Modern Artist Dick Seeger Pioneered Scottsdale; Now He Turns to His Own Backyard

Take, for example, the living room bar sink that's filled to the brim with white, cream-colored, and iridescent glass beads or the never-used master bathtub lorded over by an antique Ethiopian Coptic cross mounted on the leg of an old-time diner stool amid a suspended shower of crystal drops hung from the bathroom ceiling on clear monofilament. Another tub/shower area in the house has been walled in with see-through boxes, each filled with an odd collection of items, including used hearing-aid batteries, dice, Mardi Gras throws, and watch parts, while from the top of that bathroom's mirror droop hundreds of metal chains.

In the grand room, the indefatigable Seeger has amassed a number of Tibetan singing bowls next to an old temple gong and a yak bell hung from a decorative woven strap; he eagerly demonstrates their deep tones by tapping on them. Exquisite multiharmonic vibrations fill the room.

Jamie Peachey

Seeger's "faces" collection

Jamie Peachey

The artist as subject of a SeegerPeople photo construction.

Details

Take a tour: of Dick Seeger's home in this slide show.

Related Content

• Shine: Art in Scottsdale
  November 8, 2012
• FnB's Charleen Badman Tells Food & Wine Her Favorite Places to Eat, Shop, & Sleep in the Valley
  January 17, 2013
• Scottsdale's Soleri Bridge Is a Testament to the Artist -- But It Ain't Perfect
  April 21, 2011
• Fall Forward
  October 7, 2010
• The Life of a State: A Timeline of Arizona's History
  February 9, 2012

More About

• Dick Seeger
• Dave Hampton
• Paolo Soleri
• Visual Arts
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

"This is my playpen," he says with a satisfied smile.

No less attention-diverting is his dining room. It's been transformed into a gallery of sun faces he's personally made or collected, its center sitting area staged as an intimate, nest-like space surrounded by a floor-to-ceiling curtain of trade beads carefully hand-strung by the ever-active artist.

An entire room toward the back of the house recalls Pippi Longstocking's pirate treasure chests. The room is dedicated to antique wooden thread cabinets, each drawer of which is filled with items that fall into Seeger's mental categories — hearts, coins, old bone buttons, amulets, Mexican milagros, tiny masks from a variety of cultures and time periods, medals and badges, even mash-ups of wooden bases onto which the artist has appended some unusual bibelot, be it a watch gear, seashells, or a bit of unidentifiable detritus.

Throughout the residence, Seeger has strategically planted his own artwork — paintings, photographs, assemblages, and three-dimensional constructions. Forget storage — even closets have been commandeered for display purposes. One is almost entirely inhabited by antique toys and vintage ethnic jewelry.

Dick Seeger actually lives in only a small area of the master bedroom where he's placed his bed, a desk that seconds as his dining table, and a computer; he uses only the shower in the master bath. The rest of the space is devoted to his collection and wall montage of personal photos documenting his many activities and achievements through the past six decades; it's watched over by a huge shelf of what he calls "finials," turned wood pieces to which he's conjoined strange little heads of sundry origin, and large sculptures he's cobbled together from saw horses and ethnic masks, woodcarvings and jewelry. With the artist being an unshakable devotee of Coke and Cheetos, it's a very safe bet that extensive cooking has never taken place in his kitchen.

The quality, not to mention the quantity, of the objects Seeger has collected for more than 60 years is impressive, and he seems to value everything equally, despite source or cost. Pre-Columbian pieces rub shoulders with goofy Route 66 tourist "kachinas" and Mexican folk art; 19th-century Qing Dynasty figures consort with contemporary plastic figurines from The Wizard of Oz. Seeger doesn't exalt one culture or era over another — there's room and respect for everyone here at The Magical Mystery Spiritual Experience. A Beatle would feel right at home.

Though Dick Seeger has been seriously infected by the ethnic-art-collecting bug for a number of decades, his beginnings are anything but exotic or primitive. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1929, Seeger was an only child raised in Father Knows Best fashion by parents who came from large broods.

According to the artist, he was "flooded out of a house as a fetus," sang in a church choir, was his grade school principal's helper, and earned the title of a "super-duper turkey coop pooper scooper" in his youth. Despite his studious beanpole appearance, he was also an Iowa Junior State Champion in archery and finished first in obstacle courses in high school, college, and the Army, into which he was drafted. He served in both the U.S. Navy and Army and was stationed for a time on a naval destroyer. A scrupulously clean liver, Seeger's adamant that he's never smoked a cigarette or taken illicit drugs of any kind, ever.

After being discharged from military service, Seeger got married to his first wife, Helen, earned a degree in art from Cedar Rapids' Coe College, and garnered experience as a photographer. But, like the Beats of that generation, he was a ramblin' kind of guy, curious about the world around him. In the 1950s, after Helen tragically lost twin sons at birth, artist and wife, in a classic Jack Kerouac, On the Road-type of move, decided to drive from Iowa to Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, in their old car.

"I had a Spanish professor in college having a sabbatical in Oaxaca," he recalls. While in the Abastos Market in Oaxaca City, Seeger's billfold was stolen, and the duo ended up driving north to Mexico City sans identification documents and con very little money. While at a Mexico City bullfight, the couple's car was stolen.