Essays

Wearing a shaggy beard and smelling of cigar smoke, Armand Merizon greeted me at the door. It was 1962.

During the Great Depression a ten-year-old Michigan boy sat with his parents in the midst of a devout congregation of Dutch Calvinists.

Armand Jasper Merizon was born to first generation Dutch emigrants in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on February 28, 1920.

The following year Armand suffered, sometimes spectacularly, from an undiagnosed seizure disorder. It would change, dramatically, how he viewed himself and how others viewed him.

The Bates Street neighborhood in southeast Grand Rapids where Armand grew up was “a hell-raising rough place” where bullies and con artists thrived (VanderMey, 2012).

On Sundays the Merizon household needed to be set in order, their minds geared for Sabbath observance. “Sunday was quite enough psychologically,” Armand recalled with a near shudder.

Occasionally Armand drew his own trouble.

During the depths of the Great Depression, across the street customers with overdue bills were coming to the door, bartering rugs, an entire dining room set, silverware, anything they could sell.

Already a seasoned hitchhiker, on a Monday morning the thirteen-year-old extended a thumb. “Eventually a car slowed down and pulled over to the curb.

The following year a controversial new version of the Psalter Hymnal was introduced in church.

As Armand entered high school his neighbor Mr. Andrews introduced him to Adan M.

At Davis Vocational and Technical High School, standard academics were taught in the morning while in the afternoon there were electives ranging from automobile mechanics to art.

A serendipitous event occurred around that same time as Armand once again took to canvassing neighborhoods trying to sell his original paintings for a pittance. There were few takers until the Dr.

Returning to Davis Tech with renewed enthusiasm, Armand received his first major honor: a $500 full-tuition scholarship for one-year in residence at the Vesper George Art School in Boston.

Like Ishmael in Moby Dick, Armand left determined to investigate the watery part of the world ––and paint it.

In Boston Armand attended church regularly, made public profession of his faith, and discussed Calvinism with the John Knox Presbyterians.

In the summer of 1938, as agreed, his support from Eerdmans ended and he returned home to Grand Rapids where he began work in a factory that made plywood hulls for P.T boats.

In preparation for seminary studies, Armand needed to complete his high school requirements.

After completing his high school requirements, he enrolled in pre-seminary classes at Calvin College where he continued studying Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Before the semester ended in 1941 it was clear that he needed time to rethink.

In July 1943, Armand was transferred by train to Denver, Colorado. Once again his painter’s vision saw possibilities in the West.

Meanwhile, Armand, now twenty-three, had not forgotten the girl in high school that stopped him in his tracks. He asked her for a date. Betty remembers their first date when she was seventeen.

While in New York, Armand set out to meet his mentor Artur Schnabel.

In his home town Armand began to establish himself as an artist in his own right.

“If you want to be a fine artist be sure you marry the right person.” It’s likely Armand’s audience of student painters laughed when Armand offered such unexpected advice, but he meant it, sincerel

Classical music became progressively more integrated in Armand’s artistic endeavors. “Great music has great logic and form,” he explained. “It has architectural structure and melody.

The house Armand and Betty lived in was rarely repaired. A repairman banging around the house would disturb him. Betty never complained.

During that time Armand joined a few other local artists of kindred spirits.

Later that summer Armand decided to make one more crack at the New York markets—a sheer gamble.

Amidst Armand’s struggles and prizes, he had not lost his quirky sense of humor.

In 1960 Armand was offered an unexpected opportunity to tour the Riviera! The Keeler Foundation awarded him a $2000 European Arts Fellowship.

Armand continued his pattern of sleeping during the day and painting during the quiet hours of the night.

By the end of the 1960s Armand achieved statewide and international recognition.

Even if Armand did shun commercial interests, by 1968 doctors and private collectors were beginning to take interest in his art.

Author’s note: In preparation for a documentary on Armand Merizon, ARMAND, which premiered in 2005, numerous interviews were held with the artist about his personal life, his artistic career, a

“We didn’t know we lived so differently from other kids,” Aimé recalled in her father’s eulogy.

During the 1960s and into the next decade, the Amway Corporation of Ada, Michigan, expanded enormously and began to contribute heavily to cultural life in the Grand Rapids area.

“Russian Tragedy,” painted in 1979, clearly demonstrates Armand’s continuing desire to paint more philosophically.

Armand continued to experiment with new styles and techniques.

“The beautiful––first to surmise its existence, elusively in the world through time, and here and there in your life these unexpendable experiences that defy the norm and the reality, then the mira

If music inspired order, color provided personality. “To me a tube of paint is like a personality,” said Armand.

At the height of his career, disaster struck. Armand’s eyesight began to fail, and in the mid 1980s he could no longer read or drive. Already in 1978, his ophthalmologist and longtime friend, Dr.

During these difficult times deep friendships mattered, a lot, to Armand.

Meanwhile, his vision continued to worsen. “He came back in 1993, eleven years later,” Dr. Gerbens says, and he was no longer wearing glasses. ‘Why wear glasses if they’re not helping?’ he said.

In early 2000 when Armand was now 80, Ben Perrin had just opened Mercury Head Gallery on Fulton Street in Merizon’s old neighborhood.