{"id":920,"date":"2009-08-15T09:57:05","date_gmt":"2009-08-15T16:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/08\/finding_michael_daileys_obitur\/"},"modified":"2009-08-15T09:57:05","modified_gmt":"2009-08-15T16:57:05","slug":"finding_michael_daileys_obitur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/08\/finding_michael_daileys_obitur.html","title":{"rendered":"Finding Michael Dailey’s obituary insufficient…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Painter Robert Jessup<\/a> contributed his own better one  as a comment.<\/p>\n

I think that I met Mike Dailey<\/a> in 1972 when I took my first Beginning Drawing class from him at the University of Washington. I took many more classes from him, and he became my unofficial guidance counselor during my undergraduate voyage to my BFA in painting. <\/p>\n

I went to the University of Iowa for my MFA because of Mike. (Mike introduced me to the work of Pierre Bonnard!) Actually, all the things I really learned about painting, all the things that I came to value as an artist and hold close to my painter’s heart, I learned from Mike. He was not only my mentor, but my role model as an artist, teacher, friend, and human being. He was the example I could point to, the touchstone, the way one should be. I have never known anyone as generous with himself as was Mike. Or as loyal. Or as wise. <\/p>\n

\"daileyjessup1.jpg\"<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mike was a great artist. And not just because he made great
\npaintings. That was almost beside the point for him. What mattered was
\ngoing into the studio every day and trying to find IT: that precise but
\nineffable coming together of weight and atmosphere, of pressure and
\nrelease, of mood and time and memory. All of it pursued through the
\ndogged manipulation of field, edge, and color. Always color. Mike was
\none of the greatest colorists in the history of painting. (Seattle, you
\nreally should know this). The only painter I can think of whose color
\nharmonies are as complex and ingenious as Mike’s is Bonnard. <\/p>\n

I
\nremember when Mike had to change from his beloved oils to acrylic. (Oh,
\nhow he HATED the acrylic paint then!) What was amazing is that I never
\nthought he really missed a beat. Yes, some things were lost, but he
\nfound new ways to find the IT that he needed to find. He began to make
\nhis paintings horizontal (I remember how curious it seemed to me when I
\nheard him say in the mid seventies how he wished he could make
\nhorizontal paintings but that he never could seem to do it. I thought
\nat the time, hmm, you just stretch a horizontal canvas, but he was
\ntalking about something much more complex, about how a painting of true
\nauthenticity and conviction can only be earned, not contrived: another
\nlesson I learned from Mike.) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"daileyjessup2.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually,
\nhis paintings found very architectonic rhythms. In later years, the
\nincredible color fields would bump and dance with each other–they
\nreminded me of the sort of gallumphing rhythms found in the music of
\nBrahms. Rugged, strong, yet slightly mischievous. <\/p>\n

Mike lived
\nwith the slow deterioration from MS for over thirty years, but I never
\nknew his spirit to break. Many were the times that he would buck me up
\nin the face of my petty complaints, always finding a reason to be
\noptimistic. When we got together, we would of course grouse about
\nvarious things, but always, in the end with Mike, there was a
\nfundamental optimism and gratitude for the possibilities presented and
\nthe great good fortune we had to be painters. <\/p>\n

Mike lived a
\nlife full of grace and dignity, wisdom, humor, and love. I am so very
\ngrateful for all that I learned from him, and for the friendship that
\nwe shared. I will miss him more than I can say. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Robert Jessup, Professor College of Visual Arts and Design, University of North Texas Denton<\/p>\n

My obit here<\/a>. Seattle Times’ here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Painter Robert Jessup contributed his own better one  as a comment. I think that I met Mike Dailey in 1972 when I took my first Beginning Drawing class from him at the University of Washington. I took many more classes from him, and he became my unofficial guidance counselor during my undergraduate voyage to my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}