Kaye Green

Preface

It is with great interest and pleasure to have this interview with a very special Australian Artist, Kaye Green. A long while back I had the pleasure of working with Kaye in the Print studio at Monash University Gippsland. There in a unique rural setting (surrounded by big mining and power generation industries) Kaye set about adding Lithography to the repertoire of print techniques taught and explored in the print studio… The studio had most of the equipment but for many years it gathered dust and had been seen as “too hard” as a technique to bother with.

Kaye’s enthusiasm, creativity, technical mastery, and work ethic meant the students (and staff) had a great opportunity to watch, learn and explore the fascinating process of Lithography in action. From what seemed like a slow process, a mountain of prints grew as Kaye the “prolific producer” churned out an endless array of beautiful prints.

Any students who moaned about the “slow process of Lithography” were soon shown a drawer FULL of prints, many multi coloured in a variety of sizes… They would soon be making prints bouyed by the inspiration Kaye’s work volume induced. (not to mention her technical and creative expertise.)

At one point she tackled some HUGE mono prints, inking up the laminex surface of a whole table with black ink and drew magnificent islands and hills inspired by a residency in Queesnland’s Griffith University. In contrast to this she created small works and art books, wow that was a revelation at the time, I marveled at these for some reason.

To work in the same department as Kaye was a defining moment in my career as an artist and I can clearly state she is one of my influencers (4-1/2 years in the same building can do that!) Despite all the seriousness we had great times speaking our own version of Scottish (Having Euan Heng an ex-pat scotty on the team helped immensely!) with lots of laughs with the students… one great moment I recall was in the first week or two of Kaye being part of the print team, putting a sign up saying when Litho classes would start (9:30 am) at 9:45 after setting up and waiting for the masses to arrive, she then put her head out the door, cupped her hands across her mouth to create a megaphone, and yelled out… “Litho class is starting guys! anyone wanting to know about making litho prints come now!!!) 5 mins or so passed before enough folks were assembled to start the class. They came on time after that… The rest as they say is “history”.

Now, some 25 years on, I am pleased to present this interview and trust you find some powerful inspiration in amongst the quiet deportment of a great Australian Artist.

Steve Gray April 2009

Kaye lives in Austins Ferry (Hobart suburb) Tasmania, she is represented by Umeda Gallery, Osaka, Japan and also shows a small range of prints at Handmark Gallery in Hobart.

Here is a link to more of her work.

Teachers and Students: You can download a worksheet on Kaye’s interview here.

How long have you been making art?
I’ve been trying to since I was old enough to hold a pencil.

Interests you have other than art you feel are important to mention?
Choral singing, gardening and cats.

What are the main medium/s you work in…
Lithography, relief printing, drawing and artists books

Artist’s statement:
Kaye Green was born in Ulverstone, Tasmania in 1953 and following a year as an exchange student

in Japan in the early seventies, she completed her BA in Visual Arts at the Tasmanian School of Art in Hobart in 1976. She taught art in a Tasmanian high school for two years before travelling to the USA to undertake a Master’s Degree at the University of New Mexico, graduating in 1981. During her time in Albuquerque she also studied at the prestigious Tamarind Institute of Lithography.

In 1984 Kaye was awarded an Australian Visual Arts Board residency to establish a lithography studio at Griffith University in Brisbane and was also awarded a residency by the National Parks and Wildlife Service to work in a national park in southern Queensland in 1993.

She completed a residency at The Frans Masereel Studio in Belgium in 1996 and worked for six months in the Grafiris Printmaking Studio in Helsinki, Finland in 1988.

In 1996 Kaye won the national Silk Cut award for lino prints which enabled her to travel to Amsterdam for study and inspiration and in 2007 was awarded an Artsbridge International grant to assist with her exhibition held in Japan in February 2008.

Kaye has completed a number of commissions and her work is represented in many national and international public collections including the Australian National Gallery in Canberra and The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

After fourteen years of university lecturing, Kaye resigned from teaching and returned to Tasmania to work full time in her studio.

The consistent themes in Kaye Green’s current work are elements from nature with a strong Japanese sensibility. She uses these elements as powerfully expressive metaphors and approaches the landscape, and elements in the landscape, not for their literal imagery, but for their spiritual and associative qualities. The landscape and elements of nature provide a vast sphere of influence where form denotes mood. This personal encounter with the nature results in a poetically inspired visual language. “…her imagery retains that slightly meditative, mystical and visionary quality. Her art explores both the elements of nature which she encounters in the physical world and the internalised landscapes of the mind, the landscape of dreams and of nature revealed through intuitive imaginings.”

Sasha Grishin, Catalogue essay “Seeing the Same Moon” 2006

How do you describe your work?
Semiotic, spiritual, poetic, abstract qualities.

Does your work have social, political, cultural and or personal messages?
Universal ponderings.

What are you currently working on?
Large free standing drawings, multi coloured heavily inked lino prints and preparing ideas for my trip to Tamarind.

What fascinates you?
Horizon lines, clouds, rain, lightening, rocks, trees and words.

One word or statement to describe your current works?
Poetic landscapes

Why are you an artist?
No choice…it’s who I am.

How did you get into art?
I have always drawn. At an early age …maybe 4? I wanted to be an artist even though I had no exposure to art or artists at that age

Your art education was…?
BA at the Tasmanian School of Art, MA at the University of New Mexico, USA.

Have you always been interested in art?
Yes, although I would say ‘interested’ is not really the right word. More appropriate words would be ‘involved’, ‘passionate’ or ‘preoccupied’.

What did you do before or during becoming an artist?
Packed carrots, waitressing at a Japanese seamens’ club and lecturing in the art school system.

Is there any one thing that has given you a big buzz in your art career so far?
Seeing my work hanging next to a Modigliani in a gallery in Japan was fairly extreme!.

What is your earliest memory of art?
Well, my own and other kids’ work at school of course but my first serious art experience was seeing a Rembrandt portrait in a book. I fell in love.

Do you remember your first painting or art work?
Yes, Indians in a canoe was the first piece I remember. I’m sure there were many “abstracts” prior to that.

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?
No not at all.

Did the place where you grew up have an influence?
Good teachers at school and beautiful surroundings on the north west coast of Tasmania.

What or who inspires your art?
The earth, music, words, other artists.

Was there a big turning point in your art journey that caused you to think that “it’s all worthwhile”, or “oh yeah I get it…”?
There have been a few turning points but I have never doubted that it is “all worthwhile”. I have never experienced times when I haven’t been able to work. Winning the National award for lino prints (The SilkCut Award) was a huge boost though.

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?
I made a lino print in 1st year high school and was attracted to the indirectness. I never felt right standing in front of a canvas. Then Rod Ewins, my lecturer at the Tasmanian School of Art, encouraged me to make lithographs because of the way I was drawing in my final years of art school but I preferred etching. When I went to the University of New Mexico and Tamarind Institute in 1979 I realised lithography was indeed a wonderful medium for me and it’s been my favoured medium ever since.

Has your work changed much since your early efforts?
I hope so! I think the biggest difference is that I think my work used to be something I produced and I would look at it with a certain detachment but now I am totally convinced that my work is me.

Have your artistic influences altered over time?
Yes I think artists from other art forms have become more influential and art from other cultures.

You know you are successful in Visual Arts when…
To me it is honestly not about being successful in the normal sense of the word. I’ve never felt comfortable in the commercial gallery scene for example. I suppose I would consider success is about commitment and integrity. I suppose I think I’m successful whenever I complete a piece of work I’m happy with.

What can you tell us about your planning and making process for making art, and has that altered over the years?
I have always worked fairly spontaneously in that I have never tended to make many working drawings. I have my ideas sketched out as words or small drawings and then when I start on the major work I just use those preparatory works as a guide. I like the work to be fresh. Over the past ten years I have become more open I think and I like using mixed media.

Does the “creative process” happen easily for you?
Yes I am never stuck for ideas; there is always something I want to explore. If I don’t feel like working, I sharpen pencils or tidy my studio or cut up old work to be used as collage material.

Do you get creative glimpses or urges happening and how do you work with these?
Any time I have a creative glimpse I write it down in a small notebook which I always carry with me. Sometimes it is just a word or a fragment of something I have seen or heard but they make sense to me when I look through my journal. One word or a tiny drawing can transport me right back to the original thought or inspiration.

Have you had any commissions?
Yes a few. They have varied from a commission to make a series of prints for the Surveying Department in the Geography Faculty at the University of Tasmania to a private commission for a friend whose husband had died.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?
Integral.

Creative streaks do they come in waves for you?
Not really but some places inspire me to think more deeply than other places. And it’s not necessarily the most beautiful places.

Do you get to other artists exhibitions, openings etc?
I go to exhibitions but try to avoid openings.

Any upcoming or completely new projects you want to talk about?
I have just been awarded an Arts Tasmania grant to enable me to go to Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico to make a series of lithographs with the Tamarind Master printers. I am starting to prepare the work for that series now.

Working towards an exhibition, is it a daunting task?
I don’t really tend to work towards an exhibition. I just work… and then I have exhibitions. I usually have plenty of work so I have never really made work specifically for an exhibition.

Some say the lifespan of an “artist” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that?
The Tasmanian school of Art offered me an exhibition about 2 years after I had graduated and I think that was a great incentive to have a body of work ready for exhibiting. However I have always made art so the 5 year problem wasn’t relevant for me.

Tell us about your connection to your subject matter, way of working, concepts etc?
I am totally connected to my subject matter and Sasha Grishin once wrote: “Much of the imagery in her art is in the form of meditations on trees, clouds or the moon. In her titles she frequently employs the term “portrait”, in the meaning of tree portrait or bonsai portrait. These are not inanimate objects which she depicts in her art, but rather they are living entities where she has entered into communion with the tree, cloud, rock or the moon. Nature is not something that is outside of her, something that she can objectify and depict, but she is part of nature which forms her subject matter, in a strange sense; each of her images is also an image of self. In the same way as we can say that all of Bea Maddock’s art is self referential, a type of self-portrait, Kaye Green identifies with nature to such an extent that she and her subject merge identities.”

What has been a turning point in your career thus far and why?
Definitely the turning point was living in Japan when I was 17. When I arrived and couldn’t speak Japanese, I just thought a lot and made a lot of art. I think that is when I feel I became a really whole person in that all of my other senses were heightened because I didn’t have verbal language to rely on. Japan has been my second home ever since and I was offered my first solo exhibition there after I completed my MA in the USA. I flew from Albuquerque to Osaka completely broke and there was my work, beautifully framed and presented in a prestigious gallery in Osaka. I love making art in Japan and I love exhibiting there.

If you could have any piece of artwork in your personal collection, what would it be and why?
Either a Rembrandt self portrait because seeing a Rembrandt when I was about 12 years old moved me to tears. I actually touched the surface of the painting when the guard wasn’t watching and wiped my fingers with a tissue which I think I still have somewhere. That same portrait is now covered with glass…my fault maybe! Or perhaps a Morandi still life? Or a Rothko. I’d love Christo to come and make a work in my garden!

Can you name a favourite artist or three… and why?
Bea Maddock, Rembrandt, Morandi, Christo and Rothko… well really the list could go on for ever. Just like I love listening to certain music I love looking at certain works of art. I love observing and exploring the abstract qualities in art. I can actually get something out of looking at most art.

Have you had any “big breaks” in your career?
I have had a few “big breaks”. *Being accepted into the MA programme at the University of New Mexico and then a collaborative course at Tamarind Institute. *Being offered a solo exhibition in Osaka on the completion of my MA. *Being awarded a Visual Arts Board residency at Griffith University to establish the lithography studio. *Winning the Silk Cut award. *Having a large solo show at the Carnegie Gallery in Hobart. * Being awarded an Arts Tasmania grant to go to Tamarind to work with the Master Printers. There have been other smaller “breaks” but these have been the big ones so far.

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.
I think I struggle with some issues constantly but some examples of tangible struggles are: * Struggling with a compulsory unit of silk screen printing in my 2nd year of printmaking. I hated it. *Being desperately poor all through art school. *In the United States I was seriously ill with meningitis and nearly died. It was a terrible time for me being so far from home. It also meant that I had to use a lot of my savings on hospital bills so it made the rest of my time in the United States very difficult financially. I was so poor I actually considered writing to ten friends and relatives asking if they could lend me $10. I dreamed of receiving the 10 x $10 notes. I couldn’t ever bring myself to doing this mainly because I couldn’t afford the postage! It was a huge struggle but it made the journey home with my MA in my bag all the more satisfying. *I also had a serious accident in 1992 which has affected me enormously. My struggles have been about my financial situation and health!

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind?
Yes always. I have kept an art journal since high school. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t keep notes and drawings. My brain would be overloaded.

What happens to works that “don’t work out”?
I’m fortunate in that I’m aware early on if something is not going to work. With lithographs, for example, I can tell almost with the first mark if it is going to work or not. If I feel it’s not going to work I stop and start again. Any pictures that don’t work usually end up as fragments for collages.

One thing you wish you had listened to from an art teacher or lecturer?
Not really. I am friends with my high school art teacher who maintains that I never listened to her but just went ahead and did my own thing. But I was listening to her… perhaps observing more than listening. I was inspired because she did a lot of her own work in class. I wish I had studied photography as my minor at art school and I think someone made that suggestion to me.

Do you have a personal philosophy, which underpins your work?
I think it’s mainly about honesty and integrity.

Do you aim to break the rules of basic composition, layout etc or do you ignore the “rules” and just create?
I certainly don’t aim to “break the rules”; I actually enjoy using the rules but they don’t inhibit my creative process. I work intuitively within certain boundaries.

What sort of research and or reference material do you do for current works and has that changed over time?
I think I am more inclined to use reference material now. I used to rely wholly on my own observations. I make use of a wider range of resource material.

Musical influences, Okay this is about Visual Arts but most artists have favourite music they enjoy while working or just in general what about you?
I love singing and listening to choral music especially a cappella. I enjoy a wide range of music except jazz, rock and country and western.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
I hope that viewers will enjoy my work in some way but I don’t expect them to look at my work and say “Oh, I understand.” It’s much more intangible than that. Many people tell me that they respond differently to my work depending on their own mood or time of the day. That’s very satisfying. It makes me feel that my work is alive and not stagnating.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?
There is no ‘message’ as such but I would hope that my work enables people to think differently or to experience something. I like to think I can show something of the way I see the world.

What can you say about your work that might not be evident to the viewer?
I’m not sure because I don’t think I understand how people see my work. I know my work intimately of course but I don’t know what is evident to the viewer and what isn’t. And sometimes people surprise me by seeing things I haven’t perceived.

What can you tell us about your creative development process?
I honestly am thinking about my art most of the time so in a way it’s not a process for me… more a way of being. It’s a matter of having enough time to make all the images I am keen to make.

Has being involved in the arts proven to be a millstone or a point of elation?
Both

Art is about entertainment, experiment, inventiveness or shock for you?
For me art is about ideas.

If you stopped doing art right now would you miss it?
I couldn’t exist.

What discourages you from doing art?
Extreme highs and lows in my mood and a totally chaotic studio.

Is motivation to work an issue for you and how do you overcome it?
Not really but if I ever do find it hard to get moving I just tidy the studio or sort through my work. My cat Megumi loved me going to the studio and would complain if we were not at work by about 9.30 each day. She even had her own “work chair.” She recently died after 17 years of being my companion so the studio is a lonely place at the moment.

Do you have a challenge knowing when a work is finished?
No, I don’t often have that problem although I am aware of it and often have to force myself to stop.

Are there special aspects to the making of your work that you want to share?
I am dedicated to making art and I value my work very much but I see some people (mainly students or aspiring artists) who are too careful or fastidious… precious about their work. Sometimes they spend too much time fussing over tiny details which I feel are not important. I think I might be a bit ruthless sometimes but I’m glad I am… I’ll try and think of an analogy. Yes it might be like a parent who has a terrific child but the child has a tiny freckle on the sole of their foot. The parent keeps complaining about the freckle instead of ignoring it and enjoying all the other qualities in the child. It’s not a great analogy but I hope it explains what I mean.

You know you have “made it as an artist” when…
You want/need to make art every day.

The value of Visual Arts to you is…
Value… worth, significance… it is a vast concept. It’s a bit like asking what value do I have as a person.

Your first “decent” gallery representation, how did it come about?
An art critic in the USA wrote about my work “having a Japanese sensibility” and I sent the newspaper article to my friends in Japan. They wrote back and invited me to go to Japan instead of going back to Australia following my graduation. They offered me an exhibition in a prestigious gallery in Osaka. I only had enough money for an airfare from the USA to Australia or Japan but not both. The friends said that they would pay for my fare from Japan to Australia so I started sending my work to the gallery and by the time I arrived the work had been framed and there was a beautiful invitation. It was overwhelming. The exhibition sold out so the pleasing thing was that I was able to pay for my fare back to Australia. I have shown with that gallery ever since.

