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Maynard Dixon: Art And Spirit

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In 2008, the Western Writers of America awarded this video, MAYNARD DIXON: ART AND SPIRIT, a Spur Award for "Best Western Documentary." This video also won an "Artistic Excellence Award" at the 2008 Paso Robles Digital Film Festival. In viewing MAYNARD DIXON: ART AND SPIRIT it is immediately apparent that this video deserves both these awards--and hopefully more.

This is an extraordinary video documentary about an extraordinary American artist. Jayne McKay's presentation is especially effective for several reasons. First, the video is remarkably rich in presenting visual material. Dixon's art--his oils, his watercolors, his sketches, and his murals--have a distinctive and powerful aesthetic appeal. McKay's inclusion of historical photographs, contemporary photographs, historical video footage, and contemporary video footage all help the viewer better understand the world in which Dixon lived. Second, Diane Keaton and cowboy singer Don Edwards provide professional and compelling narration. Third, Grammy-winner John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band wrote the accompanying soundtrack--one that is both soothing and sublime. Fourth, the documentary includes video interviews with Maynard Dixon's two sons and a granddaughter; these interviews give ART AND SPIRIT an added intimacy and bring the viewer closer to Maynard Dixon himself. Finally, an perhaps most important, MAYNARD DIXON: ART AND SPIRIT is wonderfully successful in presenting not only Maynard Dixon's art, but also in presenting Maynard Dixon the artist, Maynard Dixon the man, and the world--or worlds--in which Maynard Dixon lived.

Although we will never be able to fully understand the Maynard Dixon, this documentary--wonderfully written, visually rich, and emotionally intimate--probably brings us as close as we can hope to get to understanding, in a sublime and romantic sense, his art and spirit.

--Francis Flavin, Washington, D.C.

This beautiful film offers an insight into the artistic passion that set Maynard Dixon apart from the American painters who merely trailed along under the influence of the European Impressionists.

As an artist, I've long admired Maynard Dixon's masterful ability to paint both luminous skies, and the play of shadows across broad landscapes. Dixon captured a tangible essence of the American West, but his appeal goes far beyond that of the regional painter. Maynard Dixon Art and Spirit offers the audience the opportunity to see a sumptuous number of master works from private and museum collections.

Just as priceless are the interviews with Maynard Dixon's family. Dixon was Dorothea Lange's first husband. In filmed interviews, their two sons and Dixon's granddaughter from his first marriage recount their memories. Jayne McKay's biographical script weaves Dixon's complicated life together into a fascinating story. The Western Writers of American awarded the film Best Documentary of 2008.

I love the soundtrack. The talented John McEuen performs his evocative score on a variety of traditional instruments. McEuen brings life to this fascinating documentary about an artist who, during the first half of the 20th century, made himself at home both in the sophisticated Bohemian world of San Francisco, and whenever possible, painted his canvases while he lived with traditional Native Americans.

This film captures the essence of Maynard Dixon's life in a way that no book can.

This Spur Award-winning documentary is simply outstanding, a vivid look at one of the West's great painters. Even if you're not familiar with the work of Maynard Dixon, this documentary is worth watching. The narrative is superb, and the subject is an artist whose story had to be told. A first-rate film!

Eat your heart out Ken Burns. Jayne McKay shows us how it's done. You'll be swept along, blown away and come away filled with new knowledge of a genius artist moving through extraordinary times and unseen places, capturing it all like a Leonardo on horseback. Leonardo because Maynard Dixon was as revolutionary an artist for his time. And because Dixon drew endlessly, leaving thousands of sketches, each a miniature masterwork. And when he painted, the Great Mystery reveals itself in light fantastic.

If you don't know Maynard Dixon, see this film. In minutes, McKay captures an entire life, the sort we all aspire to live: bold, adventurous, and productive beyond belief. See it for the art because genius is a wonder to behold.

This film is such a surprise with it's eye popping, mind bending art, with it's prehistoric landscapes and Earth's native children, with it's `You Are There' quality as our country transforms from the Wild West (the unseen real one Dixon captured and the fantasy one that he regretted helping create - such juicy irony) into the tamer but still awesome South West that we know today.

You get all this and Diane Keaton too, though you wouldn't know it because she does exactly what a great actress must do when narrating, she finds the perfect pitch of personality to engage us in the matter at hand but not in herself. Of course, once you know it's her, you can't help but thinking, `cool, yeah, that's Diane Keaton.'

