Craftowne: The 7th Hole

About

Craftowne: The 7th Hole is my most recent work and was exhibited at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum during the summer of 2021. Like its predecessor, Craftowne: a visual novel, this body of work takes place in the fictional town of Craftowne, MD and is a graphic novel installation. The installation includes written text to tell the story of a mysterious event, how that event was the catalyst for seven characters to become artists in various genres, and the fate of those seven artists.

The exhibition at the Pyramid Hill Museum occupied two rooms. The first room contain five 44″ x 68″ paintings and the accompanying text that told the the main narrative of mysterious event and how it affected the seven characters. The second room contained biographical information about each character and examples of their art work. Much of the narrative of the story is told through the object labels.

Below are selected paintings and the narrative from the first room of the exhibition, selected objects and their labels from the second room of the exhibit, and images of the installation at the Pyramid Hill Museum.

Craftowne: The 7th Hole

Curator’s Statement

As some of you may know, I grew up during the 70s and 80s in a planned suburban community located outside of Washington, D. C. called Craftowne, MD. I think it’s fair to say that I’ve been obsessed with Craftowne. Or, more honestly, maybe it’s better to say I’m haunted by Craftowne. I’m possessed by the spectre of my childhood community with its neatly trimmed lawns, aluminium sided houses, man-made ponds, and “perfect” families as it concealed an undercurrent of illicit sex, drugs, violence, secrets, and lies which imbued the fabric of the town and infiltrated my “self.”

In brief, I can’t stop thinking about Craftowne.

I spent a couple of years researching the town and created an entire museum exhibition documenting it and its people. This exhibition, entitled Craftowne: a visual novel, was displayed in 2017 at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and Miami University, and in 2019 at Joe’s Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier, MD. For those interested, the exhibition catalog for that show is available online through the journal F(r)iction at https://frictionlit.org/category/frictionlog/comics/.

I thought that once I completed the show and displayed it to the public I would exorcise the ghost of Craftowne.

And I almost did. I was so close. However.

Just as I was closing the book on my Craftowne research, I realized that there was something more. Something that was widely known but never ever discussed by the people of Craftowne because it was just too weird. I wanted to walk away from Craftowne and forget about it. It held too much power over me all my life. But I couldn’t stop. There was still something. So I started to dig, to ask questions, to piece things together. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know, and the more I would dig. I couldn’t stop.

The result of my research is this exhibition,

“A Preliminary Presentation Of The Research And Findings Of An Anthropological Investigation Into The Origins, Artifacts, Rituals, And People Who Created The 7th Hole Religion Of Craftowne As Curated By Craftowne Historian Billy Simms”

This exhibition is the first in a series of eight exhibitions documenting “The Event,” a freak occurrence that changed the lives of seven ordinary citizens of Craftowne forever. Soon after “The Event” these seven Craftonians abandoned their normal lives and became folk artists of various sorts. One of them founded a religion called The 7th Hole. This exhibition tells the story of “The Event,” provides an introduction to the seven people involved in “The Event,” exhibits samplings of the work that each created, and introduces The 7th Hole religion. Each future exhibition will focus on a specific person among the seven and provide an in-depth examination of that individual and their artwork. It is my hope that my curation of this series of exhibitions will bring public recognition to these seven artists and validate their artwork so that they may take their appropriate place in the annals of American art.

It All Started with a Metal Detector and an Orgy on a Golf Course.

The story of this religion is long and complex. It’s best to start at the beginning.

One fateful day, April 22nd, 1978, the burned out bureaucrat Vincent Jones heard that one of his fellow Craftonians had found an old coin with a metal detector on the Craftowne Golf Course. This news fanned the few remaining embers of Vincent’s adventurous spirit and he promptly went to his local Radio Shack and bought a brand new metal detector. After a busy suburban day of tending to his laundry, cutting the grass, and washing his car, Vincent, armed with his metal detector, wandered in the evening twilight onto the Craftowne Golf course searching for buried artifacts. It was when Vincent began using his metal detector near Craftowne’s infamous Marker that he unwittingly stumbled upon an orgy on the golf course.