The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts?
Is there a stronger word than challenging? I find the whole marketing issue impossible.

What is the most unexpected response you’ve received from a viewer of your work?
Possibly when a business man came to one of my exhibitions and was moved to tears. (in a positive way that is!)

Have you had much connection post sale with purchasers of your works?
Not really although there is a friend who has collected my work for the past 30 years or so. It is interesting to see a ‘retrospective’ every time I visit his house.

Tell us about getting caught in a creative “slump” and how you got out of it?
It has never really been an issue for me but following the premature death of a very close friend and mentor I found it extremely difficult to work. I was deeply inspired but could not face looking at a bare sheet of paper to start work. It was a real struggle for me but then I decided to start cutting up old pieces of work and I made some small collages. That was a very helpful process and it also introduced me to the idea of collage as a serious medium.

Metaphors, analogies, symbols, stories, how important are they to your work?
Very important. It’s what my work is about. I employ image and metaphor to investigate the nature of reality and more specifically my perceptions of the relationship between nature and the integrity of human existence. I endeavour to comprehend, through analysis and representation, my perceptions and ideas in an attempt to illuminate and interpret this spirit. I draw directly from the landscape and I use elements of nature such as a tree, a cloud, which, for me, is visualised in spiritual darkness (depth), in sky reaching down to touch the earth, in the mystery of lightening and the sacredness of a large rock. For me, these elements have power for metaphor and are therefore parabolic in revealing and exemplifying the attitudes, ideas and moods which I like to reflect upon. Through these assembled metaphors a broader holistic statement emerges concerning my perception of the universe.

Is your art, “art for art sake…” or a matter of “art for commercial viability?”
Art for art’s sake and for my sake definitely not for commercial viability.

If you have been working as an artist for a while, how do you feel about earlier works that are in people’s collections / ownership?
Sometimes it is lovely to see an older work but a few times I have been embarrassed and tried to swap the work for a more recent piece.

Name a book or books, which may have inspired your work as an artist?
The Book Thief, The Alchemist, The Glass Bead Game, The Shadow of the Wind, The Other Side of Me.

If someone says to you “Oh your work is decorative and lacks any meaning…” your response would be…?
“I think you might have been looking at someone else’s work!”

Tell us about your studio environment (too big, too small, enough storage or not, the light, the position, how you found it etc)?
My studio is situated in my back garden about 20 metres from my house. It was the original cottage on the property. I extended it so that it consists of two reasonably sized rooms. The lower room is where I draw and prepare and the top room is where I have my press. The light is quite good and I love the aspect. I look down onto my house and across the river to the hills. I love being in my studio at night when I have left a light on in the house. It makes me feel content. I have a fridge, stereo and couch in my studio so I have everything I need up there. My laundry and second toilet are also adjacent to the studio so I also have access to running water.

Is your work process fast or slow?
I usually have a number of things going at the same time. I think I work fairly fast.

Art as a therapeutic device; do you think it is useful for this purpose and is your work in this category somehow?
I guess it can be for some people. I have made certain pieces to get me through periods of grief but they are quite different types of works to my normal work.

Do the seasons affect your work or work habits?
Yes, the main reason I moved back to Tasmania is to experience four distinct seasons. I do work better when it is cold. I am especially inspired on dark, cold, wintry days. I remember how excited I used to be when it was so dark walking to school that the classroom lights would be on and the teacher would have lit the fire in the classroom. I used to feel particularly alive and exhilarated and that’s how I feel now when it’s so dark during the day that I have to have the lights on in the studio.

Some say a measure of an artwork is the ability for it to hold a person’s attention or cause the viewer to come back after an initial glance and become captivated by the work, is that so for your works or an intention of yours?
As I said in a previous answer, people often comment that they gain a different insight or perspective each time they look at my work. Depending on their own mood, they can respond quite differently to my work at different times of the day. It’s not really an intention of mine but my work does not have the immediate “wow” factor…more a transmuting or gradual appeal.

People around you (family friends etc.) what would they say about the way you work, the moods you have, your life as an artist etc?
When I was very young my mother realised that I became moody if I didn’t draw. I’m not sure what my family members and friends think. It’s so tied up with who I am they just accept that that’s what I do. I have two young nieces who love the fact I am an artist and they love coming to work in my studio.

Do you have a connectedness to other art forms?
Yes prose and music.

Some artists are more “at home” isolated in their creative process, while others revel in being part of a group to bounce “ideas off” how about you?
I have always worked alone and find it difficult to work in a group situation. I find it very distracting and not at all stimulating. Even at high school I actually built a wall in a corner of the art room so I felt I had my own space.

When you get the urge to create art because something has “pushed your button/s” how compelling is it for you?
I don’t really get “the urge” because I am constantly either working or thinking about it. However sometimes I do get excited about a particular project and can’t stop working. A friend of mine once called me an “alcoholic”… she meant “workaholic”!

What is one thing you need to have in your studio before you work?
Music and my glasses!

Are you a purist with your art materials or willing to mix things about?
I am a purist with lithography and printmaking in general in that I don’t hand colour and I do have a “truth to materials” approach. Over the past ten years however I have made a number of mixed media works… bits of prints, pencil, crayon etc.

What moves you most in life, either to inspire or upset you that might be connected to your art?
The sky, trees, hills and rocks and music. And sadness.

Which is more important to you, the subject of your work, or the way it is executed?
They are completely interwoven.

Do you prefer a perfect smooth technique or a more energetic expressive technique and why?
I can’t say energetically expressive but quietly expressive. Certainly not smooth.

What is more important to you in your work, content or technique, concept or product?
Well the technique is a means to an end…without it my work wouldn’t exist. For me everything is a part of everything else.

Are there times of the day when you prefer to do your work?
Not really although I do love working at night. I also love it when it is raining and I’m in my studio with the lights on, hearing the rain on the tin roof and listening to music or the cricket!

From your early beginnings at art school to now, how have things altered for you?
I’m not as ‘precious’ or self conscious about my work. I am not as elitist as I used to be.

Is the making of art all it was “cracked up to be”?
I don’t think I was ever led to believe that it was “cracked up to be” anything really. Making art has always been a part of who I am…it’s what I do.

How do you think art can change people or their perceptions?
It can offer people different insights and other ways of thinking and seeing. I love it when I observe people changing to become less rigid in the way they think about art.

Have you won any awards?
Yes a few. The Duroloid Silk Cut award for lino prints, Australia Council residency, Queensland Government residency, drawing award, and some grants.

Do you go into any contemporary art prizes, if so why?
Yes, because I am not represented by a commercial gallery in Australia art prizes offer me the opportunity to show my work. Getting a picture ready for an award demands a certain discipline which is challenging.

Are you the sort of artist that seeks out promotional opportunities or one that shuns the limelight?
I can’t say I specifically seek or shun. I do my work and things just happen! I am not one to push myself forward though.

Technology (websites and social networking sites to name a few) has become an important marketing tool for many industries and individuals, what are your thoughts from a “You Inc” perspective and your art sensibility.
A friend is designing a web site for me but otherwise I’m not really comfortable with technology. I’d rather be in the computer-less studio.

Do you work from life, or from photographs or from imagination or some other method?
I always work from observations of some sort. Sometimes I take photographs, draw or write but always in response to something I have seen or heard.

When you create your work is it somehow an emotional relief as you do it or at the end?
Not really either of those. I don’t seem to ever be emotionally relieved!

What is your working routine? Do you listen to music while you work, or stay up late for instance?
My preferred routine is to go to the studio at about 9am and I usually spend the first half hour looking at what I have done the day before. If I am particularly excited I’ll go up to the studio early in the morning in my pyjamas to see something. My studio is in my back garden (about a 2 minute walk to work) so I go down to the house for lunch and then finish at about 6pm. Sometimes I’ll go back up and work late. I always listen to music (or the cricket). I love the radio but sometimes play CDs. However there are other distractions so not every day is like that. I have choir rehearsals, a garden to look after and other responsibilities.

What do you love/hate about being an artist?
Hate: Filling in entry forms, packing work up to send away, completing application forms and receiving rejection letters. Love: Being excited about my work, having a solo exhibition, which I’m pleased with, working in my studio, drawing on a lithographic stone. I love many things about being an artist.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
Start making work straight away and try to do something in the studio each day. Enter a few awards/prizes and be ambitious with the work. I used to get frustrated when students asked me “Is this good enough?” I don’t think this is a useful way to think.

Have you ever made an artistic pilgrimage? If so, where did you go and why?
London, Paris and New York mainly because I thought I had a professional obligation to visit those places and their respective galleries. It was surprising to me that I loved London and New York but was too overwhelmed by Paris.

What do you think sets you apart from other artists in your approach to work etc…
I’m not sure. I only know how I approach my work and I’m not sure I have ever been close enough to another artist to be able to make a comparison. I have always been totally committed and I am consistently prolific but I’m not alone there.

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Compiled and edited by Steve Gray © 2009+

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Sharon Hodgson

Sharon Hodgson is a painter from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is represented on a few different domains below. She paints in Acrylic on canvas.

How long have you been making art?
All my life. (Since I was 1 yr old) I’ve been making a living off my creativity as a freelancer since I was 16. (Nearly 16 years). I have been posting my painted works to the ‘Net for the last 9 years.

Web addresses:
http://www.sharonhodgson.com    http://www.livepainting.ca    http://www.myspace.com/sharonhodgson http://www.sharonhodgson.com/art

Interests you have other than art you feel are important to mention? Spoken word (I event paint spoken word events as they happen on a regular basis), amateur stand-up comedy (I dabble from time to time), and body acceptance activism. (I founded the We Bite Back community, which currently has an international following. Http://www.webiteback.com – Closer to where you are at, I wrote the Foreword to Australian author Lucy Howard-Taylor’s book, ‘Biting Anorexia’. Her book is now being released in the USA and other nations. I am an activist in the cause of getting people to accept their bodies and selves as they are, and try to encourage people to be positive to themselves to reach their highest potential.)

 

Artist’s statement…
I have always been moving. I am fascinated by movement, and always use vibrant, bright colours.
I draw great inspiration from two pieces from 1912 - Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash by Balla and Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp. One was a Futurist and the other was a Cubist, but both pieces studied the movements of people, animals. I am a web designer and artist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where I’ve lived since 2004. My father was in the military, so we re-located frequently. Is that why I obsess about movement in art?
Colourful movement and process are central themes to my work. Many of my pieces depict people or animals moving through time, exploring emotional interpretations of fourth dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface.
I wish to draw attention to the process of piece creation, rather than just the finished work. I do this through photographed process pieces and live event paintings. [Painting events on site as they happen and completing the work by the time the evening is completed, and selling the work to someone in attendance.]
5. How do you describe your work, realistic, stylised, abstract, narrative, symbolic, other?
Fauvism-inspired colour palette; Cubism/Futurism inspired abstractions depicting movement and/or the passage of time as the predominant meme, but using a more Expressionist rather than Analytical style. (Cubist works were by contrast very analytical, rather than emotive.)

Does your work have social, political, cultural and or personal messages?
I use bright, happy colours to put an optimistic light on the world around us, in a time where it’s tempting to see shadows and darkness all around. I believe that the time put into the creation of a work is a part of the process and a part of the work itself. I strive to capture life in the Here and Now as beautiful. I believe in creating works where people can see the process rather than trying to guard my process. I distribute my images with a Creative Commons license and make money through the sale of original works rather than selling copies. This business model promotes Open Source (copyleft) rather than outmoded Intellectual Property-serving business model of making money off of copies (copyright) rather than real, tangible objects. I am not keen on mass production as art, popularized by Baby Boomer artists such as Andy Warhol. I want to place focus back on what is Real, what is happening Now, and make art a form of passive entertainment to people in the community. I want to paint the town, and let the town see itself as art, rather than overused tourist symbols (in this case, lighthouses, boats, fishermen) as the only art that could be associated with Halifax.

What are you currently working on?
I’m getting some designs ready to work on a six foot tall fiberglass dolphin for Easter Seals, in a group artist project called “Dolphins on Parade”. Businesses across town are sponsoring artists to paint these large dolphins and there will be several dozen around HRM within the next year. Hoping to have my dolphin completed by May 2009.

What fascinates you?
Colour. Movement. Time.

 One word or statement to describe your current works?
Colourful movement abstractions.

Why are you an artist?
Creative compulsion, I think.

How did you get into art? I started drawing when I was one year old, and never stopped. I am stubborn.

How important is art for you? The power to create physical objects out of basic materials that people would want to purchase and express my creativity in the process… is important to me.

Your art education was…? A Visual Communications Diploma from Medicine Hat College in Alberta in 1998, with honours.

The craziest thing you did at art school was…
Die my hair black and blue in a hotel in Edmonton and got drunk with art professors in the hotel bar.

Was your education helpful, or a hindrance?
It gave me a chance to learn a wide range of artistic disciplines, learn tricks of the trade, and ask questions liberally.

Is there any one thing that has given you a big buzz in your art career so far?  
Painting live at events. The act of creating in public becomes a method of self-promotion. Creating in public allows me to have a show without a show. I set up anywhere without paying gallery fees or commission percentages. This allows me to sell my works without a markup, reducing the final price to my fans who are therefore better able to afford the work.

What is your earliest memory of art?
Drawing a sketch of the Road Runner cartoon when I was three.

Did the place where you grew up have an influence?
I moved around all my life, almost every year, as my dad was in the military… so I would say that yes this was an influence. Almost all my work now has a movement component.

What or who inspires your art?
The people and animals in front of me. The motion of life. The way different lighting will change the colours of what I see in front of me. The Here and Now inspires me.

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?
It dries in under 15 minutes, lending itself to painting live at events and selling the work that evening, without a patron having to wait for it to dry first.

Has your work changed much since your early efforts?  
Yes. It has focus. When I first started, my work was very disjointed. While fantastic and bizarre in theme, it had little unifying direction. Now, I put focus and intent into each work, I pay attention to what is in front of me, and strive to create art from reality, rather than art from fantasy. I see beauty in the world around me at this point, and I have greater appreciation for artists who want to paint what they see.

Have your artistic influences altered over time?
Originally I was mostly inspired by dead Masters I learned about in art school, but later I became more inspired by contemporary artists. I talk to many many artists all over the world via social networking sites, and have found my work has evolved over the years as has theirs… and as I get insights into their work I get further insight into myself. I greatly appreciate having the chance to see works being posted by other contemporary artists and how it evolves. That is art in motion! Every artist’s collection tells a story about that particular artist.

You know you are successful in Visual Arts when…

People ask to interview you for their blog.

Does the “creative process” happen easily for you?
Yes. Like breathing.

Creative streaks do they come in waves for you?
If I do not paint, then I am not creating. If I paint, then I am creating. If I get into a rut, all I have to do is sit and start the act of creation again and it is happening.

Have you had any commissions? Any of note etc…
I’ve done some work for Halifax Regional Municipality. I did a mural of a coal train and got to meet the mayor a year and a half ago.

Does the sale of your work support you?
If no what else do you do to support your art (job)? I use event painting to buy groceries. I also do some web design, face painting and search engine optimization consulting.

Do you get to other artists exhibitions, openings etc?
Not often. I am more inclined to follow an artist’s work if they self-publish to the web than visit the real thing in a brick and mortar gallery. I would be very happy to get together with other live event artists who create work on site, at shows, of bands, or whatever else. There have to be other brave artist souls who do this sort of thing.

Do you have much contact with other artists?
Thousands on myspace. Www.Myspace.com/sharonhodgson

Some say the lifespan of many “artists” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that? I had not heard that before! That’s interesting! I can say it’s damn hard to survive as an artist and if you are not insanely passionate about it, most people would give up on it to move towards something more lucrative. Most artists do something else on the side to support themselves. Sometimes.. the something else takes up more and more time and an artist finds his/herself saying they just don’t have the time to create, or don’t feel inspired.

Tell us about your connection to your subject matter, way of working, concepts etc? It is who or what is in front of me predominantly people I know or see regularly, events I attend, or my cats.

If you could have any piece of artwork in your personal collection, what would it be and why?
Nude Descending a Staircase. I love the movement in this work.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them? It depends on whether or not I am trying to push the envelope on movement abstraction, or trying to render something “accessible” that I feel people would want to purchase immediately. It’s a matter of whether or not I am experimenting or creating a work I intend to sell.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?
Art always tells a story. Even my abstractions.

