photo: A.T. Willlet
To someone approaching the intersection of I-10 and Kolb Road, the idea of an art museum situated within the spare geometrics of the buildings punctuating the emptiness off in the distance might seem unlikely.
However, the Process Museum, which occupies 70,000 square feet of an even larger former mining company headquarters, houses the personal collection of John Wells. The president of Wells Johnson Company, manufacturer of medical equipment, he’s an unlikely contemporary version of the perfect patron, as generous and benevolent as the Medici of Florence or any of the Popes, although dressed in a polo shirt and jeans instead of sumptuous Papal robes.
Beginning when he was in high school, John collected art. He has acquired - and continues to do so – what he loves, and his taste, as evidenced by the countless works on display, runs to unconventional forms and media. His passion and dedication to his avocation are everywhere apparent. And when he talks about “process” as it applies to the making of art, the fervor of his devotion crackles like palpable energy. The man basically vibrates.
In addition to the 47 artists (locals, plus many nationally and internationally known) whose multiple creations populate the labyrinthine corridors and adjacent rooms that everywhere offer glimpses of treasures lurking within, he’s nurturing one particular young artist, offering him a generally undreamed of sustenance and support.
The artist, Sean-Paul Plugeuz, says, “John believes in me. Nothing stops him from doing that.” Wells has provided Pluguez with studio space and even owns his very first painting. The process of an entire body of work is therefore prominent, and the ongoing journey of this budding creator is showcased. Plugeuz, splitting his time between New York and Tucson, manipulates color the way other painters play with shape and form, and his experiments in 3D demonstrate certain optical principles having to do with how the human eye perceives warm and cool colors. He gleefully hands the viewer a pair of ChromaDepth' lenses and stands back in anticipation of delight, which is obviously forthcoming.
Other works Wells has collected include those of locals Joanne Kerrihard, a series of white on white mixed media canvases; Eriks Rudans, gigantic sculptures and paintings; David Johnson Vandenberg, realistic, classically derived, 'ber-detailed pieces; Owen Williams, two actual palettes in addition to what the Tucson Weekly referred to (in a story about an exhibit at Etherton Gallery) as “lovable” paintings; and Vytas Sakalas, fractals and tessellations that titillate and tease the eye. Among many others, a room with Jean Cocteau pen and ink drawings stands out.
A patio off one of the main corridors houses John Gibbons’ “Bell Garden,” consisting of artfully suspended and dangling “junk” and metal cast-offs, with plenty of drumsticks and other tools with which visitors can be percussionists. All are there to be drummed on, banged, touched, beaten, played. The result is a charming cacophony.
Process is everything to Wells – he wants to know the artist through his or her environment, the debris left behind, failures as well as triumphs. He admires their ability to notice, to be completely absorbed. To quote a sign displayed in the lobby, “The focus of the Process Museum is limited. The primary interest on the museum is to reveal the mental processes of the artist while engaged in creating work.”
For now, the Process Museum is open by appointment only. Receptions and other such events take place there occasionally and special exhibitions will occur in the near future, including one called “Unibuiquiti” which opens, by invitation only, on February 11.
For more information or to make an appointment for a tour, phone John Wells at 404-0596. Be prepared to spend hours getting lost in the glorious intricacies of both the physical space and the almost overwhelming artistic accumulation.
