Factotum: It’s all about the paint and surface

LOS LUNAS, N.M.-Monty Singer has worked over 30 different jobs, sometimes for only a week at a time.

The time he spent drifting from job to job taught Singer one thing, his true calling in life is to be an artist. Since making that transition over three years ago he’s found the time necessary to paint.

He’s compared his life to Charles Bukowski’s novel, “Factotum.”

Singer, 35, lives in Los Lunas, on the fringes of Albuquerque. He is originally from Gray Mountain, Ariz., his father’s hometown.

His father Ed is an artist.

“I was inspired mostly while growing up and watching my father paint and draw,” he said. “As a kid I used to sit and watch him work on these giant oil paintings.”

Taking a cue from his father, Singer began drawing and entered the art world. But, at the age of 16, he stopped drawing and wouldn’t pickup the brushes again until the age of 31.

“After some time in the Marine Corps and drifting around from job to job, mostly getting fired, I came to realize making art is all I’m really qualified to do,” Singer said.

One of his pieces, “Navajo Marine,” captures the honor, discipline and integrity of being a proud Navajo U.S. Marine on canvas.

The painting features the profile of a Navajo Marine in his dress blues. He holds a rifle wearing a tsi’yel, cloaked in a Pendleton robe.

Singer explains the idea for the painting.

“My father did a painting in the early 80s called ‘Navajo Cowboy,’” he said. “I was always struck with the iconic aspects of the image, which depicted a Navajo man in profile with his Navajo bun and wearing a big 10 gallon cowboy hat and standing in a relaxed, laconic way.”

Growing up, Singer realized the significance of the painting for him: his father was proclaiming a truth about Navajos, that there is a proud cowboy tradition within Navajo culture.

“When I thought of ‘Navajo Marine,’ I thought of how it would be paying homage to my father’s painting of ‘Navajo Cowboy,’” he said. I believe the Marine Corps and Navajos have a special bond.

“That bond is a result of what the Navajo Code Talkers did during World War II,” he added.

Singer remembered his six-month boot camp experience, due to a broken left leg and right foot.

“If anything, my Marine experience has taught me on how to deal with adversity,” he said. “Adapt and overcome, that’s what we’re taught in the Marines and that’s what I apply to painting.

Painting is simply showing up for work and getting busy, he said.

“I think Andy Warhol was correct about treating it like a job, making art, that is. You have to make a schedule, show up and hold yourself accountable,” he said.

A typical day for Singer starts off around 8 or 9 a.m., followed by breakfast, animal care, and painting around noon. Painting continues until 5 p.m., when his wife returns.

Dinner comes next, followed by more painting.

His studio is small, with a glass sliding door leading to the back deck. Inside, a wall mounted easel, table setup, stereo and supplies fill the corners of the room.

“It really is small and haphazard looking,” Singer said.

Singer’s art can be found at the Pop Gallery in Santa Fe. Later this fall, he will be participating in the Santa Fe Indian Market for the first time.

He is working on a small pastel (16’’ x 20’’) of some canyon rocks he came across in Arizona at present time.

“They’re these odd volcanic rocks smoothed over from water erosion,” he said.

Singer has a few dozen paintings in his collection.

Some of his more provocative pieces include “Fetal Alcohol Syndrome,” a concept he credits to his wife, which shows a fetus inside a bottle of Thunderbird.

“It’s gruesome to some people, but it conveys a truth about reservation life,” Singer said. “That’s what ‘Fetal Alcohol Syndrome’ represents to me, a lot of bottled up anger at how Indian kids are raised on the reservation.”

Another piece, ‘The Irony of the Indigenous Soldier,’ is self-explanatory.

“There was a time when we were hunted in the name of genocide, as the United States was in the throes of Manifest Destiny,” Singer said. “And now, we have natives serving in the very same military that once hunted them.”

Although he’s happy there’s a thriving native art scene, Singer said he’s wary about getting caught in its trappings and rules.

I’m not too big a fan of being a part of any group, because I always fear the group will somehow try to define or shape me, he explained.

For now, he is satisfied with following in the footsteps of his father and sharing his vision of the world.

“I take to heart what my father has always told me about painting and that is, ‘It’s not about the subject, but about the paint and surface,’” Singer said. “I’m sure what I say here will continue to keep me on the fringes of the native art scene.”

Information: www.montysinger.com