What Caused The Event

Meanwhile, three couples, Paul and Lisa Stanton, Jim and Jane Goodrich, and Ed and April Smith, after a dinner of fried chicken in the Smith’s backyard, decided to get drunk on Billy Beer and have an orgy on the Craftowne Golf Course. Specifically, the orgy took place at the 7th hole of the golf course nearby The Marker.

Why at The Marker? Because The Marker is an ancient and mysterious stone obelisk covered in runes located at the exact geographic center of Craftowne and the residents of Craftowne are fond of partying around it.

Why an orgy? Because it was the 1970s. People did shit like that then. That Ang Lee film The Ice Storm is pretty accurate.

Why on the golf course? Because it was a beautiful spring night and no one wanted to have the orgy in their house.

Picture if you will, three couples copulating in the dark on the cool grass near the putting green of the 7th hole of the Craftowne Golf Course under this ancient and mysterious Marker. Into this scene wanders Vincent Jones with his metal detector searching for old coins. And something happens. What happens is thereafter referred to by the three couples and Vincent Jones as “The Event.” From what I’m able to piece together, the combination of the electromagnetic power of Vincent Jones’ metal detecting bouncing off the artifacts in the ground and the aura of carnal lust generated by the three copulating couples activated and released an ancient power embedded in the essence of The Marker. These things caused “The Event.”

The Event

For a brief instant, lights shone from the runes on the The Marker entering the password to a doorway into another dimension. The light reached out from The Marker ready to shoot out to the three fucking couples, ready to envelop them in its beauty and warmth and take them to another reality.

Unfortunately, before it could envelop the three couples Vincent Jones wandered into the path of the light and it enveloped him. Vincent was lifted from the ground in swirling tendrils. Then, Vincent emitted colored rays of light which shot from him as if from a prism with each color seeking out a different member of the writhing and humping couples. For the briefest of moments (though they all said it felt like an eternity) all seven of those individuals experienced another reality.

Vincent Jones, who acted as a prism and split the power emitted from The Marker, experienced the other reality in its entirety. Vincent saw a new divine plan for humankind and went on to found the religion named for the location of its birth, The 7th Hole Craftowne Golf Course.

Aftermath of The Event

Following The Event, Vincent Jones, Lisa and Paul Stanton, Jim and Jane Goodrich, and Ed and April Smith, or “The Seven” as they are known, were for a brief time inseparable. The intensity and magic of “The Event” brought them together in a bond seemingly stronger than that of mother and child. But this lasted for just a short period. Soon bickering and infighting developed. Since each person saw something different during “The Event,” each felt that their vision was the truth and soon relegated the others to a lesser status than their own. Except for Vincent Jones. Since he experienced “Other Reality” during The Event in its entirety, he realized that what the others saw were only fragments of The Event and he viewed himself as a leader and the others as his disciples. They thought he was full of shit and wanted nothing to do with what they viewed as his messiah complex. The Seven quickly splintered into factions; these factions eventually split apart; the couples all ultimately divorced; and “The Seven” went their separate ways.

Selected Objects and Labels

Portraits of Vincent Jones The Event

April Smith

Lino block relief print on fabric and with glitter, wooden dowels, rubber tentacles

24 x 20 inches

1979

Although mainly a painter, April was also a skilled printmaker. These seven portraits were made by April to display in The Church of The 7th Hole.