Art is about entertainment, experiment, inventiveness or shock for you?
It’s totally about entertainment and getting myself as an artist out into the community.

If you stopped doing art right now would you miss it?
Yes.

The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts?
Don’t let anyone convince you that a building means prestige for your work. You get known for your work by getting it out there where people can see it. Be creative. Where are the people? Meet them where they are. Put the work in front of them in unusual ways outside the

box, and they will be more likely to remember you for it.

Have you had much connection post sale with purchasers of your works?
Some of them, yes. Some come back repeatedly to buy more and could be considered collectors because of it. Since I have a few websites and participate in social networking sites like myspace, people are able to keep in contact.

Is your art, “art for art sake…” or a matter of “art for commercial viability?”
It is a compulsion to create that I capitalize on regularly to the extent that I can turn basic art supplies into groceries about once a month.

Is your work process fast or slow?
Fast. 1-3 hrs for live works up to 16×20”, 5-8 hrs for live works up to 36×36”. Usually a week for works I complete in studio, off and on as time allows.

What would you say are the top three things, which make you successful as an artist?
Being stubborn, having a unique style, and enduring as an artist.

Otto Dix the German artist said (in part)… “All art is exorcism…” Is that the case for you? If so how…
I do not feel I have any “demons” to exorcise at this point. I just wish to capture life in the Here and Now as beautiful. I wish to incorporate the passage of time creating the work into the work itself by being there where people can see me creating it and remember it. I don’t create art to be dark, but rather to bring colourful optimism into people’s lives.

Some artists are more “at home” isolated in their creative process, while others revel in being part of a group to bounce “ideas off” how about you?
I prefer to create around people. I used to prefer isolation for creation.

How many artworks do you produce in a year?
Around 30 or 40.

How often do you work in the studio?
At least once a week.

What was life like for you as you were growing up?
I spent a lot of my time drawing/doodling during class at school, and tended to keep to myself. I was kind of a strange kid, always obsessive about art and creative writing.

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Compiled and edited by Steve Gray © 2009+

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Barry Howard

Barry Howard currently lives in Reno Nevada U.S.A. he says he moves a lot so expect that to alter some time soon. I guess that’s one great thing about the web is you can move about and the web stays put.  www.barryhowardstudio.com

Interests you have other than art you feel are important to mention?
Metaphysics, and the potential of the mind, sailing, travel, living life as an art project.

What are the main medium/s you work in… 
Oil painting, murals in acrylics, carved glass, stained glass, wood, marble and granite.

How do you describe your work, realistic, stylised, abstract, narrative, symbolic, other?        
Most of my work is a combination of abstract and representational… it most often deals with thoughts feelings and experiences going around in my head.

What fascinates you?  
The human mind,   nature,  birds,  lucid dreaming, water,  the cosmos,  quantum physics, ancient lost cultures… The female body,  various mediums such as oil paint and glass.

Now give us a more descriptive outline on your current works.
I am doing semi-abstract and abstract oil paintings, which deal with the subject of nature, metaphysics, dreaming, and parallel worlds.

Why are you an artist?  
It’s what has always fascinated me… I never questioned I would be…

How important is art for you?  
It is essential…it gives my life meaning, purpose, and a means for self expression and exploration… It is deeply satisfying…

What is it about Visual Art you find compelling?  
It can uplift, transport, inspire, shift, awaken, enlighten, and move both the viewer and the artist in an infinite number of ways.

Your art education was…?  
Self-directed… I don’t say self taught as I have studied many artists and their work and learned a great deal from them…

Is there any one thing that has given you a big buzz in your art career so far?  
I think getting to the point where I like most of what I produce rather than the years I was simply frustrated knowing I was capable of more but didn’t know how to get there.

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?
My parents were both creative… but not artists exactly…. my dad wanted me to be a career military man… my mom thought I should get a good job at the phone company…

Did the place where you grew up have an influence? 
It did… I hated it and so, spent my life in my room, drawing and drinking big cups of black tea and listening to the radio all night…

What or who inspires your art?
I am constantly inspired by art I see all the time… so many incredible artists around today… also by the mysterious aspect of life… and where the realm of the mind leaks over into the physical and metaphysical world.

Was there a big turning point in your art journey that caused you to think that “it’s all worthwhile”, or “oh yeah I get it…”? 
I think it all happened in the course of about a week, when i suddenly felt like i had some control over what i was striving for…

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?  
Love for the mediums and what they do… oil paint, the richness, how they can be moved and manipulated, the beautiful glazes and how it can be blended… glass, how it is both reflective and transparent and how it transmits light

You know you are successful in Visual Arts when…
You look at something you have created and love looking at it…

What can you tell us about your planning and making process for making art, and has that altered over the years?  
Initially I just started..no preconcieved idea.. I just began and watched what happened… Then I became more concerned with improving my technical abilities, I started to make preliminary sketches… Then I found all my sketches seemed to have much more life than the finished piece so I quit sketching first… Now, i have come full circle… I just begin with only a vague feeling…. I discover each piece as it develops… I am speaking of painting… glass has to be pre-planned because of the nature of the medium.

Creative streaks do they come in waves for you?
Not really…sometimes life causes me to stop and do other things, but left to my own devices, it’s always there…

Do you get creative glimpses of urges happening and how do you work with these?
I get these all the time, sometimes I just write down a few words to remember it until I can get to working with it… but more often I become somewhat fixated on the idea and keep turning it in my mind…

Have you had any commissions? Any of note etc…
I have had lots of commissions…not sure what “of note” means… If a commission makes me money so i can buy groceries that is of note to me… I really don’t pay any attention to the “noteworthy” world of art… it doesn’t mean much to me and i see alot of it as overly hyped… I see so much phenomenal work done by relatively unknown artists… I am no longer concerned about becoming famous… If I can make art that means something to me and to others, and make enough from it to support myself and focus on creating what i want to, then i am very happy… The only reason I can see to be famous is it is easier to make a living then…

Does the sale of your work support you? If no what else do you do to support your art (job)?
I make my living from a combination of selling my art and doing murals…

Do you have much contact with other artists? 
Yes, both online and offline

Any upcoming or completely new projects you want to talk about? 
Currently I am working on my new studio/gallery and creating a new body of work… Commercially I am tentatively going to be doing a large carved glass project in Las Vegas probably in summer

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.
The period of years where I lived in my studio and painted everyday and didn’t like anything I produced was exhausting… I couldn’t quit, I knew I was capable of creating work I really loved, but I wasn’t there yet… it nearly drove me nuts… I  would look around my studio at all my work and i didn’t like any of it… and making a living from my art has been a real journey… not always an easy or fun journey….

What sort of depth or meaning is there behind the work you do?
The meaning is very subjective, both for me and for the viewer, it has meaning to me but I am better at painting it than verbalizing it. I have experienced many very deeply moving states of mind and it is those moments in time, those ‘”spaces” I have experienced I would like to share through my work.

What can you tell us about your creative development process?  
It usually begins with a very vague hint of where i want to go…it is a process of finding it…following threads of feeling that lead me to what i am trying to express…it is mysterious to me…

Has being involved in the arts proven to be a millstone or a point of elation?
Sometimes both… I can’t imagine life without it but there have been times I have seriously wished I was the type of person that could just open a little hardware store or whatever and be happy with that…

The value of Visual Arts to you is…
It pops us out of the everdayness of life and confronts us with other worlds, other viewpoints, other moods, and other feelings… it inspires and energizes… it opens up doors in the mind that were closed

Your first show at a “gallery” you thought was of value, how was the whole thing for you?
I should probably think more about these things.. I have mostly focussed on the art rather than the business end of it… Shows fall into the catagory of “shoulds” to me, hence I have done too few of them, I would far rather be in my studio…

What is the most unexpected response you’ve received from a viewer of your work? 
A couple of times people have walked into my gallery and without hesitation, walked directly up to a painting and just stood there..finally said, “i’ve been looking for this painting for years”

Tell us about getting caught in a creative “slump” and how you got out of it?
Usually it means i am starting to repeat myself rather than pursuing something compelling…i have come to find that a slump is what comes before an artistic leap of some sort…

If someone says to you “Oh your work is decorative and lacks any meaning…” your response would be…?
When someone criticises my work i tend to consider the source….then i ask myself if there is anything in the criticism that i can use to improve my work…is there any validity to the criticism?..,if there is anything useful there i take it in and it pushes me to improve….if i don’t think the criticism is valid in my view, i chalk it up to one person’s prejudices.

What would you say are the top three things that make  you successful as an artist? 
I am unstoppable, highly ambitious,  innovative.

Some artists are more “at home” isolated in their creative process, while others revel in being part of a group to bounce “ideas off” how about you?
I have lived in both environments… I enjoy both, living among other artists is stimulating but I am usually working in a more isolated environment and I love that.

What is one thing you need to have in your studio before you work?
Easel.

What or how do you respond to the term “Starving Artist”? 
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt…

Is the making of art all it was “cracked up to be”? 
The more i do it and the more I learn and the better I become at it the better it is… It is the most fun I can think of… There are times in the process when I am on a complete high.

Are you the sort of artist that seeks out promotional opportunities or one that shuns the limelight?  
I have to make a real effort to promote myself… I would much rather just make art… but then if nobody knows I’m doing it then nobody is going to buy it…and then the bill collectors start calling me up…

Technology (websites and social networking sites to name a few) has become an important marketing tool for many industries and individuals, what are your thoughts from a “You Inc” perspective and your art sensibility. 
I am actively involved in developing a strong web presence…i have done alot of work on my website and am currently on Artbreak, Flickr, Talentdatabase, Artistic MInds and MyArtSpace, a few social networking sites and twitter.

Do you aim to make “masterpieces” with the aim of being seen in the future as an artist that really made their mark in art history?  
I strive to make each piece a masterpiece to myself.. I don’t think about making a mark in history but I would like it if my work inspires someone, or moves them in some positive way…. I like the idea of leaving something behind, which is meaningful to someone else…

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?  
Learn all you can..learn to draw well…. take criticism with a grain of salt, become unstoppable… don’t believe everything you learned in art school.. get your ego out of the way…. don’t believe everything a gallery owner tells you… take responsibility for your own career, nobody else is going to… do what you are most passionate about…. don’t get too full of yourself.. there will always be someone better…

How did you go about marketing your art? 
I am currently working on expanding my online visibility, setting up my gallery, and then pursuing some other galleries

How many artworks do you produce in a year? 
Maybe twenty to thirty….

How often do you work in the studio?
Daily.

What did your prices start off at?
When i started? well, in third grade I sold felt tip marker drawings on t-shirts of the flintstones for a dollar each…

How many artworks do you work on at the same time?
From three to five or so…

How did you manage to survive financially at the beginning of your art career?
I did a variety of jobs, waited tables, built things, did some commercial art jobs, lots of different jobs… I always tried to do as little of that as I could get away with as I wanted to spend every minute in the studio…

Can you respond to this quote “Anyone who is half assed about art should get out.” (Janet Fish).    
I think there are all sorts of reasons to make art… not everyone wants to be famous or even sell their work… some just do it because they get some enjoyment out of it… I don’t believe a person needs some lofty reason to make art… it’s a means of self expression and there are all kinds of different levels to that…. it’s all legitimate in my eyes…

Was there a point where you decided: OK I can live off of my art?
I have always been committed to that, but it hasn’t been such a cut and dried road… it’s been quite an uneven road with alot of potholes…

How did your first solo show go?  
It was alot of fun… well recieved… didn’t make alot of money though…

Do you have ideas turning over in your head all the time or…  
Yes.

Eccentricity is seen as a common trait of artists of many disciplines, how about you?  
I don’t think of myself as eccentric, but i don’t think i am quite an average bloke either… there are lots of stereotypes about artists…we are suppose to be sloppy and drink too much and stay up all night and be a bit wacky and moody, and have to suffer to work… I don’t fit those too well… artists come in all flavors

How do you continue to grow, or is this not important? 
I have a curiosity about life, and how it all works… my mind is like a sponge and I am always looking for things I haven’t tried before… new approaches… new ways to expand what I am already doing…

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Jason Ferguson

Jason Ferguson is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Art & Design University of Idaho and describes his work as conceptual, he lives in Moscow Idaho USA  his web address is www.jasonjferguson.com    

 

How long have you been making art?

As long as I can remember, however, I’ve been dedicating my life to my work for the last 10 years.

 

Interests you have other than art you feel are important to mention?

Music, literature, philosophy, and poker.

 

What are the main medium/s you work in…

My approach to art making allows me to freely flow between mediums and techniques. For some time now, concept has been the driving force behind my work. The medium and form that my work takes on is determined by the most efficient, provocative, and compelling approach to present the idea to the viewer. Video and photographic documentation, site-specific, installation, performance, kinetic, steel and wood fabrication, and altered found objects have all been used in creating my works within the last few years.

 

Artist’s statement…

The human condition has been defined as the paradoxical state of having awareness of an individual’s limitations and mortality, while lacking the ability to alter fate. Through my work, I intend to contribute to the evolving dialogue of the human condition. I believe that visual art is a forum in which questions can be posed in the absence of immediate answers. Therefore, art has the potential to present new imagery and provides the artist the capacity to stumble upon new information.

It is because of the experiential nature of the human condition that I have chosen to use scientific approaches in order to better understand philosophical questions of existence. The sciences have a generally accepted reputation for proving or disproving hypotheses through observation, experimentation, and repetition. My work utilizes scientific protocol and the collection and analysis of empirical data to explore the minute details of human experience more thoroughly.

Using situational satire and a variety of materials and processes, I juxtapose seemingly unrelated subjects to create compelling imagery. For example, medical protocol is applied to domestic objects, geological analysis is used to study architecture, and agricultural practices are related to human social interaction. To complete my projects, I solicit assistance from professionals working in a diverse range of scientific disciplines. Collaborating with practitioners in various branches of study gives my work a level of authenticity that I could not provide on my own.

My work is driven by conceptual intent. Once an idea is fully developed, aesthetic decisions and material choices function primarily to communicate the concept to the viewer. Humor plays an important role in the communication process. I use humor in my work because I have found it to be a suitable catalyst for extended thought. Whether performing a postmortem examination on La-Z-Boy recliner, or working with a live cow in order to establish an isolation from the herd, my work exploits objects of direct experience and explores our relationship with our daily surroundings.

 

What are you currently working on?

My current research has elaborated on my use of scientific protocol as a tool for philosophical investigation. I have been using search engines to seek transcendental salvation, I am working with forensic arts techniques to identify bogeymen, and I am researching New Media technology, including circuit-bending and physical computing, to develop a scanning device that uses a Theremin to confirm physical existence.

 

What fascinates you?

My son, Beckett.

 

One word or statement to describe your current works?

Absurd

 

Why are you an artist?

I can’t function without a creative outlet. Visual art allows me to engage in a dialogue with artists, curators, theoreticians, educators, and patrons of the arts without having ever met them.

 

How important is art for you?

My wife calls art the “other woman.” I am constantly working, thinking about working, or thinking about thinking about working.

 

What is it about Visual Art you find compelling?

Its ability to raise questions and alter perception.

 

Your art education was…?

BFA Towson University, Baltimore, MD

MFA University of Delaware, Newark, DE

 

The craziest thing you did at art school was…

I drove the forklift down the hallway in the art building and into my studio so I could lower myself into a makeshift graduated cylinder. I needed to find the volume of my body (at the time 4,851 cubic inches) for a series of volume studies in which I recreated my volume in found objects.

I would also take naps on a scale stainless steel autopsy table I fabricated for my Inanimate Autopsy works. My classmates thought it was humorous, but kind of morbid.

 

Was your education helpful, or a hindrance?

Extremely helpful. Throughout my undergraduate studies I developed the skills and confidence to be able to make nearly anything I can think of. In graduate school, I furthered my cognitive development and conceptual direction. I was given the space and time necessary to thoroughly think through my ideas. I had the opportunity to reflect and truly question my artistic approach.

 

What did you do before or during becoming an artist?

I was a bartender for about 5 years while I was working towards my BFA. Prior to that I had been involved in a variety construction positions: demolition, HVAC, deck building, etc. I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Design at the University of Idaho. I am in charge of the Department of A & D’s 3D curriculum, I manage and maintain the Art & Architecture East building that houses the departments 3D facilities and the George Roberts Art Gallery, and I work with MFA candidates on thesis development and the progression of their works.

 

Is there any one thing that has given you a big buzz in your art career so far? (Seeing your work in a particular collection etc…)

I was ecstatic about a positive review of my work in SCULPTURE magazine, July/August 2008, written by Sarah Tanguy. She reviewed my solo exhibition A Dialogue with Objectivity at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. This was a pretty big buzz. Sarah Tanguy is a well-respected curator and critic in Washington DC and the review could have gone either way.

