Robert Dewitt Adams
Tackling Tennessee roots with humor and numinous aesthetics
How did you go from an undergrad degree in science to a Master’s in art?
My parents have always wanted to know the same thing! I do value science, especially in today’s anti-intellectual climate. But what really got me excited in face of all the world’s grimness was the creativity of artists and musicians. I taught myself until I had enough of a show history to get into grad school.
You say you grew up a ‘Beltway Insider,’ can you reveal any secrets of the Deep State?
Sure, as soon as Kash Patel approves your security clearance. The Capitol Beltway can be a scary place though. Once my mom was driving us and a truckload of old tires broke loose ahead of our car, rolling and bouncing all over the place. Mom dodged them like an Indy champ.
Did you have brushes with the famous and powerful in DC?
My dad did. He was at a Pentagon bathroom once and realized the guy at the urinal next to him was Dick Cheney. Some people I knew have accomplished things. My classmate Jeff Surak founded DC’s Sonic Circuits experimental music festival. Another schoolmate was ‘Wimpy Kid’ Jeff Kinney, who used to make fun of me.
You mention Surrealists as an influence, do you share their approach of working from the subconscious? Dreams fascinate me, I’ve kept a journal of them since college. I don’t usually work from them directly, but maybe keeping in touch with the subconscious helps me see connections and patterns. In a painting of a bomber once, it felt appropriate to include an electrical coupling I found on the street. When I exhibited it, an Air Force veteran said, ‘that’s cool, I used to work with B-52’s and that’s the exact coupling we used to attach the bombs!’
Your work is mostly non-figurative, is that an area you’ve explored? At times, especially political and military figures like in my Axis of Evil series. Once I painted a buff male torso from an escort ad, replacing the lower half with a tank cannon. It sold to a gay couple who were ex-Marines.
You address environmental issues like plastic pollution, what have been your most moving experiences with nature? Well I felt the earth move three times in Seattle earthquakes. Very trippy, and each bigger than the last so I figured maybe it was time to move. But I do miss the giant ancient trees out there. And in Minnesota the ice caves and glacial pile-ups on Lake Superior are other-worldly.
Spiritualism is an interest of yours, can you say more about your path toward enlightenment? Ha, well I was raised Catholic, an altar boy even. Wearing robes and carrying a cross was pretty cool for an aspiring goth. Sometimes I would sneak on my mom’s clip-on cross earrings before Mass too. It’s interesting living in the southern mysticism of the Bible Belt. A lot of outsider artists who inspired me like James Hampton and Howard Finster were religiously motivated. My dad did genealogy research and said my great-great-great-grandad was a Baptist minister to the North Carolina militia in the Revolutionary War, and one of the first to bring that faith to Tennessee.
Have you fallen away from those religious roots, or still grow from them? Well I’m always trying to learn more - the meaning of art, the meaning of life. For fun I got ordained as a nod to great-great grandad - I’m a minister in the Universal Life Church, if you know anyone who wants to get married. Might get accredited with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster too, but you have to pay for that one.
