THE CURIOUS ART OF ROY TARBABY

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Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 23, 2009 - 02:46pm PT

Clearly time has come for a serious treatise on Roy Tarbaby’s development as an artist and consequent soothsayer. Even though he eschews such promulgation and fears the Unruhestifter in me, sensing a troublemaker in the tall African grass at the edge of the veldt of our play-terrain.

He began as a marvelous sincere child, showing aptitude right from the start, soft playful works at first, colorful happy and fresh-faced:

But early on, developed tangents that were disturbing to the kindergarten teacher. Unclear what to say and do when a six-year old brings this in for “Show-n’-Tell”:

It was thought at the time by his analysts there was a covert---or symbolic at least---message. Baby Roy was shaping his own world and in it knew that he would find in that grain of sand, the Universal. And had brought himself squarely to the attention of both family and school authorities, forcing his art to develop in a more orthodox manner, promising utility, metier actually, while at the same time keeping his secret science alert and on task, saying “I Shall Be All Things One Day”:

But as he matured into the fine young man he was, his thinking still implied something more than just a day at Barney’s. At this juncture he had come to know that life was never given to us to be endless nor painless, and to this solemn truth he answered with this youthful manifestation, cutting below the trite and complacent with a bit of Schadenfreude as well:

He said with this terrifying watershed piece, “I am the Saw of Life” all things fall either this way or that way, thus speaking for all time for all men, immutably.

But in adopting that kernel Truth, he found suddenly there was no place further to issue. Thus cornered, one cannot “live in oneself” but in the world. And so we have to destroy to renew: Roy says here, in an epiphany “There is no Journey to the One”.

In short, in his early twenties, he reconsidered his entire body of work---the edgy pointy astral shapes, the dangerously unrelenting curves and ethereal finishes--- and turned back! This was a huge moment. Not unlike Thoreau and the pastoral thinking of his time. Bringing us to his mature work. The first step back could not be a wild leap as he steadied himself, so he sought out the Plant Kingdom as interregnum or should we say, his first translation had to be a vegetal one:

that opened the floodgate to a global, everlastingly comprehensive embrace of all creatures great and small:

but in the end, still striving, arriving at the Optimus Terminus, his final view of our Earthly Question:

So at the deepest center of all living, embedded everlastingly in Nature---actually far more deeply so than rhythm and textures---all forms, all appearances he tells us inherently circle back on themselves to form bags and footwear in the noumenal realm. Here he has, as no one in the history of philosophy has ever before attempted, found the bitterly funny exposed nerve we all have avoided: that our mere materiality is at the same time both meat and spirit, Fleisch und Geist.

Nate D

climber

San Francisco

Jun 23, 2009 - 03:07pm PT

for reals?
I'm curious...

survival

Big Wall climber

A Token of My Extreme

Jun 23, 2009 - 03:13pm PT

Takin' the mickey out of Tar, I love it!

steelmnkey

climber

Vision man...ya gotta have vision...

Jun 23, 2009 - 03:19pm PT

There's something disturbing about a few of those shoes...

I dig the grass one, though.

Doug Robinson

Trad climber

Santa Cruz

Jun 23, 2009 - 03:22pm PT

A variegated tour du Post.

Overarching (while not overreaching) the strictures of the trite if not the trivial, Peter Haan has, in one veritable fell swoon, transected the bounds of art criticism in this decisive display. Teasing hints of the transcendental blend effortlessly with undertones of musk and fused perlon, climaxing with a lingering, knowing rush of a brush with the ethereal, that yet remains wistfully anchored in the veritable world.

Positively tautological!

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jun 23, 2009 - 03:45pm PT

Bachar's gonna be jealous...

Gene

climber

Jun 23, 2009 - 03:54pm PT

Dude has sole!

Wayno

Big Wall climber

Seattle, WA

Jun 23, 2009 - 04:17pm PT

My wife is looking over my shoulder asking, "WTF" and, "who are these guys?" I'm half laughing and half impressed. Cool, funny ha ha, and funny strange all at once.

SteveW

Trad climber

The state of confusion

Jun 23, 2009 - 04:18pm PT

I really wanna hear Roy's take on this, Peter. . .

hee hee hee. . .

Well done.

Reilly

Mountain climber

Monrovia, CA

Jun 23, 2009 - 04:20pm PT

WHOA! One look and all I could hear was "Spiders From Mars".

High Arte and Craftsmanship!

ps
The 'review' was also high arte!

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Jun 23, 2009 - 04:40pm PT

Touché Mr. Haan !!!
I must say I am superbly flummoxed.
Touched, tickled, honored.

Outstanding source material, complemented just so with your fluminous fusillade of garish art speak.
From my point of view, absolutely divine.
I gotta say though: simmer down Buster Brown.

The natives might get spooked … not to get all shrill on you there Pardner.
To wit; the squares may blunt their edge on such goods, guys whose sensibilities were gently hewn when the Kelly Bag was first and foremost King.

In handbag parlance, think more Kate Spade and less Dolce & Gabbana.

Outstanding tribute though: them's some nice kicks.
What else you holdin' ???

WBraun

climber

Jun 23, 2009 - 04:58pm PT

Hahahaha Just think what kind of woman would have her feet in these? Cool stuff Peter.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Topic Author's Reply - Jun 23, 2009 - 04:59pm PT

This just in: Roy's first runway show---part of our unspoken history:

survival

Big Wall climber

A Token of My Extreme

Jun 23, 2009 - 08:33pm PT

"Overarching (while not overreaching) the strictures of the trite if not the trivial, Peter Haan has, in one veritable fell swoon, transected the bounds of art criticism in this decisive display. Teasing hints of the transcendental blend effortlessly with undertones of musk and fused perlon, climaxing with a lingering, knowing rush of a brush with the ethereal, that yet remains wistfully anchored in the veritable world."

DR< Oh man, where in the world did you learn to speak, write, think like that??

You gots to be college edumacated!!

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jun 23, 2009 - 08:40pm PT

Peter and DR pin Roy, in one swell foop!

Lynne Leichtfuss

Social climber

valley center, ca

Jun 23, 2009 - 10:44pm PT

Pretty incredible Thread Peter Haan...as in a golden one that weaves the beauty and fun of people's lives and love of life and their expressed talents all together in one for us to enjoy.

We are more than suitably impressed with the art and deliniation of the subject matter. I, being a shoe person from birth, have the credentials to support your topic and the pro creator,
Monsieur Buster. Together you have raised this topic to the art extreme of shoe sport conquest .... a veritable Himalayan adventure of extreme foot apparel. Cheers for a Thread that knows no boundaries, but speaks volumes of art and language. :D Lynne

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Topic Author's Reply - Jun 24, 2009 - 12:42am PT

Tami, Good one there. But I think that Werner was having a moment of wishful thinking, actually---- we all do----as in "IMAGINE what kind of gal would arrive in......those", you see.