EDWARD COXStarving Artist" lives life with elan,
even when behind on the rent.

by Bob Lane. Tacoma News Tribune.

With so little cash, Cox turns to secondhand stores, or worse, for his sculpture materials. "Wood comes from dumpsters," he explains. "It's urban artifacts, really." But he doesn't use much money.Living on a fifth of what a journeyman carpenter makes Cox has learned how to make do. And he makes do with style.
"This time last year," he said" I was tramping down the beach at Kualapuu (Hawaii). I was researching the "Hula Maiden Myth." When they start combing that black hair and the wind is blowing through the palms..." Cox left Tacoma a decade ago after an education in Tacoma schools and a brief period of operating a gallery and painting studio in the waning days of the Court C Village. The name "Edward Cox" is still affixed to the colorful sign on the tiles of the Broadway entrance to the defunct arts center. "This was painted for everyone," his signature declares.
A year in Vietnam had left Cox somewhat disconnected from Tacoma's mainstream society; the subculture of the Court C experiment was nurturing.
But painting signs for candle shops left him restless. Cox returned to art studies at Tacoma Community College And Olympic Junior College, then at the University of Washington. Cox had a studio on Capital Hill, an experience he remembers principally for the abandoned water tower on the roof, which gave the young painter an Olympics view. He left that studio to work on a horse ranch, where he painted and "satisfied my lifelong fantasy of being a cowboy." Skulls and bones picked up from the range decorate his studio. Paintings also decorate the walls of the former Ace Novelty Co. warehouse, reflecting stages of his changing styles. Most recently painted are brilliant, freeform memories of his Hawaiian adventure.
Cox sells a few works each year through galleries. But "in fact, I want to make art that I never sell," Cox said. "It's from my temple. How can I sell it?" His art Cox explained, "is beyond materialism." An example is an African-theme head and hands that he carved from wood found in a dumpster. "It's a spirit to keep me on course," Cox said. "This came from the right brain, from the spirit. It's a navigational devise." Nevertheless, Cox tries to sell enough to pay the rent - He's only one month and a half behind now - and to pay his taxes. "I'm a surfer on the wave of circumstance," Cox said. "It takes excellent balance on the spirit of faith. Your surfboard is your inspiration; your faith keeps you up there."
Cox tries to take his economic ups and downs in stride. "I know the woman, Mrs. Morgan from the collection agency," Cox said. "We've become very good friends." She encourages him to keep painting, he said and when he sells a work he sees that she gets paid. "The wave goes on for another week or two," he said.When he gets a few dollars ahead on his debts, Cox may stash the money in his books. When he gets behind, he starts flipping pages. One time, he recalled, "I looked in the Bible and there's $60. That made me feel really great!" Cox does his own framing and most of his money goes for supplies. But he doesn't neglect the inner man. He bought an electric guitar on time, taking two years to pay it off. Now that it all his, Cox said, "It's really great because now I can hock it."
Always looking on the bright side, Cox found joy even in his court-ordered public service. In the first place, he found, his probation officer "was the most gorgeous woman, like Sophia Loren." Then he found that he so enjoyed his mandatory 25 hours of public service with the theatre that he decided to do 50 hours "because it was so much fun."
Cox also digs Seattle, literally. With an Army-surplus trenching tool, he scrapes through skyscraper construction sites, collecting the memorabilia of earlier times. As he did when collected artifacts on the Eastern Washington prairies. Cox tries to project himself into the spirit of his findings, "to find the essential factors, some quintessential quality that makes up that place."
Born in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard hospital, Cox spent his earliest years in Port Orchard's historic Sidney Hotel, waiting for his sailor father to return from Pearl Harbor. The Coxes moved to Tacoma, where young Edward spent happy hours exploring the shores of Lake Wapato. Cox feels Tacoma is on the edge of a cultural renaissance, "just coming of age. In the next five years, I think it'll become something."
But Cox remains delighted to be in Seattle, as thrilled, he said, as when Dorothy discovered her own Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz. The ever-present Cox smile left his face as he reflected that, "it's hard to sell art. It's a tough profession. It's rough." Nevertheless, he said the artist's life is full of surprises.
He recalled a show he staged in a First Avenue tavern. One spectator there was a woman who was a bill collector for the telephone company. "She had been telling me to pay my phone bill, " Cox said. "She ended up buying the painting from me." With the cash she gave him for the painting, Cox said, he paid the bill. "Sometimes there's no way of predicting what's going to happen." he said.

Tacoma News Tribune Sunday, January 13,1985 by Bob Lane. Photography by Warren Anderson.

 

Edd Cox could have picked a better week to set up his new ceramics studio, Terra Bongo, on Second Avenue in Belltown. Soon after Cox, a University of Washington graduate, hauled in firing kilns, storage shelves and supplies to fill his studio and teaching space, the city engineering department ripped up the street and sidewalk in front of his store at 2022 Second Avenue.
But the renovation yielded some interesting finds.
"I was out front watching the progress of the street repairs," Cox said. "They were digging down to lay phone cables and I noticed some tiles and drainpipe. I knew they were old because I could see the distinctive red brick that it was from a turn-of-the-century brick yard. Back then everything was made out of brick. They'd just had the fire of 1889 and the mayor said, "This time we build with brick.