Another big moment in my career was when I was one of three American artists invited by Monique Besten, cofounder of Stichtiing Mista’peo (a contemporary art and music organization located in Amsterdam), to live and work in Kolderveen, the Netherlands for nearly a month. We created work for an exhibition entitled New Riddles & Constellations 4, on display at Kunst in Kolderveen last spring. The opportunity to live and work with Monique Besten, Mary Rothlisberger, Christian French, and Albert van Veenendaal for my first international experience was exciting and special.

 

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?

When I told my parents that I had decided to pursue a career as a professional artist they were sceptical but very supportive.

 

Has your work changed much since your early efforts? (e.g. as a student).

My current work is vastly different, visually, from the sculptures I was creating as a student. The interesting thing is that the content, subject matter, and conceptual direction are not entirely dissimilar from my early works. When reflecting on the artwork I’ve created over the last 10 years, there is a clear trajectory in direction. It is quite apparent how one body of work was the impetus for the next, and so on.

 

Does the “creative process” happen easily for you?

If the process is easy, in conception and fabrication, then I seriously question the piece’s integrity. I either give the idea more thought or drop it all together.

 

How important is the clarity of concept to you, prior to starting an artwork?

I need to be really interested in an idea before I invest the time and effort into its manifestation. The most difficult aspect of my artistic approach is reaching full confidence in a concept. Once the idea is fully resolved conceptually, the act of making is purely perfunctory.

 

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?        

This is a topic that I discuss with my students during nearly every critique. It is my belief that if the craftsmanship is distracting or unsupportive of the work’s concept, then craftsmanship issues must be readdressed. It should be available to the viewer that any gesture or mark that is questionable was executed intentionally, and was not the result of a rushed approach or lack of ability.

 

Does the sale of your work support you? If no what else do you do to support your art (job)?

I haven’t sold my work in years. Unfortunately one would need a virtual warehouse to store my pieces. I primarily focus on moving my larger pieces and installations from venue to venue, mainly museums, non-profit exhibition spaces, and academic galleries. My main source of support is grant writing and my career as a professor at the University of Idaho.

 

Do you get to other artists exhibitions, openings etc?

I do my best to keep my finger on the pulse of contemporary art.

 

Do you have much contact with other artists?

My network is always growing.

 

Working towards an exhibition, is it a daunting task?

I wouldn’t say daunting, but it is definitely involved. I crate my own work and, as I stated earlier, this is no small task. The contracts, bills of lading, and coordination involved can certainly be time consuming.

 

What sort of research and or reference material do you do for current works and has that changed over time?

My research and reference materials change with every body of work. I generally work alongside practitioners in professions outside of the arts, usually related to the sciences, and attempt to learn as much as possible about the theory and protocol related to that area prior to beginning a new piece. For example, part of my preparation for the Inanimate Autopsy and dissection series involved working with a pathophysiologist to learn the procedures involved in performing a postmortem examination of a human cadaver. I actually worked on a male cadaver to learn autopsy protocol, and then I applied what I learned to a La-z-boy reclining chair. With every new direction that my work takes I am given the opportunity to learn about another profession. I enjoy the freedom and potential for collaboration that is opened by this approach.

 

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?

“Getting” my work is not my primary goal. I am pleased when I’ve presented a scenario that is compelling enough for extended thought and, if lucky, the desire to revisit the work.

 

Respond to the notion “Art is a device for exploring the human condition”…

This question hits a little too close to home for me. To avoid a lengthy response, I will say that there is a certain existential quality in the act of making art, regardless of subject matter. In a sense, we as artists are acting out the key ideas behind existentialist thought on a daily basis. We attempt to isolate ourselves as individuals through the things that we make. We perform repetitious acts, struggle with content and aesthetics, all to complete these one of a kind precious extensions of ourselves, that, once complete, we hold out to claim, “see, I told you I was here.” This however is no different from artists who use the idea of existence as a point of departure. Artists acquire their inspiration from different sources. Whether the human condition is a central theme in his or her work is unimportant. The fact that we choose to create, links us directly to existentialist thought regardless. This is the nature of all artists, the need to create and the need to leave something of significance behind.

If someone says to you “Oh your work is decorative and lacks any meaning…” your response would be…?

Don’t quit your day job to become an interior designer.

Is your work process fast or slow?

Slow in ideation, fast in fabrication.

 

What would you say are the top three things that make you successful as an artist?

Drive, determination, and a thick skin. 

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Compiled and edited by Steve Gray © 2009+

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Robert Lucy

Robert Lucy lives in New York City, in Manhattan and says he has been making art his whole life but more consciously from 20, therefore making art for 23 years. You can catch his website here www.robertlucy.com

What interests you have other than art?

I guess that my interest in photography is worthy of mention because it feeds into my art. I also enjoy reading novels, going to movies, travelling and doing yoga.

What are the main medium/s you work in…

I am primarily a painter. I paint with oils and paint on linen. I also do coloured pencil drawings, usually on coloured paper.

Does your work have social, political, cultural and or personal messages?

I consider my work to be extremely personal which is my way of having social, political and cultural messages. I also feel that the more personal the work, the more universal it will be.

What are you currently working on?

I recently finished 8 paintings that are doll portraits and 8 coloured pencil drawings that are portraits of dolls and animal toys. All of them have brightly coloured, flat backgrounds that are rays or stripes.

What fascinates you?

The offbeat, the eccentric, the exception, the freak, the outrageous, the rarity, the unexpected, the hidden.

Can you give us a more descriptive outline on your current works.

My current sources are dolls and doll heads and animal toys. There are oil paintings and coloured pencil drawings. The subjects are almost obsessively worked up and hyper-real and three dimensional against colourful, flat, pop-y backgrounds. The effect is that the subjects are almost popping out of the picture.

Why are you an artist?

Making art is the most compelling thing I can imagine trying to do.

How did you get into art?

I guess I’ve always been in it. I’ve been drawing since I was a child, I played the cello and acted and have always been drawn to looking at and creating art.

How important is art for you?

It is what makes life worth living, art and other people, and dogs.

What is it about Visual Art you find compelling?

It’s like music to the eyes.

Your art education was…?

I had a great teacher in high school named Joanna Collins who was a big influence. I then studied with the great Imagist artist Ed Paschke when I was at Northwestern U. before I transferred to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I received a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. My education continued with Dennis Adrian, and the many great artists and collectors and museum people I met through him after I graduated.

Was your education, a help, or a hindrance?

My education was a help, especially in allowing me to establish working habits. It was also helpful to have feedback from artists that I respected. Ultimately, though, you can’t learn to be an artist, you can just be encouraged to develop what is already in you.

Is there any one thing that has given you a big buzz in your art career so far?

Working on my new website and then seeing it done for the first time.

What is your earliest memory of art?

I remember being 3 years old watching my mother’s friend painting daisies on the front of our wardrobe.

Do you remember your first painting or artwork?

No, but I do have early memories of Vincent price movies with portraits that bleed and portraits which have the eyes cut out with someone watching from behind.

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?

Yes. We were taken to museums. And when I was little my mother made the stairs to the basement into a gallery for our drawings.

What or who inspires your art?

Other artists inspire me, I often feel inspired when I go to museums and galleries. I can also get inspired by something that I see in a magazine or on the computer or on the street, I’m always looking.

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?

I started painting in oil when I was in school and it just suited me. I started using coloured pencils about 7 years ago. I like the control that I have with them and the ability to create layers.

Has your work changed much since your early efforts?

A great deal. Painting is a very difficult media to master, it takes many years. I was in my mid thirties before my technical abilities were able to match my vision.

Have your artistic influences altered over time (e.g. artists.)

Yes, they are always changing. When I was in school I was very influenced by the collection at The Art Institute of Chicago which is very strong in French 19^th century as well as surrealism. The surrealist influence is obvious in my early work, artists like Magritte and de Chirico and Ernst, but I have always loved the French painters like Degas, Cezanne and Van Gogh and earlier painters like Ingre, which might be less obvious. I was also mad for Marsden Hartley, Beckman, Balthus as well as the Chicago imagists like Jim Nutt and Ed Paschke. Robert Barnes and Cliff Westerman were also favorites. Later I became interested in and influenced by Indian painting. Most recently I am enjoying Dana Schutz, Mathew Barney, John Currin, Lisa Yuskavge, George Condo and other contemporary artists.

You know you are successful in Visual Arts when…

You are still making art and loving it.

Does the “creative process” happen easily for you?

It does now. Early in my career it sometimes was a struggle, not knowing where I wanted to go with my images and not feeling secure in my technical abilities. Now I feel like my work flows out of me like a tap, that I know where I want to go and how to get there.

Do you get creative glimpses of urges happening and how do you work with these?

I often start to get glimpses of what is coming next when I am nearing the end of a work. Or, like right now, I am starting to get a glimpse of a new group of work as I have just finished a large body of work.

How important is the clarity of concept to you, prior to starting an artwork?

I often start with a set idea. Sometimes it comes out just as I had imagined it, and sometimes it goes through radical changes. I feel like I am in a dialogue with the work I am making, and I respond to its needs, even if they are radically different from what I had originally intended.

Do you have a personal description of “Art”?

Truth x Beauty. But beauty can sometimes be horrific.

Have you had any commissions?

I have had a number of commissions in my career, but not lately. I don’t think I would accept them now unless they were very broad and open and along the lines of what I am already doing. Commissions can be like breaking a stream of thought and can sometimes seam forced or uninspired. Though I do believe that the right commission can push you into an exciting direction and give you permission to do something outside of your usual habits and allow you to find something new.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?

For me it is very important. If you want to express yourself in words, you need to know a language. If you want to express yourself visually, you need a language to express yourself in. That doesn’t mean that everyone needs to paint like an old master, but you need to develop a language that is authentic and is yours.

Does the sale of your work support you? If no what else do you do to support your art (job)?

It has, at the moment it is not, but I have hopes it will again.

Creative streaks do they come in waves for you?

Not so much. The waves are more about time available to devote to work.

Do you get to other artists exhibitions, openings etc?

I try to, but not as much as I would like. One of the greatest things about living in New York city is the ability to go to the galleries knowing I will see something inspiring.

Do you have much contact with other artists?

In my life in Chicago I was around artists more, going to shows, socializing, going to studios. Now I see the artists who work in my studio building, but most of my friends are in the theatre world. I hope that my circle of visual artist friends will grow the longer I stay here.

Any upcoming or completely new projects you want to talk about?

I am going to be the subject of a documentary that will be finished this spring.

Working towards an exhibition, is it a daunting task?

It is a daunting task I would very much like to take on. I am currently looking for representation.

Some say the lifespan of an “artist” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that?

If that, most people aren’t able to continue making art without the support and structure of school. Also if you start working full time right away, it’s very hard to find the time and energy to paint. I think it is a major challenge to most people, but very important to keep some of the art making momentum that one builds up in school after you graduate.

Tell us about your connection to your subject matter, way of working, concepts etc?

Lately I tend to work in series. I get an idea for a painting or drawing, usually based on some sort of source that excites me or inspires me or cracks me up, then as I am doing that I get an idea for a variation and then want to do a bigger variation and so on until I’ve used up that strain of thought.

If you could have any piece of artwork in your personal collection, what would it be and why?

I guess my first thought is a portrait by Ingres. I saw a show of his portraits at the National Gallery in London years ago that knocked my socks off. His portraits are penetrating psychological studies painted by an astounding technician and beautiful colourist. His portraits have everything I could ask for in a work of art, they are emotionally sensitive, technically brilliant, deeply humane and personal.

Can you name a favourite artist or three… and why?

Balthus, Ingres, Cezanne. These are just the first that come to mind, there are many more. And when I look at work by these artists, as well as any of my very favorite artists , something deep within me is touched. When I look at great works of art, I feel still, at peace and glad to be alive. I feel like my favorite artists are my friends, seeing great art makes me feel less alone in the world and it is therefore a great comfort.

Have you had any “big breaks” in your career?

I think I’m about to have one.

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.

I find it very easy to get to the studio and work. I don’t have trouble with inspiration. I struggle mostly with self-promotion, sharing my work and making money from it. It’s a matter of discovering my own self worth and it is something that I am working on.

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind?

I consider every thing I make to be part of an ongoing visual diary.

What happens to works that “don’t work out”?

I always force things through to some resolution, even if they turn out totally different from their original conception.

What sort of research and or reference material do you do for current works and has that changed over time?

Lately I have been working from my own photographic sources. I used to work mostly from life, whether that be a still life or a figure. I would also steal things from books, a detail from a painting, old postcard and old photos.

Musical influences?

I love music. When I am working I am always listening to music. I like new music and enjoy staying current with what is happening now. My nephew Alex is great for feeding me new music and turning me onto new bands.

What sort of depth or meaning is there behind the work you do?

I think every image has multiple layers of meaning. My paintings are not, however, puzzles where, once you find the key, can be “solved”. They are rather like visual poems and the symbols are really like notes of feeling. The meaning of any particular work of art is totally subjective.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?

I think what the viewer “gets” is completely subjective. At the same time, though, I do feel that what goes into the work comes out whether or not we are able to agree about which words to use.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?

It’s very important to me that my work communicates something, but what that is, is different for every person and out of my control.

What can you say about your work which might not be evident to the viewer?

I think sometimes people don’t see the humour in my work. Much of my work ends up with a sort of dark, brooding quality which belies the humour that was it’s inspiration. For instance, I might see a jellyfish that looks like a nightcap and find that funny, but in the picture of the woman with the jellyfish on her head isn’t necessarily funny.

Has being involved in the arts proven to be a millstone or a point of elation?

I cannot say that it has ever felt like a millstone, though it is frequently challenging and sometimes frustrating in the way that anything that you feel passionately about is. And because I feel passionately about my work, it can at times be a point of elation.

Respond to the notion “Art is a device for exploring the human condition”…

I feel like making art for me is creating a mirror for my unconscious self. I make art not only to express myself, but to get to know who I am.

Significant moments in your life, the sort of things that changed things for you forever… Who how why what and where…?

When I was a sophomore in college, I was sitting in my bedroom looking out my window when I suddenly realized I was going to be a painter. It really felt like an epiphany, like my life changed from one moment to the next.

What discourages you from doing art?

Sometimes the necessities of life keep me from producing, but I don’t think that is the same as being discouraged.

Is motivation to work an issue for you and how do you overcome it?

I’m pretty motivated, but there are only so many hours in a day, and one needs to shop for groceries, and do the laundry.

Do you have a challenge knowing when a work is finished?

Not any more. It used to be harder when I felt that my technical abilities were dragging behind my vision.

What about the role of titles with your work, some hate them others revel in them, what about you?

I enjoy making titles and think they can play a significant role in leading the viewer into some sort of poetic interpretation of the work.

You know you have “made it as an artist” when…

I don’t know. “Making it as an artist” seems to refer to some kind of commercial success. Commercial success does not always come to great artists and often does come to people who are more interested in self-promotion and business than art. I would very much like to succeed financially with my work, but whether or not I do, I will feel like I have “made it” because I have produced the best work that I can as much as has been possible.

The value of Visual Arts to you is…

The value to me is based on how much joy it gives me or the extent that it allows me to see something new or something from a new perspective.

Your first “decent” gallery representation, how did it come about?

The Sonia Zaks Gallery in Chicago. I was with her for about ten years and had three one person shows with her. I got connected to her through Dennis Adrian who was a teacher, collector and friend of mine.

Your first show at a “gallery” you thought was of value, how was the whole thing for you?

It was very exciting. When I look back I can’t believe I was able to paint all of those large paintings in one year. I painted much faster then. I’m still proud of the work from that show.

The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts?

I find it very challenging. It is challenging to make something for personal and spiritual reasons and then turn it into a commercial “product”. I am trying very hard to face those challenges, though, it is absolutely necessary to do if I want to share my work, and to continue to do what I love most to do.

Have you had much connection post sale with purchasers of your works?

Sometimes, not always. Many of my collectors are also my friends. I do sometimes wonder about works of mine that are living with strangers and are part of their lives in the way that works of art are. I wonder what my works have meant to them, what living with them has been like.

Is your art, “art for art sake…” or a matter of “art for commercial viability?”

I think one has to make art for art’s sake because the best art you can make is the work you feel most passionately about. When you start to make work based on what you guess might be commercially viable, you make work, which is flat or derivative.

If you have been working as an artist for a while, how do you feel about earlier works that are in people’s collections / ownership?

There was a time when I would look at early work and feel uncomfortable about the lower level of technical skill. But now I feel excited to see work again that I haven’t seen for years and to see the seeds of ideas that are still present in my work.

