grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nastalgia, a dream. . . . [One day the town
men grew silent there at their morning coffee as they realized that a literary man had died nearby and while embalmed
and handled in the normal ways, the entails, thrown out, had nonetheless been found by a beach dog as good for play--and
a local boy ready to use the matter as good bait for his fishing. That might have been o'kay for the remains of
the everyday dead but this was a 'literary man' who had 'honored Monterey by dying there' and so the doctor
embalmer was required to collect the entails from the dog and sand, remove the sand, reverently, and then place the entails
in a lead box and add the box to this creative man's coffin . . . all at his own expense.] For
Monterey was not a town to let dishonor come to a literary man."
John Steinbeck, with apologies,
[material in brackets is adapted, not directly quoted], Cannnery Row, Penguin Classics from the 1945 Viking
Press edition, [copyright renewed, 1974, Elaine, John IV, and Thom Steinbeck, all World Wide Rights are Strictly Reserved].
I'm sorry if I'm not very funny tonight, but I'm not a comedian, I'm
Lenny Bruce. Lenny Bruce, before a "stand up" audience.
There just may be the possiblity here that we really are dealing
with a truly great artist. [1978] Sumi Kettering, New Zealand
Listen to Bill's words directly in this recorded conversation with Bill Rane and Lenny Foster. This is one of the only surviving
conversations of Bill discussing his art. During his life, Bill shared freely with artists and collectors alike. This recorded
interview is rare and important material.
|
