Tribe Report

'Martin de Vore'

Since a lack of fuel and funds kept me from attending all of last week's gallery shows, I have nothing to say -- for once -- about that.

So, I thought that I would address the "tribes" issue. What makes a tribe? What tribes are out there? Are you in a tribe?

As I recall, the whole tribes thing evolved as a result of a conversation that Mitch and I had during the summer where we were discussing art allegiances, real or perceived.

At that time, we came up with a short list of what we called "tribes." These included: the Artists At Large Tribe, the Max Boyd Harrison Tribe, the Gallery 19 Tribe, the Sippora Tribe, the Marie Weichman Tribe, the Gus Kopriva Tribe, the Wayne Gilbert Tribe, the Winter Street Tribe, the Spacetaker Tribe, the Onion Creek Tribe, the Diversionists Tribe, the Lawndale Tribe and so forth. There are many more tribes out there -- all over the Houston area -- but, for this piece, we are going to focus on ones that most of us are familiar with.

We started by trying to figure out who was in which tribe.

What we discovered are that most of the people we know have allegiances to several tribes. However, there is historical precedent for that - the Iriquois Confederacy. Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and Tuscaroras comprise the confederacy and the original United States representative democracy, fashioned by such central authors as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, drew much inspiration from this confederacy of nations.

Seems like a good idea. After all, we all sort of encourage and support one another don't we?

History aside though, what about the tribes we belong to? How is that determined?

We decided that it was contingent upon such factors as working together as a group, or having one's work regularly displayed in a particular gallery, or being handpicked by a particular gallery owner to be in a particular show or venue. But note: the tribe has to make the pick about who belongs to it. For example, many folks might want to be in the Gus Tribe or Lawndale Tribe but just wanting that doesn't make it happen, does it? The Tribe leaders have the final word on who is in their tribes.

We all pretty much belong to the Artists at Large Tribe (thanks Mitch!) or we all wouldn't be reading this. So, that's one tribe we can all claim.

So, what other tribes do you belong to? You might surprise yourself with what you come up with.

Martin L. de Vore is a freelance writer living in Humble, TX. Mr. de Vore is a member of the Artists at Large and Diversionist tribes and considers himself an ally of several other tribes that have been very good to him.