Name a book or books, which may have inspired your work as an artist?

I think that the children’s book “The Lonely Doll” has been an influence on my present group of work.

What can you tell u s about your studio environment?

I feel very grateful for the studio I have at the moment, but my ideal studio would be larger, with more storage and natural light.

Is your work process fast or slow?

My process is very slow. The more I paint, the more I know and the more I have to bring to the next painting, so my process seems to become slower and slower. This is why I have come to enjoy drawing more, because I am able to bring images to life more rapidly.

Otto Dix the German artist said (in part)… “All art is exorcism…” Is that the case for you? If so how…I agree with that statement.

When I have an idea for a work, it feels like something that needs to come out of me, and it feels urgent. When it is finished I don’t feel like I ever have to express that particular thing again because it has been said.

Art as a therapeutic device; do you think it is useful for this purpose and is your work in this category somehow?

Yes, certainly. When I am working I am alert and relaxed, in a meditative state. A very therapeutic state to be in.

Do the seasons affect your work or work habits?

They affect the clothes I choose to wear to the studio.

Some say a measure of an artwork is the ability for it to hold a persons attention or cause the viewer to come back after an initial glance and become captivated by the work, is that so for your works or an intention of yours?

One of my teachers in college was Ed Paschke. He is a very interesting artist. He once talked about the stopwatch test. He said that when you look at an image, start the stop watch. How long does that image hold your attention? I often think of that. I think that it is one way to judge the success of a picture. I do want people to come back and become captivated. There is nothing like living with works of art, though. When you live with a work of art you form a relationship with it, and look at it when you are not consciously looking at it and it seeps into your unconscious and sort of becomes part of you.

Do you have a connectedness to other art forms?

I love reading novels and listening to music and looking at photography, going to the theatre, and watching movies and music videos.

Some artists are more “at home” isolated in their creative process, while others revel in being part of a group to bounce “ideas off” how about you?

I suppose I am isolated in my creative process. I do gain inspiration from other people places and things, but I don’t really “bounce ideas” off of people. I might say what I am planning to do or thinking of doing, but that is more of an announcement than looking for feedback.

Which is more important to you, the subject of your painting, or the way it is executed?

I think they are equally important. I think the way the subject is executed has everything to do with the meaning of the picture.

Do you prefer a perfect smooth technique or a more energetic expressive technique and why?

I use a perfect, smooth technique, not because that is what I prefer, but because it’s what naturally comes out of me. I love to look at a deKooning “woman” painting and appreciate it as a great work of art and also know that that kind of delicious, drippy paint handling is just not what comes out of me.

What is more important to you in your work, content or technique, concept or product?

I want a work of art to be shocking in some way, shockingly beautiful in some way hopefully. And I loved to be astounded by an artist’s technique. I find it boring when the success of a work is too dependent upon understanding the concept or intention. I feel like a work of art should be able to stand on its own, without explanation.

From your early beginnings at art school to now, how have things altered for you?

I like to think I know myself better now, and have more self-acceptance. I also have more technical skill. But whatever it is that makes me want to make a painting is the same.

Is the making of art all it was “cracked up to be”?

Yes and more, but it has taken persistence and dedication and tenacity to discover that.

How do you think art can change people or their perceptions?

We are all always changing. We change every time we see something new.

Are you the sort of artist who seeks out promotional opportunities or one that shuns the limelight?

I guess I have shunned the limelight in the past out of a lack of confidence, but I would like to walk into it now.

Technology (websites and social networking sites to name a few) has become an important marketing tool for many industries and individuals, what are your thoughts from a “You Inc” perspective and your art sensibility.

I think the web is a great way to share work. I love having a website and I am also on an artist’s website called culture hall which I also think is great. I want to have a blog as well. I celebrate the new technology and the increased ability to share work and make connections. If there is a danger, it is that people will stop feeling the need to see work in person, there is no substitute for seeing the actual work if you are able.

Do you work from life, or from photographs or from imagination or some other method?

For the last couple of years, I have been working from my own photographs. Before that, I worked from a combination of things. I would often set up a still life, or have a model and then use other photo-based source material as well. For instance, I might make a painting of a still life in front of a wall with pictures hanging on it and a window revealing landscape, and everything except the still life would come from photos and books.

When you create your work is it somehow an emotional relief as you do it or at the end?

It is emotionally gratifying to me to be making work, the end is usually a little sad.

Do you aim to make “masterpieces” with the aim of being seen in the future as an artist that really made their mark in art history?

It is my aim to make whatever I am making as best as I possibly can, the rest is out of my control.

What is your working routine? Do you listen to music while you work, or stay up late for instance?

I tend to approach my work like a regular job, I tend to keep pretty regular hours. I start in the late morning and work in to the late afternoon. I work without many breaks, except for lunch and I almost always listen to music.

What do you love/hate about being an artist?

I love living a life which is about doing what I most love to do, what I feel most passionate about and about expressing and discovering who I am. As I said, I find the marketing of myself and my work a challenge, but I can’t say that I hate it, I just find it hard. I think there is a lot to discover about ourselves in the places where we find resistance.

Have you ever made an artistic pilgrimage? If so, where did you go and why?

I have travelled a fair amount. I travelled a lot in my late 20’s and early 30’s. I always want to see the great museums in any city and have been fortunate to have seen many. I love the National Gallery in London and the Prado. I now live in New York, which is one of the greatest museum cities in the world.

Sue Ninham

Sue Ninham Is from Adelaide South Australia, you can find her website at www.sueninham.com

Sue says she has always been making art,”I was an illustrator for about 18 years and then started to paint in 2002, my work is mainly watercolours and oils, my style is basically abstract”.

Interests you have other than art you feel are important to mention?
I am a mother and a teacher of Graphic design at Uni SA….I am also a Surf Life Saver ( Not that we have any surf! )

Does your work have social, political, cultural and or personal messages?
I find this one hard! It is personal in that it is intuitive. I am not trying to SAY anything. My work expresses how I am feeling and it is for anyone who is interested in Knowing.

What are you currently working on?
I am working purely in watercolour at the moment, exploring the life of a character that has started to emerge from the abstraction…Surplus Man. I am working very freely and cutting up the works that ‘ don’t work ‘ , shuffling them and sticking them together again. They are studies for future large works, ( maybe in oil ). I love the fact that I don’t really know!

What fascinates you?
Not knowing where I am going…the anxiety of being creative. 1950’s design and art….pure abstraction…human beings…and watercolour ( you never know what it is going to do )

One word or statement to describe your current works?
They are positive.

Now give us a more descriptive outline on your current works…
This character, Surplus Man, keeps cropping up. Mostly he is an observer of humanity. Sometimes he is escaping, sometimes he is the rescuer, sometimes he is angry. Surplus is too much of something, but the flip-side of that is that it also can mean there are leftovers. Mostly Surplus Man is separate from the rest. He is wise because of his alienation.

Why are you an artist?
I have an urge to do it and it brings me joy.

How did you get into art?
I have always drawn. I chose to be an illustrator, and enjoyed it immensely, but the restriction of deadlines and briefs frustrated me and I always wished I was painting what I wanted to paint. It didn’t satisfy the urge.

How important is art for you?
Incredibly! I have a family, which tempers what could be an addiction and keeps me on planet earth! If I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t know when to stop. When I am making art I lose myself a bit and I love the moments when it all comes together, mostly when there is no thought in it. Sometimes it can make my heart race.

What is it about Visual Art you find compelling?
The fact that it is never repeated (perhaps I should qualify that…GOOD visual art).  It doesn’t matter how many people are doing it and for how long we can never repeat anything we have done. The results are dependant on so many variables!!

Your art education was…?
I have a Bachelor of Design… no formal visual arts education.

The craziest thing you did at art school was…
Crack a huge litho stone as I rolled it through the press. It wasn’t deliberate but in the history of the printmaking department, no-one had ever managed to do it. I wasn’t a rabble rouser, we left that up to the visual arts students. It was the height of punk and they were so good at it!!

Was your education helpful, or a hindrance?
My education was fantastic. I was at the Underdale campus of what is now the Uni of SA. I was there between 79 and 83 and it was free ( as in gratis )!! We were still the beneficiaries of Gough Whitlam and Don Dustan’s enthusiasm for the Arts. We had 24 hour access to the best equipment and facillities imaginable. We had a whole day of life drawing each week for god’s sake!! The teachers were on the whole inspiring, but it was the freedom that was the real educator.

Have you always been interested in art?
Yes apparently from the word go.

Is there any one thing that has given you a big buzz in your art career so far?
Every time the work is hung in an exhibition, I have the same buzz. It is always an amazing experience, terrifying  but amazing. Sometimes you sell well, sometimes it is slow, but always it is satisfying to see the culmination of months of work, on show for people to experience. Usually I have already moved on creatively, but I am still attached emotionally and the context of a shiny gallery, lifts the work somehow.

What is your earliest memory of art?
I was brought up a catholic and I guess my first memory is of the paintings in our church of the stations of the cross and the bleeding statues. I know it isn’t high art, but in the mind of a child it is art of some kind. I spent a lot of hours scrutinising them. They were quite gruesome and fascinating. I was brought up in Sydney and also remember playing on the Henry Moore sculpture outside the Gallery of NSW!!!! Maybe that was the beginning of my love for Modernism.

Do you remember your first painting or artwork?
Yes. I entered a painting into a local art competition in Eastwood, Sydney when I was probably 8 or 9. I won a prize and the work was hung… That was it for me!

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?
Absolutely! There are no artists in the family, but my mother especially always made sure there was plenty of paper and pencils around. Apparently I was pretty persistent about it. Whenever there was doubt on my part as I got older, (usually triggered by the pressures of the school system…art was always treated as a playtime subject! ) my parents encouraged me.

Did the place where you grew up have an influence?
Yes. Sydney was my hometown. My father is an adventurous, curious man and we were always exploring the place we lived in. Not in an obvious way though. He would take us to places that were off the beaten track. It was the sixties and early seventies and Sydney was probably fairly conservative. He would take us on excursions to eat crumbed prawns in Chinatown, walks through Waverley cemetery, family Italian restaurants in Leichardt, The Domain to hear people rant from their soapboxes. I think his curiosity in humanity rubbed of in me in a creative way.

What or who inspires your art?
Miro, Motherwell, Rothko, Picasso, O’Keefe, Hockney, Crowley, Basquiat.  Architects also, Neutra, Eames. There are others, but they are the main ones.

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?
I have always loved to paint in watercolour, a much maligned medium. I love the riskiness of it. Once it is on the paper, that’s it! It generally has a habit of behaving the way IT wants to. I also love its clarity. Oils are a totally different medium. I find them more challenging. I use them because of the intensity of colour. I am still learning!

Has your work changed much since your early efforts?
Yes. My work gets looser and braver as the years go by.

You know you are successful in Visual Arts when…
I think it is when you stop worrying about sales and the approval of EVERYONE on the planet and you paint entirely to please yourself!

What can you tell us about your planning and making process for making art, and has that altered over the years?
The big change for me came when I stopped planning the works as thumbnail drawings, transferred to the canvas and began about a year ago to paint straight onto them with absolutely no image in my mind. This has meant that the process has become more intuitive.

Does the “creative process” happen easily for you?
Mostly I don’t have a problem. Sometimes I find I can’t “see”  the paintings anymore and I can  become fixated with the detail. When this happens I get stuck and can become frustrated. I usually move onto a new work or leave the studio until the next day. I never lack inspiration.

Creative streaks do they come in waves for you?
The intensity of them does.

Do you get creative glimpses of urges happening ad how do you work with these?
I might jot them down in a sketch book, take a photo with my phone, print something off the net or spend time in the Uni SA library which has a treasure trove of Arts related books. I record them some how.

How important is the clarity of concept to you, prior to starting an artwork?
Less than it used to be.

Do you have a personal description of “Art”?
It’s so difficult…I think it is the act and then result of physically recording very personal feelings.

Have you had any commissions?
A couple. I don’t tend to do it because I feel like I did when I was illustrating…the same restraints exist.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?
Hugely important. Generally it is lacking in painting at the moment.

Do you have much contact with other artists?
Yes. I share a studio with 11 others and I have many friends who are artists. We support one another.

Any upcoming or completely new projects you want to talk about?
I am taking time off from exhibiting in 2009 to push my oil painting technique in a new direction.

Working towards an exhibition, is it a daunting task?
No, not really. Working as a freelance designer for so long, I am used to deadlines and am therefore pretty disciplined. I plan my time very carefully.

Tell us about your connection to your subject matter, way of working, concepts etc?
I find it very difficult to put concepts into words. The way I work it changing all the time. The hours I keep are dictated by my children’s routine and when the uni year is in full swing, by my teaching schedule. Generally I am in the studio at 9am and on a a good day will be able to leave at 5. I usually have a number of works on the go. I find that I just get straight into it. Sometimes I will spend time drawing if I am stuck on a painting or if it really isn’t happening, I will go to see an exhibition for inspiration. I also love to spend time in a good newsagent pouring through art, design and fashion mags, to see what is happening NOW. Subject matter is constantly changing also. Because I paint form , shape and colour, it is very intuitive and I might begin to make work that has sprung from a sub-conscious reaction to something I have seen that morning, or the colour of the clothes someone in the studio is wearing. I don’t know where it has come from until some time later when I retrace the day.

What has been a turning point in your career thus far and why?
In 1998 I went to Sumatra, Indonesia for six weeks, as part of an Artists working retreat. A group of us lived and worked in a hut on the edge of Lake Maninjau. I had never spent such a concentrated time making art. I came home absolutely convinced that I wanted to paint full-time.

If you could have any piece of artwork in your personal collection, what would it be and why?
Phew!  That is so tough. I think it would have to be a painting by David Hockney. Any of his Californian pool series would do. Ever since Art school, I have loved his work. The pool series has always fascinated me. I love water with a passion, being in it, the ways it bends light, the rhythms of it. It is incredibly difficult to paint and draw, but Hockney did it . I love the way he didn’t copy it, he captured it. I also love how he managed to do it through the eyes of a Northern Englishman who had fallen in love with LA.These works are optimistic.

Can you name a favourite artist or three… and why?
Hockney, for the reasons discussed. Robert Motherwell, because of his work’s masculine freedom and power. Georgia O’keefe, because her work is secretive.

Have you had any “big breaks” in your career?
I am not sure what a “Big Break” is. Surely it is shifting all the time. The bar is always being raised.  I guess it would be the first time a gallery was prepared to give me a show.

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.
I find the gallery system a struggle. It is a whole hurdle on its own. It is one thing to make the art that being the easy, enjoyable part!), finding the right gallery or galleries for my work is the thing I struggle with most. A needle in a haystack!

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind?
On and off.

What happens to works that “don’t work out”?
Sometimes I paint over them. A couple, haven’t benefited from that and sit in my studio, face against the wall.

One thing you wish you had listened to from an art teacher or lecturer?
I listened to everything they said. I had wonderful Teachers I respected them enormously, and still draw on their advice.

Do you have a personal philosophy, which underpins your work?
Exploration.

Do you aim to break the rules of basic composition, layout etc or do you ignore the “rules” and just create?
Neither. I follow “rules” that I know work. They are almost applied at a subconscious level, so often I am not aware that I am following them… within that I “just create”.

What sort of research and or reference material do you do for current works and has that changed over time?
I admit I don’t do a lot of research. I have my antennae up all the time as I find observation works best. Sometimes research is required, when I want to delve deeper. I go to the library, comb magazines, visit exhibitions.

Musical influences?
I love to work with music playing. I have an i Pod which I hook up to speakers or I used ear phones if I think I am going to drive the artists around me crazy! I have very eclectic taste and my mood dictates my choices on the day. The stuff that gets a hammering….Be Bop jazz, Radiohead, Reggae, Salmonella Dub, Talking Heads, Velvet Underground, Bjork, Doors, White Stripes, Bowie.

What sort of depth or meaning is there behind the work you do?
I really find it very difficult to articulate because I don’t see it that way. Because I was not taught to paint in an Art school, I also haven’t been taught to explain my work. I know people want this from artists, but I only seem to find it achievable when I am standing in front of a particular work of mine. I can then use it as a reference point. I usually remember the journey I went on with it. It’s a bit like looking at a family snap, and remembering where you were, who was there, whether you had a good time or not!

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
I hope they will get it. Because the work is abstract, people sometimes” get it” and then some. They bring their meaning to it also. This always amazes me, especially if they are able to tell me about it.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?
HUGELY

What can you say about your work that might not be evident to the viewer?
The emotional struggles I may have experienced whilst making it.