Be entertained! Be very entertained! Be enriched and wiser too. Treat yourself to this film, this art, this rip-roaring slice of history, this giant of man, his art, life and times.

At the Western Writers of America Convention in Scottsdale, AZ last June 2008, I sat at the table with Jayne McKay. Since I am an artist, we got into a discussion in which Jayne told me about this wonderful film that she made and Diane Keaton narrated. Finally, I made time yesterday to watch it. It is absolutely excellent. I knew of Maynard Dixon, but not much about his life and work, even that he had lived in Tucson, where I lived for several years.

Watching the film and listening to all the people admire his clouds, makes me excited because I, too, like the life and soul in clouds. People tell me they like the way I paint clouds. Often I wonder if I should put more stuff in my landscapes. BUT, after watching Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit, I jump with joy knowing I can be true to myself and KISS (Keep it Simple Sweetie). Thank you.

Now, I will stop and get back to drawing and painting.

Jayne Mc Kay's " Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit " is a beautiful and entertaining film, but more important it is a truthful and informative look at a pivotal individual, not only in the area of Western Art but as an important American artist in general.

Jayne approaches Maynard as a complete person, not just through his art works. The creations ( paintings, sketches, drawings, prints, etc. ) are shown in the context in which he lived and worked combined with a wonderful collection of personal period photography from childhood to his death. You don't just look at his life, you experience it with him.

The combination of powerful imagery, saturated with color, and a stimulating sound track helps to give a greater understanding of this sometimes flamboyant, moody, complex personality: Maynard Dixon, one of America's more inspirational masters. This film goes beyond the world of art; it is an important "must" for anyone with any interest in early 20th century American history.

This documentary about Dixon is a total pleasure from start to end. Creator Jayne McKay and her team take viewers on a detailed journey of a great artist's life and artistic manifestations. I've watched it twice all the way through and could do it over and over again. It's a superb film for entertainment, history and visceral satisfaction.

I was recently quite lucky to get my hands on this wonderful documentary about Maynard Dixon. I have always admired his work but I honestly didn't know the breadth and range of his amazing contribution to the art world. This film offers an incredible retrospective of the various stages of Dixon's drawings, watercolors, oils and murals. Jayne McCay has created a film that not only gives one an in depth look at Dixon's work but she also very capably interweaves that with the story of Dixon's life. He was a complicated and intense man and this film shows that through revealing historical photos of Dixon, the time period he lived in and interviews with friends and family. I loved that his children participated in this film. It gives the film a richness and insightfulness that is often missing in bio documentaries. I feel very fortunate that this film gave me the opportunity to have a better appreciation for Maynard Dixon and his amazing work.

Jayne McKay's documentary is a thoughtful, careful crafting of the life, career, and of course, magnificent artwork of one of the foremost icons of art in the American West. Perhaps Maynard Dixon's most important works are those he produced in a highly personalized and subtly stylized form of modernism - where forms are distilled to their flattened essence and color is intensified and saturated to convey his response to the Western landscape he loved so much. In much the same way, McKay paints a visually compelling story that presents the essential details and impressions of Dixon's life and works in a manner that allows the viewer to become immediately drawn into, and held by, the narrative. In spite of the exhaustive number and complexity of resources utilized in the making of this film (including rare archival footage, extensive photographs, interviews with family, researchers, collectors and dealers, etc.) all are woven into a unified tapestry that allows the viewer to absorb a considerable amount of material in a relaxed, straightforward, and enjoyable manner. The visual anchor of the film is of course Dixon's art, presented mostly chronologically, lavishly, and unhurriedly. As biographer for artist Ray Strong, one of Dixon's close friends and students over the last decade plus of his life, I was especially delighted to see Strong's insightful commentary (delivered in grand style) blended into the film. Strong's direct experience with Dixon as a fellow artist of the 30s and 40s offers insights no others can provide: that from the artist's point of view. John McEuen's musical score seems to richly and appropriately capture the spirit and Western feel of the film, adding to it without intruding upon the story. The selection of Diane Keaton as narrator is a surprising, but effective choice - perhaps highlighting the importance of the various feminine muses in Dixon's life.

This is a great documentary that told the story of a fascinating artist. I has seen some Maynard Dixon paintings in museums over the years, but never got the full impact of his talent until seeing so many of his great paintings together. The video captured the essence of this wonderful artist, and told an utterly engrossing story of a complicated, challenging and incredibly talented man.