Web Site Name

Artist's Statement

Classicism, fauvism, expressionism- I've been through the mill of "isms" and I can honestly claim that I love them all. Each genre turns the gem its own way capturing a new facet. A simple gesture drawing can conjure a distant memory. A seemingly ordinary scientific rendering is a meditation on aesthetics and beauty. And my beloved impressionism is a sensual revel in the pure delight of seeing. Contemporary artists stand before nature with all the tools and gifts brought forth since the dawn at Lascaux. This legacy of excellence from all corners of the globe continues to inform and refresh the successive generations. The challenge today is to properly train our focus and marshal our greatest energies to attempt works worthy of our collective heritage.

Biography

Born in the Willamette Valley in 1955, Alan Messer grew up rattling about inside the family's Oldsmobile as it crawled over forest service access roads with his father and grandfather. There the elders would recall their lumberjack routes to sights like Cash Creek, Jump-Off Joe, and the camp grounds near Three-Fingered Jack. Witness to the ever decreasing diameters of Douglas fir and ponderosa pine logs being hauled out of the Oregon Cascades, his generation learned the values of environmentalism,   " at the hip". By the early 70's Alan found his way up to Portland where he absorbed the collections, especially the 1st Nations art, at the Portland Art Museum. The golden glow of the bay area attracted him to California in 1975. During his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute he received Honors in life drawing and classic Greek literature. In 1983 gravitational pulses from New York broadcast westward, pulling in another cargo of the curious and unmoored. Alan was among that haul of poets, painters, and poseurs to be found seeking and striving in Manhattans' East Village. Unimpressed by the avant-garde mannerism that characterized contemporary art, Mr. Messer turned his attention to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. At A.M.N.H. the diorama paintings of F.L. Jacques, Carl Rungius, and Perry Wilson were a tonic. A longing for his early experiences of viewing wildlife drew Alan into the vibrant New York City birding community. With that revelation, the die was cast. He became involved in conservation projects locally as well as internationally. New York City- its people, its cityscapes and surrounding landscapes, became his new terrain to explore and settle into.

Mr. Messer has taught birding ID and nature drawing classes at The New York Historical Society, and The New York City Audubon Society. His works have been shown at the Cape May Bird Observatory, the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, at Ellis Island, and The Lincoln Center in New York NY. He has illustrated for books, magazines, and field guides, and is a regular contributor to Bird Watcher's Digest. Mr. Messer is a former President of The Linnaean Society of New York.