What can you tell us about your creative development process?
If I am working towards an exhibition I usually have an idea or theme that I explore in all the works. This unites them visually, which can be important for a show. If, as is the case at the moment, I am painting with no deadline, I make as much work as I can. I am painting in watercolour at the moment, which is quick. I am finding that I am painting whatever comes into my head and the individual works converse visually with one another as I have them laid out around me. These conversations sometimes trigger new works as a reaction.

Has being involved in the arts proven to be a millstone or a point of elation?
Definitely elation.

Art is about entertainment, experiment, inventiveness or shock for you?
None of those words really fit but if I HAD to use one of them… experiment.

Respond to the notion “Art is a device for exploring the human condition”…
It is. When I am making it I am exploring MY human condition.

About significant moments in your life, the sort of things that changed things for you forever… perhaps altered your Art… Who how why what and where…?
I think having children did for me. They have made me realize how life moves very quickly. I had always wanted to paint but was too afraid. After kids I decided to face the fear head on. I didn’t want to be left wondering.

If you stopped doing art right now would you miss it?
Yes. It defines me.

What discourages you from doing art?
Nothing any more. I have had a lot of disappointment with it in the last couple of years, usually at the hands of some galleries, but it has made me even more resilient. I care less about being accepted, less “grateful” for the work being liked. I don’t mean that I am not happy when it is, just that I don’t need it as much as I used to.

Do you have a challenge knowing when a work is finished?
Oh Yeah!!! I struggle with this a lot. I am getting better, but I am one of those who tend to over work paintings. I worry them to death sometimes!!

What about the role of titles with your work, some hate them others revel in them, what about you?
Sometimes I love them. I have fun with it. Sometimes I have reservations. They can tend to dictate to the viewer what the work is all about, when you really would rather they made up their own mind. This is a particular problem with abstract work I feel.

Are their special aspects to the making of your work you want to share?
With my watercolours I would like people to know that the much-maligned medium is sublime! It is affected by so many external variables. The weather, the paper you use, how wet it is. You never really know how it is going to behave… It’s dangerous!

You know you have “made it as an artist” when…
I don’t really know what that means. Some measure it by how much money they are making. Others by who agrees to open their show. I guess my criteria would be that I love every moment I spend doing it, and that it brings pleasure to some.

The value of Visual Arts to you is…
I can’t measure it. It is invaluable.

Your first “decent” gallery representation, how did it come about?
I sought the gallery out, showed them images of my work and they decided to take me on.

Your first show at a “gallery” you thought was of value, how was the whole thing for you?
It was a very good experience (apart from them nerves).  The work was hung well, I had a crowd at the opening and I made sales.

The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts?
It is challenging for me, I have my website and I try to get press when I can. I tend to let the work do the work. This means that I do not have a very obvious profile, but I really think that you have to do it in a way you are comfortable with. If success and recognition take longer to achieve, I can accept that. I have thought about employing a PR company, which a lot of artists I know do, but maybe after I have worked through this phase that I am in with my work.

What is the most unexpected response you’ve received from a viewer of your work?
Opening night of a solo show in Sydney, before the guests and I had arrived, someone who was driving past the gallery, stopped and dashed in to buy one hanging in the window! Such a spontaneous reaction, was a thrill for me.

Have you had much connection post sale with purchasers of your works?
A bit. Mostly when people I know have bought them. When I set up my website “stranger” were able to contact me. Most galleries I have worked with will not let you know who has bought your work, so it ends there!

Tell us about getting caught in a creative “slump” and how you got out of it?
I haven’t had one.

Metaphors, analogies, symbols, stories, how important are they to your work?
Symbols are. As a trained designer, I use them a lot.

Is your art, “art for art sake…” or a matter of “art for commercial viability?”
A bit of both.

If you have been working as an artist for a while, how do you feel about earlier works that are in people’s collections / ownership?
I still like them. I can see how far I have come, but I am still pleased to see them. I don’t cringe like some artists do. They represent who I was at the time, I don’t regret them.

Name a book or books, which may have inspired your work as an artist?
A number of them. I have some amazing books that I refer to in my studio. The one that is most worn is one about 1950’s design and architecture. I don’t know the title.

If someone says to you “Oh your work is decorative and lacks any meaning…” your response would be…?
I get this from time to time from visual Arts trained people, usually of a certain age. I think my design background is not seen as weighty enough. Who knows, It used to upset me, but it really comes back to the whole “get it” question. They probably don’t get it.

Tell us about your studio environment (too big, too small, enough storage or not, the light, the position, how you found it etc)?
Great space. It is probably too small, but the light is fantastic and the ceilings are very high It’s in a grand old building in the centre of Adelaide. There are about 12 people sharing the top floor, we each have a partitioned or walled space to work in.

What would you say are the top three things that make you successful as an artist?
Being able to exhibit in galleries in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Making work, which people other than myself want to have and the desire to do it till I drop! .

Otto Dix the German artist said (in part)… “All art is exorcism…” Is that the case for you? If so how…
I have looked up the word to be really sure of it’s meaning. It is too negative a word to describe how I feel about my art. It is not an expulsion for me, it is an outpouring.

Art as a therapeutic device; do you think it is useful for this purpose and is your work in this category somehow?
Sometimes it is. Sometimes I can be in a dark place within and making art can pull me out of it.

Do the seasons affect your work or work habits?
In my present studio they do. Summer is particularly difficult. For example, I won’t be able to work this week as we have three days of 41 C and then four of 35 C forecast. There is no insulation and now cooling in our building. Apart from the physical discomfort, the watercolour will dry faster than I can paint it.

Some say a measure of an artwork is the ability for it to hold a persons attention or cause the viewer to come back after an initial glance and become captivated by the work, is that so for your works or an intention of yours?
Always one of my intensions. The people who have my works and speak to me about it retrospectively say that they are always finding new  reactions to  the work.

People around you (family friends etc.) what would they say about the way you work, the moods you have, your life as an artist etc?
My husband would say I am neurotic!!!! My kids say that talk about it too much. Some friends say I am disciplined. Almost everyone says I shouldn’t be so hard on myself!!!

Do you have a connectedness to other art forms?
I love sculpture, music and film.

When you get the urge to create art because something has “pushed your button/s” how compelling is it for you?
Very, but I can’t drop everything and dash in to the studio if it happens when I am out and about or at home. I might have to record the idea somehow.

What is one thing you need to have in your studio before you work?
Music usually and fresh air.

Are you a purist with your art materials or willing to mix things about?
I am a purist.

What or how do you respond to the term “starving Artist”?
I haven’t starved yet. I think that most artists know  that you need to have a job outside your art to cover costs and get through the day to day stuff, until you are making enough money to support yourself. I think the starving artist thing doesn’t happen any more. Most artists these days see making art as a career and work very hard marketing themselves.

What moves you most in life, either to inspire or upset you that might be connect to your art?
The things I see on the news. There is plenty there and it keeps on happening. Unfortunately a lot of it angers me, but sometimes there is news that inspires optimism in my work.

Do you prefer a perfect smooth technique or a more energetic expressive technique and why?
I want to get to the point in my practise where I am confident with both.

Are there times of the day when you prefer to do your work?
I have to work during school, working hours. Occasionally I will work on a weekend. Never at night.

From your early beginnings at art school to now, how have things altered for you?
I have grown wiser and more confident…slowly.

How do you think art can change people or their perceptions?
Not all art can. At with a political message can. Art that pulls ideas and images together in a way that people are not used to seeing can. Art that uses shock can sometimes do it. Some people are very open-minded when viewing art, some will not allow anything to change their minds…especially art.

Have you won any awards?
Yes. I recently won a national watercolour prize.

Are you the sort of artist that seeks out promotional opportunities or one that shuns the limelight?
I tend to shun the limelight.

Technology (websites and social networking sites to name a few) has become an important marketing tool for many industries and individuals, what are your thoughts from a “You Inc” perspective and your art sensibility.
I think that websites are great because I can cast the net wide. I haven’t been very active with this yet but plan to next year, with a new body of work behind me.

When you create your work is it somehow an emotional relief as you do it or at the end?
As I do it. It is not always a relief, but an outpouring.

Do you aim to make “masterpieces” with the aim of being seen in the future as an artist that really made their mark in art history?
That is never an intention. If it happened that way I wouldn’t mind!!!!

What is your working routine?
I listen to music often, not always. Sometimes I crave silence. I start at 9 and work til lunchtime. I usually sit with some of the other artists I share with and we chat about how our work is going that day or just life in general. I then work in the afternoon.

What do you love/hate about being an artist?
I love everything and hate nothing.

The problem with the art scene today is…
The new pressure to be successful. I think a lot of the galleries drive this, dropping artists as quickly as they have snapped them up if they are not selling. Also the reliance of some artists who are coming out of certain Art schools on “Art Speak” to support what they have made. Long dissertations on its meaning, which can only be understood by those who are “in the know” PHEW Am I going to cop it or what?

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
I know it is a cliché…be true to yourself, be tenacious, and have fun!!!

Have you ever made an artistic pilgrimage? If so, where did you go and why?
Not yet. If I do, the first place I drop in would be Frank Gearry’s  (sp? ) Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain…for the art of course, but mostly for the building. Then it would be to Palm Springs  and then LA to drive the neighbourhoods  looking at palm trees, signage, buildings diners…all designed in the 50’s!!!!

Edited and compiled by Steve Gray Contemporary Australian Artist © 2009+

Bruno Quinquet

Bruno Quinquet has been living in Tokyo since 2006, before this, he was in France where he was born… You can find more at his website www.brunoquinquet.com

Are you currently represented by a gallery?
No. I’m starting to work on this in Paris and Tokyo.

What are the main medium/s you work in…
Photography. In the future, I will probably try to include sound in some of my work.

How do you describe your work, realistic, stylised, abstract, narrative, symbolic, other?
I see my work as contemplative documentary with a conceptual and surrealistic touch.

Does your work have social, political, cultural and or personal messages?
Messages, no. Connections with all that, definitely.

A statement to describe your current works?
The Salaryman Project is a street photography series. It consists of diptychs of Japanese office workers. The core of the series relies on a reflection about the problems between candid street photography and portraits rights.
Herbarium Japonicum is a study of plants in Tokyo’s urban context. It is a more relaxed approach, using analog photography and kind of outdated darkroom techniques.
Window Shopping is a photo collage of Japanese private spaces.

How did you get into art?

As a child, I have been encouraged towards creativity, especially drawing. At home, I was exposed to art books, XXth century design and architecture. Between 20~40 years old, I’ve been working as a recording engineer and kept some time for personal projects. Turning 42, I started photography and that feels like a creative rebirth.

What or who inspires your art?
At the moment, I am inspired by Tokyo, the city where I live.

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?
The new possibilities of digital photography.

How important is the clarity of concept to you, prior to starting an artwork?
The clarity of concept is very important to me, but it never comes from the start. It comes in the making, as a confirmation that my photo series works.

Tell us about your connection to your subject matter, way of working, concepts etc?
I am more interested in the approach than the subject, be it plant, office worker, window or mailbox…For me, form defines the content. For each new series, I try to define a specific visual identity.

Can you name a favourite artist or three… and why?
Bacon, Rodchenko, Kraftwerk. Why? Why not?

What happens to works that “don’t work out”?
I forget them for a while.

Do you have a personal philosophy which underpins your work?
A contemplative approach to life.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
I hope the viewer will feel something. I aim for a graphically simple design that leaves interpretations open. But actually, it’s not about communication, it’s about seduction.

Metaphors, analogies, symbols, stories, how important are they to your work?
They can feed my research work and give birth to new ideas.

If someone says to you “Oh your work is decorative and lacks any meaning…” your response would be…?
“Thank you”

Is your work process fast or slow?
On the slow side.

Do the seasons affect your work or work habits?
They affect my subject matter. For the best.

Some artists are more “at home” isolated in their creative process and you?
Definitely isolated.

Have you won any awards?
The salaryman project was nominated in 2008 at the New York Photo Awards and Voies Off photo festival in Arles, France.

Compiled and Edited by Steve Gray Contemporary Artist © 2009+

Tom Jarvis

Tom Jarvis Lives and works in London where he currently works with a group of artists called the DA! collective. You can see his website at www.tomjarvis.co.uk here is his interview…

We reside and exhibit in disused buildings around the slightly ostentatious part of town, Mayfair. My parents live in the South of France. I was brought up there until I was 13 years old, I return 2 or three times a year to get way. The pace of life there is pretty much at a stand still so it’s a nice contrast with busy London.

How long have you been making art?
Since I can remember really. I come from a family that has always had the arts around it. My grandfather was an artist the other had number of inventions to his name, my father a musician and my mother a dancer. My best work was created between the age of one and two using yogurt on a highchair!

Interests you have other than art you feel are important to mention?
From a young age I was given the opportunity to learn music due to my father’s musical background. Music was what enabled me to return to England on a combined music/art scholarship in 2002 and start a more creative education. I play the trombone and double bass and found myself having to decide whether it was something I wished to pursue professionally. Art College seemed much more appealing to me but I think it is important as an artist to have some way of stepping aside from one ones practice, a hobby. That’s where playing music comes in.

What are the main medium/s you work in…
Kinetic installation is my primary area of interest but it very much depends on what I wish to achieve. Plywood is a base for most pieces.

Does your work have social, political, cultural and or personal messages?
One gains from the experience what one wishes. I’m sure it does have “messages” buried somewhere, everything does. It is not my objective and I am certainly not intent on spelling them out.

What are you currently working on?
For the last couple of years I worked combining design and science during my investigation towards element powered kinetic installation. Paying homage to the way nature’s elements play puppeteer to organisms on our planet, I am currently working on tree motion replicating devices that attempt to recreate the movement of trees blowing in the wind outside and, using various interfaces, communicated this motion inside onto a tree in a sheltered space, for example a gallery. I like the marriage of artistic uncertainty with scientific fact. I find they compliment each other in a way that can be very interesting.

What fascinates you?
At the moment I’m interested in how incapable I am at replicating what nature does so easily.

Now give us a more descriptive outline on your current works.
Using movement as a painter would use colour, I have found the 4th dimension to be a very expressive and fertile ground for exploration. My often simple devices can be seen as exploring the relationship between beings, natural matter and the impossibility of two unrelated living organisms moving in complete scientific harmony. Man and machine force this unfeasible task and inevitably fail.
These studies set out to obtain two living organisms moving in parallel, matching each other’s movements, the way a child clumsily imitates their elders as they learn; the way flocks of birds swoop and glide in harmony; or groups of fish darting when frightened. The core of my motion studies have been trees. My aim is to allow the environment to create its motion within a gallery space even tho these organisms are sheltered. In the past I have attempted this by giving trees outside and therefore affected by the elements the chance to puppeteer smaller gallery bound trees. The mechanisms that act as an interface for this interaction play an important part in the significance of the pieces. The machines are what make the two beings dissimilar. They force motion rather than invite it, causing the gesture to be distinguishably mechanical.

Why are you an artist?
I’m not. Most of the time I play the role of a scientist/designer who doesn’t intend on discovering anything groundbreaking. Only once my work reaches a gallery does it become “art” and I an artist.

Your art education was…?
I studied Fine art to BA level. I can see why artistic education may work for some but in my case it was more about having access to a full workshop and the environment/atmosphere that envelops art faculties.

The craziest thing you did at art school was…
…probably not appropriate to say!

Is there any one thing that has given you a big buzz in your art career so far?
When exhibiting in squats there is a “double buzz”. One spends weeks locked away setting up, crafting our space, therefore on the opening night you are not only letting the public into see your work but also your home. It is as much about how we live in these incredible spaces as the work we create there. In installation I feel that is very important. The show starts from the moment you approach the building.

Do you remember your first painting or artwork?
I use painting for something utterly different than installation work. Going back to the hobby/release thing, I find it helpful as a visual release, although I don’t normally use much paint in my paintings. Mainly chemical reactions and wax polishes! My first hung painting was when I was about 10, my father made me two 150×100cm boards to “fill” so I did, using everything I could find in his workshop. That’s how I started the reaction paintings… when I was about 15 I mixed some very reactive chemicals and the whole thing blew up! Since then I have continued creating texture using all these wonderful chemicals as a way to stop obsessing over craftsmanship and straight lines in my sculptures.

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?
Very much so, I’ve been very lucky. My parents admit not completely understanding the installation works but their house is full of my flat works, some of which continue to react to this day. It is always a shock coming back and seeing how the pieces change. They are all harmless, mainly salt formations. I do my research before hand!

Did the place where you grew up have an influence?
Of course. I think it must have for most people.