Six Pack of Billy Beer

Commercially Made Object

Steel, paint and plastic

5 ⅞ x 7 ⅞ x 4 ¾ inches

1978

All religions have food and drink that are sacred to the faith and an integral part of the ceremonial aspect of the religion. An obvious example is the wine and wafers of Catholicism, but there are plenty of others. What astonishes me is that of all the things that could have been sacred, the sacred drink of The 7th Hole was Billy Beer. Granted, Billy Beer was a fad at that time and the three couples were all drunk off their asses on the stuff trying to muster the courage to go through with an orgy, but you would think that as soon as they formalized the religion they would have switched to a beverage with more class and style rather than a shitty cheap mass produced beer. On the other hand, given that The 7th Hole was born in the mass produced, cheap, and styleless suburbs of the 1970s, maybe Billy Beer was a logical choice as its sacred beverage.

It occurs to me that now, many decades later, many have forgotten or never even heard of Billy Beer. In 1977, Billy Carter, the younger brother of then President of the United States Jimmy Carter, decided to create his own brand of beer. The beer was produced by Falls City Brewing Company and the business venture lasted only a year. Once the novelty wore off, everyone had to admit the the beer tasted like piss and also that, as funny as the whole thing seemed at first, having the president’s younger brother trying to cash in on the family name amidst run amok inflation, the Cold War, and the lingering shame of Vietnam, was just pathetic and depressing.

This piece was restored by Mark R. Marshall Art Restoration Services.

Petrified Eggs

Unknown material

Approximately 4 ½ inches tall x 8 inches diameter

Date unknown

Two days after The Event, Vincent Jones went back to The Marker on the 7th hole of the Craftowne Golf Course to see if he could find anything with his metal detector. The metal detector didn’t find anything, so Vincent started digging around The Marker (he was arrested for vandalism and fined $500 by the Craftowne Police for this) and eventually discovered a small cache of these petrified eggs. The material, date, and origin of these objects are unknown but Vincent was convinced that they were critical artifacts of The Church of The 7th Hole and had them displayed at the church.

Photograph of Lisa Stanton

Artist Unknown

Color photograph

4 x 4 inches

c1972

Likely taken at the home of Paul Stanton’s parents in the early 1970’s, this photograph shows a happy and relaxed Lisa.

The Story of the Other Reality Act XXIII, Scene 6: The Jungle of Vines and Spheres (Renderings of Set Designs for The Story of the Other Reality, a play by Paul Stanton)

Paul Stanton

Ink and pencil on paper

10 x 12 inches

1981

The Story of the Other Reality Act XXIII, Scene 6: The Jungle of Vines and Spheres (Renderings of Set Designs for The Story of the Other Reality, a play by Paul Stanton)

Paul Stanton

Ink and pencil on paper

10 x 12 inches

1981

DO NOT FEAR YOU ARE NOT ALONE / FEAR NOT YOU ARE LOVE

14 ¾ x 21 ¼ inches

1982

This piece are typical of Jim Goodrich’s early work. His goal was to write “The Great American Novel” (with The Event as its subject matter) one short phrase at a time. These pieces are examples of the second phase of Jim’s work in which he painted on old cabinet doors using a black background and white text. This contrasts completely with his first phase in which he painted on old cabinet doors using a white background and black text. In his third and final phase Jim used many types of materials including neon and worked on a larger scale (such as billboards and the sides of barns). These pieces are typical of Jim’s work in that there is no consistent font style used and the style isn’t even consistent within pieces.

These three pieces were restored by Mark Marshall Art Restoration Services.

Mason Jar of Unidentified Substance

4 ½ x 4 ½ x 9 inches

1983

This orange goo was on the floor of Jane’s garage following the loud noise that preceded her disappearance. Vincent Jones insisted that he take and preserve this goo saying that it was “the residue of Jane’s essence.” It was displayed in The Church of The 7th Hole for years.

Drawing of Design for Tentacle Headdress

Lisa Stanton

4 ½ “ x 6 ½”

Pencil on envelope

Since Lisa destroyed all her work that she could get her hands on, artifacts of her work are very rare indeed. This is a quick sketch for an unrealized costume piece for one of her dances. It was clearly done in a hurry, as the piece contains other random information including a shopping list and other reminders. This piece was discovered by an estate agent in a pocket of an old brown overcoat.