"Cox explained that most of post fire Seattle-from the red brick alley behind Terra Bongo to the gorgeous old buildings of Pioneer Square- was constructed of the same brick, which was produced in a number of yards located on the Duamish River and at the foot of Beacon Hill. "A lot has been paved over and altered ," said Cox "but I still found this stuff and it's beautiful."In addition to the old brick and antique pipe, Cox made a much larger discovery. "As I was watching these guys, I noticed they were really having a hard time.The reason was they were trying to dig through clay," said Cox. Clay! Right in front of my new studio."Cox ran a few tests on the clay to determine its composition and quality. He then made a few shapes that held together and fired them in his kiln. "It's great stuff," said Cox. "If you take this clay-it's pretty hard stuff-it goes to a very fine powder that shows me it's very pure, very fine. It's perfect."
In other words, for a ceramic artist and self-described mixed media genius, Cox has discovered a gold mine. "I've already got a couple hundred pounds," said Cox, who believes that the pipes and bricks he found are made from the same clay that's in front of his shop.
"It's all glacial surface clay," he explained. "Everyone has this in their backyard. King county is really blessed with glacial clay because the whole Puget Sound was carved out by glaciers. It's in such huge amounts that there's a layer of it through the San Juans, Bainbridge, Volunteer Park-it's everywhere."
Cox plans to use what he's found to make a fountain sculpture of the pipes and brick. With the clay, he'll do some figure modeling and sculpting. "I'm going to make little gods of good fortune," he said. "I want them to represent the spirit of the deposit. Then I'll probably use it for sculpture. I like the idea of having clay seen. I don't want to cover it up with a glaze because it has a lot of iron in it. It'll turn a really nice red. If it's got mica in it, which I think it does, it'll sparkle. I hope that happens."

The Dispatch City Edition August 1995 by S. Duda. Photography by S Duda.

MUSICAL MURAL

by Koshtra Tolle. Arterial Magazine

Edd Cox, an artist, calls his roost "urban bohemia" and has lived here since 1981 refining, modifying and constantly changing his style and medium. He shares the fifth floor of a huge old building near Pioneer Square with two parakeets and three cockatiels. Most of the space, 1500 square feet of it, is cluttered by his past endeavors in oil painting, ceramics and cardboard sculpture - his life on display for all to see.His latest accomplishment is a 200 foot long mural in Swedish Hospital's tunnel. It is four feet high and runs the length of the tunnel which passes underneath Broadway and connects Swedish Hospital to its annex near James Street.

"It's amazing when I come back to the mural. It still reads well,," Cox says upon return for the first time to view his work.The mural, L'Homage De La Musique is the longest mural in Seattle and is a celebration to music in a golden age. It took more than a month to paint. A typical day for Ed lasted six hours, during which time Cox would paint twenty to thirty foot of wall.A typical day for Ed lasted six hours, during which time Cox would paint twenty to thirty foot of wall."I used latex wall paint that was on sale at Standard brands then added tint for stronger emphasis, he says. "I drew grids so the different color matrices would fit the line shapes. "Doves, musical notes, goddesses and gods all frolic in a tropical setting that brings the sterile hallway to life. A swirl of pastel peaches, yellows, olives, greens,purples, and blues twists into soothing shapes as one walks the length of the tunnel.Although he constantly compared the measurements on paper to the walls dimensions, Cox had to improvise his ending when he discovered the papers measurements were off by an inch. "The end was suddenly a surprise to me too," he says. The improvised tail of the mural is situated near on of the Northwest Kidney Center's door. Cox explains the Mural's overall theme, "There is a rhythmic quality to the large color scheme and a lyrical quality that expresses joy about the wonder of life. I'm trying to be a musician in my art. I'm always thinking of how to get the most out of a simple idea and finding a solution that has a harmony and wholeness to it." Working from a scaled sketch of the area, Cox measured increments on the wall that corresponded to his drawing. After he drew the large figures and shapes in squares foot grids with brown chalk, he began a second grid with white chalk that was easily erased. Finally, he used a small brush for the line work and then drew the brighter colors in last. "What was interesting for those walking through on a regular basis, "he says, "was seeing the progression from a blank wall to a procession of colored shapes." He says a lot of people saw different figures before he had the lines drawn in. "One woman was positive she saw George Washington's face on the wall and wanted to know where Abraham Lincoln would go. Since it's so long, the mural unfolds as you move. Images jump out as you pass by." Cox feels his mural adds to the hospital's spirit because of its color and imagery. Form Divine, a show that features several of Cox's three-sided wood sculptures opened in March at the Restaurant Italia.

Arterial Magazine Spring 1992 by Koshtra Tolle. Photography by Koshtra Tolle.