What can you tell us about your planning and making process for making art, and has that altered over the years?
It really does depend. Research takes time. Working with the elements is not easy. One constantly needs a plan B if there is no wind for example. I try to make tests in both climatic extremes so it can be very time consuming. Construction of the products themselves takes even more time. Especially when I don’t have access to a full workshop all the time.

How important is the clarity of concept to you, prior to starting an artwork?
Concept is very important but none of the works would function if I made the product I saw in my minds eye prior to research. They evolve over time in my sketchbook and minor alterations take place right to the end.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?
In my opinion a concept can only go so far. One relates to questions posed in concepts but we admire craftsmanship. A “wow factor”, although it is something I do not strive for is something often created by craftsmanship and not concept.

Do you get to other artists exhibitions, openings etc?
In London it is very easy to get to openings and exhibitions, we normally go as a group and have lengthy debates on our way back.

Do you have much contact with other artists?
I am currently living surrounded by artists, musicians, designers, writers, we even have a philosopher with us. The building we are currently in is a great place for debate although I normally keep my work to myself during these talks. We have over 30 rooms so there is space to escape and get work done and large “conference” rooms where we will talk and have debates. It is ideal really. Creativity is everywhere so it’s great if you’re a painter, musician, writer but when conducting experiments and thus taking the role of a scientist I usually escape to somewhere quiet and hog all the tools for a couple of days!

Any upcoming or completely new projects you want to talk about?
I have started throwing ideas around for my first potential collaboration. It is slightly daunting for me as I have a very particular way of working. I think it may work if we both agree on an idea and allocate ourselves specific tasks then meet back in the middle. Having two perfectionists working together is bound to end in tears.

Working towards an exhibition, is it a daunting task?
It is if you don’t have any work to show. I once spent two weeks putting the finishing touches to a show I had up called Wind Influenced Tree Projection I. It involved a Windmill that registered the speed of the wind and communicated the data to a computer linked to a projector. The result was a video of a tree blowing in the wind, projected at the same speed the tree would be blowing if it were a real tree outside at that particular time.

The night before the private view I got it finished, only to find after a night of torrential rain and gale force winds the windmill was in bits on the roof of the gallery. I had 1 hour to reassemble what had taken me weeks to make. In those circumstances all you can do is plough on and put ones perfectionism aside. I got it finished, turned round to find a group of people standing, staring up at me on the gallery roof, the doors had opened 20 minutes prior to my completion and viewers seemed to think I was part of the piece. I’d never done performance before that!

Some say the lifespan of many “artists” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that?
That statement may well be true, but where does your education end as an artist? I think when you stop educating yourself as an artist you stops producing anything that would possibly qualify you as an active “artist”, so based on that, the statement is false. It’s a lot less time than that.

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind?
A sketchbook of technical drawings and results of various tests. I also use computer aided design tools when finalising in order to facilitate the construction process.

What happens to works that “don’t work out”?
I do enough planning to make sure that when I enter the workshop I have a very clear idea of what I’m doing. If there are miss cuts it all gets reused. Ply isn’t cheap and although working with poorly cut angles takes time, it certainly saves money.

One thing you wish you had listened to from an art teacher or lecturer?
“You really should turn up for lectures”

Do you aim to break the rules of basic composition, layout etc or do you ignore the “rules” and just create?
There aren’t many rules to break.

Musical influences?
Music is an art form in itself and requires my undivided attention. I find it hard to hear what I’m thinking if music is playing.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
I would like the viewer to “get” what I’m doing if there is something to get for their own sake. I never describe the purpose of a piece because a lot of the pleasure as a viewer comes when you work it out for yourself. Beside the fact that my work has no real purpose what it does is never too complicated to work out, what it evokes is personal to the individual and therefore not “getting it” could be part of the experience for that particular person.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?
As far as the non artistically aware viewer is concerned it is hard to break free from the way we view painting and sculpture. Although installations are often about the experience, they do not necessarily need to dictate a message or convey something already lived. It is frequently the question that is important whereas one finds oneself viewing landscape paintings (for example) in order to gain an answer. If the piece does so much as make the viewer dislike it, it has succeeded in provoking a judgment on their behalf and they have therefore “experienced” and most probably prematurely answered the rhetorical question. In these installations the viewer is as much a part of the work as the machines, whether they like it or not.

What can you say about your work that might not be evident to the viewer?
Don’t take it too seriously.

Art is about entertainment, experiment, inventiveness or shock for you?
Don’t they all go hand in hand? Inventiveness, experiment, entertainment, in that order.

Is motivation to work an issue for you and how do you overcome it?
If it was you would be able to tell.

Do you have a challenge knowing when a work is finished?
This question is very relevant to painting, I find whilst making kinetic works the completion is very clear.

What about the role of titles with your work, some hate them others revel in them, what about you?
Most of my titles are very boring, “Tree Study I”, “Self Destructing Installation I”. I don’t like to give too much away as part of the experience is working it out for oneself.

The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts?
I’m very lucky to be part of a collective that gets a lot of coverage. We are a very old school bunch operating in a way you could imagine any “art squat” to be in the 60s. On top of that, the fact that we occupy multi million pound buildings in the most expensive part of town makes us a very appealing group to write about.  Our last show was covered by all the mainstream British newspapers, half a dozen art mags and even a Russian television company.

We have moved since then and a number have found us again still keen to document our lifestyle and work. Unfortunately, a lot of this attention is not always in view of pieces individually but more towards our way of life. We have now stopped dealing with mainstream media and are only inviting in specialized art mags as the novelty coverage of our daily life gives us too much of a big brother feeling, squatting is something people feel very strongly about so it is in the interest of our work to keep our lifestyle separate from our practice. We don’t want any trouble!

What is the most unexpected response you’ve received from a viewer of your work?
“I like it”

Tell us about getting caught in a creative “slump” and how you got out of it?
I watch a lot of documentaries online although one shouldn’t force creativity I find my mind much more active after having learnt something new.

Is your art, “art for art sake…” or a matter of “art for commercial viability?”
It is very hard to market installation art as there is no product to pay a sum for. It is in no way the reason I make work. I think if you wish to promote yourself as an installation artist you should approach the situation the same way a musician or actor would approach their career. Your name and repertoire is very important.

If someone says to you “Oh your work is decorative and lacks any meaning…” your response would be…?
“Thanks.”

Do the seasons affect your work or work habits?
I’m currently working with the motion created by trees. Obviously a tree with no leaves does not move as much as one with, so I work mostly with coniferous trees during the winter which makes locations hard to find.

Some say a measure of an artwork is the ability for it to hold a person’s attention or cause the viewer to come back after an initial glance and become captivated by the work, is that so for your works or an intention of yours?
In my opinion a piece of work cannot be considered a piece of kinetic art unless its motion can be achieved repeatedly. For example dropping a pen on the floor would not qualify as it is a one off motion. I find continuous motion very therapeutic and I’m sure others do to and although it is not the reason for my work many people seem to like hanging around works operating in the fourth dimension. I think it is even more the case with the pieces dictated by the elements as they are so unpredictable and it can be a couple of minutes before they actually move.

What is one thing you need to have in your studio before you work?
Cigarettes.

Are you a purist with your art materials or willing to mix things about?
What ever is best for the job. When it comes to timber I am a big plywood fan. But when materials are scarce I can’t afford to be picky.

What or how do you respond to the term “starving Artist”?
We do something called Freecycling. It basically consists of going around all supermarkets and sandwich shops in the area to collect the food that went out of date that day. It is incredible the amount of food that goes to waste in this country due to paranoid food retailers frightened of poisoning their clientele. We eat very well every lunch and evening for no money at all and sometime have so much we can’t help but waste ourselves! Thanks to health and safety, the phrase starving artist is now obsolete.

Compiled and Edited by Steve Gray Australian Contemporary Artist. ©2009+

Fiona Davies

Fiona Davies Lives in Lawson N.S.W. Australia her web site is www.fionadavies.com.au

Fiona, are you currently represented by a gallery?
No. I’ve tended not to follow this up as my work has been primarily ephemeral and site specific - however my work is increasingly object based so I’ve started to think more about it.

How long have you been making art?
In formal terms since I started art school in 1982

What are the main medium/s you work in…
Both site specific installation and object based work

How do you describe your work, realistic, stylised, abstract, narrative, symbolic, other?
I don’t find these categories usually useful in looking either at my work or someone else’s as I tend to then think I know what the work is. However narrative is an important tool in my work.

Does your work have social, political, cultural and or personal messages?
Yes my work is primarily about either individual or group narratives that are normally excluded from the dominant interpretation of history in my culture or when my culture interacts with another culture. I tend to work in non art spaces.

What are you currently working on?
I am currently working in several areas. A really important one being death. I am working a series of installations and objects relating to my father’s death. These are a series of site specific works located in places which where important to how he defined himself. The first in the series is on the website and is titled Memorial/Double Pump Laplace I, It was installed in an Anglican church in the country town in NSW where both my parents grew up. I am currently working on the third in the series which will be installed in a University college in the UK  and I will then return to Sydney to install the second in the series.

As part of this investigation of death I’ve curated one show called Looking at Others Stage 1 of the Death Project at P.A.S., Parrramatta, Sydney. This process enables me to really look at how other artists are addressing some of the issues I’m interested in. I curated my own work into the show – this can be problematic but I think I got away with it this time. The second stage of this project which is looking at death in popular culture is planned for the middle of 2009. More details of these two shows are on my website under upcoming projects.

I also have a major show planned for Maitland Regional Gallery in N.S.W. later 2009 where I’ll be working with the archives, oral histories etc of the former use of the art gallery building as a TAFE and as a TAFE museum. The amount of research required for this project is significant and I have been in the archives of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, State records, Mitchell Library and TAFE Library for a large part of last year. A large oral history project run in conjunction with the council library will start in a month or so and feed individual’s stories into the work.

Now give us a more descriptive outline on your current works.
A description of the work I’m doing the for the third in the  series about my father is -  The narratives from that last ten and half months of my father’s life that are addressed in this work are focused on the way information is transferred in an intensive care ward. In this situation I could not remember all that was told to me by the staff and at some times I overlaid accidentally overheard information about other patients onto the information we had been given about Dad. The work will consist of both a sound component and an installation. The former law library area will be broken down into a series of smaller rooms accessed through hospital curtained corridors in a similar manner to an asymmetrical maze. The sound component will be multiples of fragments of those overheard conversations. Some will be broadcast from behind the curtains in the corridors, slightly too soft to be able to discern all the words. Others in the internal rooms will be fragments of formal discussions outlining detailed medical information. The sound elements will disrupt the idea of a hospital curtain offering privacy and will play with the rituals around their closing and opening.

How did you get into art?
I used to be very engaged with art when young then when choosing what further study to do after school I convinced myself that I didn’t what to do anything that mostly girls did so I did an Applied Science degree and only got back into art seriously when I was 29.

Your art education was…?
At school I didn’t do Art in years 9 and 10 and got back into it for 11 and 12. When I was 29 I did an undergraduate degree at UWS (this art school is now basically closed as of last year) and postgraduate at Monash.

Was your education helpful, or a hindrance?
My art education was great. I got back into art through glass and then discovered I was most interested in 3D and went from there. I had a very limited exposure to 3D at school.

What did you do before or during becoming an artist?
I’ve worked in science based jobs to earn money since leaving University. I decided I didn’t want to be an art teacher although it is a great way to stay connected with the art world. Sales of my work have been very small as it’s largely been ephemeral and site specific.

Did the place where you grew up have an influence?
Both the narratives of the place and the narratives of my family in those places have had a major influence on my work.

You know you are successful in Visual Arts when…
You are making art.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?
This is an interesting area to think about. I tend to think it’s more an obsession with neatness rather than good or bad craftwork that interferes with my reading of a work.

Do you get to other artists exhibitions, openings etc?
Yes it’s a great way to make sure you see the work and support other artists.

Some say the lifespan of many “artists” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that?
I’ve realised over the years one of the major benefits of the way I work is the rate of rejection is so much lower than for artists who work by the more traditional way of approaching galleries or entering prizes etc. I think I would find the rate of rejection many young artists experience difficult to handle as it appears a lot is delivered thoughtlessly.

Fundamentally I don’t believe in any objective value system to say one artist’s work is always better than another’s so the use of ranking systems like say the Australia Council where the grants applicants are ranked in ‘order” or galleries which rank proposals, This probably says more about the host institution than about the art they are looking at.

I had the experience once of travelling a fair way to show my work to a curator. Unluckily they had just discovered a small part of the funding of their overseas work trip was not going to be forthcoming. They wanted to keep going with the meeting but interspersed it with phone calls frothing about the money. If this had happened to me early on I would have thought it was about me instead I enjoyed it as a performance piece but abandoned any hopes of working with that curator.

What happens to works that “don’t work out”?
Often they are the most interesting in the longer term. I know that sounds really glib but thinking through how it doesn’t work in depth gives you more knowledge about how you think the world works. When you see other art that you think doesn’t work you don’t tend to spend as much time thinking about what to learn from that than with your own work.

What sort of research and or reference material do you do for current works and has that changed over time?
My work as it is often about the constructs of history, relies on the use of archives, oral histories and other historical material. I think it’s an important process as I don’t want to rely on the dominant stories of history or use stereotypes when I’m thinking about what happened.

Over time I’ve realised the importance of getting out of the way in allowing viewer’s to read a work by having what you can, consistent with an historical record.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
I like a level of ambiguity when I’m looking at works so I like to do that in my work. As I work so much in non art spaces I’ve focused on really clear and short artist statements. I tend to locate them not next to the work but say in a central traffic path where the viewer can read them if required.

I had the experience recently of being with the installation in the church in Aberdeen NSW on the opening day. Luckily it was the same day as the opening of the Pumpkin Festival in the town ( by accident not my foresight) so people could come to the installation in the church without it being a big deal, just as part of their day’s activities. So a large number came through.  I spent most of the day talking with people, swapping stories of being with people in intensive care or in hospital. There are so many car accidents in rural NSW that it was a common experience. These viewers really ‘got’ the work and ‘got’ it in terms of their own experiences. This experience has made me think about how I can do this in future.

Some say a measure of an artwork is the ability for it to hold a persons attention or cause the viewer to come back after an initial glance and become captivated by the work, is that so for your works or an intention of yours?
There’s a study somewhere that says that the average amount of time each work of art is looked at in a gallery is 4 seconds. I’ve always been interested in using spaces that are stopping places in viewer’s  traffic paths e.g waiting areas or congregating areas such as just outside toilets in museums where groups of people meet up again. These spaces are really good opportunities as people are looking to engage with something as they have to be there anyway.

I always like to reward people who look closely or are a bit naughty by say lifting something up to reveal something else underneath.

Compiled and edited by Steve Gray Contemporary Artist

Carol Es

Carol Es from Los Angeles, California and is represented by; George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles; Kolesch Gallery in Houston, Texas; Gallerie Urbane in Marfa, Texas.  Her web site is http://esart.com and her blog is http://esart.com/blog

Carol says she has been making art all her life and lists other interests as; Music, Anthropology, genetics, biology, books.

What are the main medium/s you work in… I use manila pattern paper from the garment manufacturing industry with oil paint, pencil, thread and sewing pins.

Your work seems very personal in it’s approach… My work is very personal and dives into childhood trauma. I use lots of Hebrew texts, narratives, personal disclosure, and my background from working in the apparel industry with my family.

What are you currently working on? I am finishing up a handmade Artists’ book entitled “Horsebucket.” It is an edition of 50 books with gouache drawings, hand typed pages and letterpress covers.

Why are you an artist? I really can’t be anything else. Trust me, I’ve tried.

How did you get into art? This remains a mystery to me to this day.

What is your earliest memory of art? The artwork in the waiting rooms of psychiatrist’s offices.

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family? Not at all. I do not come from a family of artists of any sort, which is why I cannot really understand what drove me to forcefully towards art. My family had not seen my work or attended my exhibits until this last year. And it was surreal. They have never really made any comments about my work and I really don’t know if they know what to make of it. I think they think it’s a 30 year “phase” and one day I’ll come to my senses.

What can you tell us about your planning and making process for making art, and has that altered over the years? There came a point around 2002 where I changed my process completely after a psychological art experiment. I started to glean my pattern making background into my work and it just began to make sense: “Paint what you know.” My practice then became a methodical ritual, where I could master a process, while still allowing room for the spontaneous. I think it was because I was becoming self-aware and began to understand what my own art was about after so many years of naive painting. I got to a place where I could not move forward and be genuine and honest unless I made a drastic change.

Does the “creative process” happen easily for you? It does, but I’m always worried it won’t.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation? Very. I have a very anal work ethic and don’t half-ass anything and truly appreciate craftsmanship in everything, not just art.

Do you get to other artists exhibitions, openings etc? I do, but it is really difficult to see as many as I would like to or should. I prefer to stay home and/or work. I detest crowds and rather catch the shows on quiet weekdays instead of receptions.

Do you have much contact with other artists? Thank God for email.

Any upcoming or completely new projects you want to talk about? I am hoping 2009 will bring me some time to work on more soft sculpture projects.

Working towards an exhibition, is it a daunting task? It is a lot of work and it takes everything out of me and about a year of planning and working, if not longer, to do it right. In my mind it seems simple, but it winds up being very daunting. Everything has to work together. The space needs to be considered. The scheme, the craftsmanship and details, documentation, lead time for images and press packs, advertising, curator feedback. The time it takes to do so many pieces. Ideas on how to make your show stick out above the dozens of others going on that month. Getting people to come. It winds up being a lot more work than one would think, and at the end of your 4 weeks – that’s it. It doesn’t happen again for a long time and a lot of non-art people may not understand that.

Can you name a favourite artist or three… and why? Paul Klee: for his connection to childlike dreams; Amy Sillman: for her freedom to just paint; Van Gogh: for his visionary outlook on nature.

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind? I keep a small notebook on my nightstand to jot down my weird half-asleep thoughts. I also have been working on an on-going journal project where I draw and write on a manila patterns. It could be a sleeve, a collar, a pocket, or a paint leg. They are not planned, they are just my thoughts and feelings that day which come out in words and/or drawings.

What happens to works that “don’t work out”? It rarely happens because I try to salvage everything I start. I can count on one hand how many pieces I have destroyed in the last 800. I probably have 5-10 unfinished things that are still hanging around that I’ll get back to one day.

Do you aim to break the rules of basic composition, layout etc or do you ignore the “rules” and just create? There are never any rules in art.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them? I believe that once I am finished making a work of art, it is now out of my hands and not up to me anymore. I do not control how it is interpreted because I have had a totally different relationship with it than the viewer does. It means something to me, but I send it off to sea and let others have it in their own way.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer? It is important to me that the work touches someone in someway that is meaningful to them.

What can you say about your work that might not be evident to the viewer? I did not paint this. I do not know who or what did. Yet, I made this. And maybe we have never met, but I love you.

About significant moments in your life, the sort of things that changed things for you forever… perhaps altered your Art… Who how why what and where…? So much that I can’t know how or where to start, but I have been very unfortunate and I have been lucky beyond belief.

If you stopped doing art right now would you miss it? It would be the death of me.

What discourages you from doing art? Deep, dark, dripping, scary, scratchy, freezing, echoing depression.

Have you had much connection post sale with purchasers of your works? Yes, I have a lot of repeat collectors and I would call them friends because it is a relationship we build on.

Name a book or books, which may have inspired your work as an artist? “Oh the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Suess.

Is your work process fast or slow? Very slow. Not a great thing in time crunches.

Some artists are more “at home” isolated in their creative process, while others revel in being part of a group to bounce “ideas off” how about you? I much prefer to be alone in a quiet space. I’m isolated for the most part, although I will meet up with friends when I can, but it takes a lot out of me.

What moves you most in life, either to inspire or upset you that might be connect to your art? What inspires me most is seeing lots and lots and lots of art.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out? Listen to your heart, not your parents or your boyfriend, or your teachers, or some poser. You really want to do this? Then take all the risks you need to even if it’s not the easy road (because it’s not going to be.) Be original – don’t copy people, and if you must steal, make it your own somehow, don’t flat out hijack it. Commit yourself to the work, get used to being alone, love yourself – or, at least believe in the part that wants to make art and allow it to. If it’s fame and fortune you seek, look into acting or high-stakes poker.

Interview compiled and edited by Steve Gray ©2008+

Sculptural intent

The guys over at Post Industrial Design have launched their website. It’s great to have a sculptural focus in amongst all our 2D works. If you like quirky steel and other constructions that really are Post Industrial you will find great value in checking out Jos Van Hulsen’s works.

Leonie Ryan

Leonie Ryan is an emerging Australian contemporary artist, from Nilma Victoria who works in 3D installations. Leonie has been making art for 9 years and  more details can be found on her website.

Lateral Rhythms, Time Follies, past, present and future, 2005.

Leonie, do you have an Artist’s statement?
Through Installation art I explore distort, amplify fantasize and create a visual language for an audience eager to ignite imagination. My future direction is to extend my knowledge in the arts, ongoing practice, perfecting, discovering, inquiring and exhibiting, searching not for truth but for an array of options of what if, how, why, where, when and who.

Interests you have other than art you feel are important to mention?
I am interested in people their perspectives and points of view. I love to travel anywhere and everywhere. Travel stimulates my conscious, subconscious and my soul. I’m also interested in science geography and alternative processes.

How do you describe your work?
Stylised abstract and symbolic. I work on a metaphysical level.

What are you currently working on?
My latest exhibition is titled ‘Aeracura’ which means blossoming. The body of work is 2 & 3D.

I am also completing a body of work tilled ‘Planetary Expedition 43’, a digital photographic journey into fanciful and abstract space.

Aeracura,08       Astral face blue,08      Space enigma,08    Vortex black & white,08

What fascinates you? Living on Earth, the magic and mysteries, which surround us.

Why are you an artist?
We are all artists; it’s just that some of us choose not to practice.

How important is art for you?
Art is an incredible energy force that is embedded in my fibres, my mind and my soul. Art is a essential part of my life.

Your art education was…?
I have a diploma in visual arts and media and working towards Masters in visual art and design.

What did you do before or during becoming an artist?
As a child and in my teen years I always played around with art. In my twenties I managed my own cafe, got married had three lovely baby boys. In my early thirties I studied and practised performing art, also photography. I commenced my practice as a visual artist nearly 10 years ago.

Dynamism, 05                                       Mamma Natura, 06               Lateral Rhythms, Old man time, 06

What is your earliest memory of art?
My very first day at kindergarten; I arrived kicking and screaming, I really didn’t want to be there. The teacher showed me an easel with paper and red paint and suggested I give it a try; I settled into the kindergarten scene straight away.

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family? Definitely, my mother is an artist; when I was very young I remember her painting with pallet knife and using oil paints. I enjoyed the smell of oil paint and linseed oil. My mother always designed an assortment of works of art, utilizing various mediums throughout our home. Mum now writes.

What or who inspires your art?
Life, Earth, science, lots of weird stuff, people, many artists in many genres and me.

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?
I’m an installation artist I work with anything and everything.

You know you are successful in Visual Arts when…
I think you can define success when you have a go at achieving your goals, when you reflect on your achievements, acknowledge your current existence, dream and set goals for your future. When you tell yourself you are successful and you believe wholeheartedly and unconditionally you are, then you are a success. I believe the only way to measure success is on an individual level.

Creative streaks do they come in waves for you?
I am an idea’s girl. My creativity runs at a constant level. My strength is innovation and creative concepts.

Flower of the West, (small), 06        Earth science & linguist fusion, Dynamism disc, 07

Do you get to other artists exhibitions, openings etc?
As often as I can, especially the artists who I admire for various reasons. I also take pleasure in attending and supporting all my artist friends’ exhibitions along with visiting State, National and International galleries.

What can you tell us about your connection to your subject matter, way of working, concepts etc?
It’s diverse, because I am interested in so many things and choose to explore various ideas. There are many levels to my relationship with my subject matter, it’s much like the various levels in relationships I have with people. My concepts grow and develop over time, from an idea into a sketch into a design, then physically in the studio. I enjoy the process of the concept merging and developing, it gives me the same sensation of watching sea monkeys grow, or the illusion of magic, or even as simple as a cake rising as it bakes in the oven. I think it’s the unknown and mystery of what will happen, the unfolding of events and end result.

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.
I struggle with humility in various ways; I would like very much to develop this admirable and beautiful quality.  My struggles all relate to my own development as a person. I cannot disconnect myself from my art; therefore any struggles I experience in life are connected to my art. I challenge myself to utilize past, present, and future problems as learning references and resources, which can be a struggle sometimes too.

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind? Absolutely, my visual journal is an invaluable resource and reference. I enjoy revisiting old concepts and reflect on my development.

Any musical influences?
No surprises here, I enjoy a wide genre of music. In my studio I have a record player  I enjoy listening to old records, harp music, Sonny & Cher, classic, jazz, Ella Fitzgerald, alternative music, sounds from space, whale songs, Brian Ferry there really is a vast mix amongst my collection.

What sort of depth or meaning is there behind the work you do?
My art has many layers. I am happy for any viewer to reach their own perspective and view point, in fact its cool hearing other alternatives. I utilize symbols a lot, I believe we live in a fast world; symbols are a fast way to communicate complex messages.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?
I love it when a viewer gets what I’m aiming to communicate, however if the viewer doesn’t get the concept and instead they are stimulated one way or another, I’m pleased. I enjoy explaining my concepts especially through artist presentations, responses are often quite surprising.

Art is about entertainment, experiment, inventiveness or shock for you?
Art is about any one or all of the above for me both as the viewer and as the artist.

Self Portrait, 08             the flamboyant Mr. Peter Biram, 08

You have been working as an artist for a while, how do you feel about earlier works that are in people’s collections / ownership?
Earlier works are a representation of where I was in a period of time. Naturally we believe we advance in skill, knowledge, concepts and technique over time, in alignment with progression. We can never truly deny our past; our past is what gets us to where we are today. Earlier work and collections are a crucial element whether I feel good or bad about the work; it must be accounted for, and measured as importantly as current works. If I do my absolute best in a work of art no matter when in time, I know I will be happy in years to come.

Do the seasons affect your work or work habits?
I work all year round and have a good size studio, although I do find Autumn and Spring ideal. I don’t have to think about heating or cooling and epoxy resins set best during the more moderate climate.

Do you have a connectedness to other art forms?
I connect to nearly all art. I appreciate someone who put’s energy into something creative with purpose or meaning, whether it be a stick figure on a black board or a magnificent marble statue.

What is more important to you in your work, content or technique, concept or product?
I think all of these elements are very important. I strive to apply all and to deliver conceptually interesting and quality works of art.

How important is society, culture and or history to your work?
Society, culture and history are all relevant in my installations, though they are more a subconscious element to me rather than intentional or planed.

How do you think art can change people or their perceptions?
Art opens up realms’ of ideas that other people may not have considered. Art can bridge mighty gaps and connect anyone from commonplace to Royalty.

Centipede, 07

When you create your work is it somehow an emotional relief as you do it or at the end?
The emotional connection begins at the beginning and never ends.

What is your working routine? Do you listen to music while you work, or stay up late for instance?
I always make lists, time lines, schedules for the production of my art. I find I achieve far more when I create lists, I am very ambitious and dedicated. I prefer to begin working in my studio in the morning and rarely stay up late; my head gets very fuzzy towards the later hours of day.  I usually work form 9.am until 5.pm because I have teenage boys and I like to be around when they get home from school. I also work between 2-5 hours a day on weekends. I often play music in the studio, I feel music resinates into the art pieces giving it rhythm.

What do you think sets you apart from other artists in your approach to work etc…
This is a wonderful question it delves deep into uncomfortable regions of the psyche. If the question is intended to my approach and end result, I think from what I’ve experience, many people aren’t sure what to make of my art, there is little reference or comparisons with my art with other art. This suggests my work is not average or predictable; I’m yet to discover what it does mean. Internally my resource is foreign even to myself, though I completely trust my internal source, it comes from somewhere beyond. I believe each and every artist has a unique approach to their own work meaning we are all distinctively set apart.

Earth science and linguistic fusion, 07.  Latrobe regional gallery.

One word or statement to describe your current works?
Metaphysical.

What can you say about your work that might not be evident to the viewer?
Keep metaphysical in mind.

The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts?
I strongly recommend a book titled, How To survive & prosper as an Artist, selling yourself without selling your soul, by Caroll Michels. This book is an invaluable tool with fantastic information for anyone who is practicing as a professional artist.

Ursula Theinert Emerging Artist

In a follow up to a previous post on Ursula Theinert as she took us step by step through her first solo art exhibition, we now have her interview. For art enthusiasts everywhere wanting to know more about the process of starting out through to emerging as a contemporary artist, here is “part 2″ of the process from Ursula’s viewpoint. Steve Gray.

Ursula lives in peaceful Callignee which is South of Traralgon on the way to the beautiful Tarra Bulga National Park, she is an emerging contemporary artist…
www.ursulatheinert.com.au

Ursula, can you give us an “Artists Statement”?
I like to call myself an Environmental Expressionist, because my work explores the relationship between human kind and the environment.
My focus is on the profound spiritual connection we have with nature and the duality of our behavior to our world.  I draw my inspiration from the Australian bush around my home, amid remote farms, plantations and quarries.

My work looks at the disfigurement done to the land, and in order to heighten passion and empathy I express the landscape in human terms, as a living entity.  My current series relates to the dichotomy between managing our forest and the environmental harm that results. My work attempts to highlight some “hidden” realities in our forest management practices that I became aware of during the walks and drives around my home. It fascinated me that on the “surface”, plantations of often alien species may give the impression of environmentally positive outcomes, however on closer scrutiny they lead to “deserts” under the canopy for native flora and fauna.
I feel that the challenging environmental issues facing us, requires us to look closely at our land use practices with fresh eyes and lateral thinking.

This heightened appreciation of the countryside has been influenced by living overseas for eleven years. I traveled to Bahrain in 1992 with my husband and son and taught in a small International school.  We enjoyed the full and rich experiences of living as an expatriate, which included visiting many European and Middle Eastern destinations.  On returning home to Australia, due to the second Gulf War, I began a Diploma of Visual Arts and a Certificate IV in Ceramics at GippsTAFE, in the Latrobe Valley.  This homecoming has definitely intensified my love and respect for our unique country, and a growing awareness of the beauty and fragility of the global environment.

Does your work have social, political, cultural and or personal messages?
It does have social and political messages because I am genuinely concerned about the challenging environmental issues that confront and threaten our global future.  I believe that many problems can be helped simply through seeing what is often hidden and rethinking certain mindsets and finding improvements in the way something has always been done in the past.  Humans are adaptable and innovative and I have faith that problems can be overcome when there is an awareness of certain realities and the will for change.

There is a quote from Henry James which I feel relates and encapsulates my feelings about the need I have for my work.
” Despite the rejection of bold claim, art remains subversive —not because it demands revolution but because it illuminates life’s resonant meaning which is normally hidden, and which exposes the limitations of, rather than contradicts, society’s straight forward assumptions. “
I certainly don’t have the answers but I think it is important to begin the discussion.

What are you currently working on?
I am very excited about my next project which is to be involved in a group show called 4 the Love of Green with two fellow artists and friends, Kerrie Warren and Leonie Ryan.  We all share a love of the environment and love of art.  It is still in the early stages but we want and feel a need to create an intrinsic and powerful exhibition that expresses our own perspectives and values within our own styles and mediums. Hopefully, this exhibition will connect with the viewer’s perspective and will create an emotional experience and an awareness of alternative thoughts.
The plan is for the exhibition to travel to Regional galleries to promote discussion within the communities and to highlight the importance of the interconnectedness of our environmental choices to ourselves, families, communities, country and the world.
I am also in the process of organizing another exhibition of my ‘Forest Management’, exhibition at the Libby Edward’s Gallery at Jink’s Creek Winery, which is a great thrill.  The address is Tonimbuk Road, Tonimbuk (55 minutes East of Melbourne), and will be exhibited from about the middle of December.  I will post the firm date soon.
There is a video you can view of some of Ursula’s photographic works http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=UZCrjOMhKm4

What fascinates you?
This is a difficult question but I am attracted to the “hidden” and the “surface” aspects of issues.  I am also amazed at the profound spiritual connection we have to nature.

One word to describe your current works?
Otherworldliness.

Now give us a more descriptive outline on your current works.
My current works are a further exploration into forest management and they are based on my photographs on pine plantations.

My paintings are acrylic on canvas, which can be read as a triptych or separately.  The paintings represent the “natural forest”, the “alien plantation” and the “devastation of the harvest”.  Each painting contains elements of spirituality, otherworldliness and Mother Earth.  As I said before these paintings are based on my photographs which were in black and white, negative prints and solarizations that conceptually linked the consequences of our actions.  The photographs are connected and mirror-imaged to suggest reflection and to highlight the panoramic vista and drama of what we have created.

The spirituality became obvious in the mystical interconnections of the photographs and I felt compelled to extend these images through Environmental Expressionism.  I wanted to tap into the subconscious spiritual bond that connects me to nature through the use of texture, colour and intrinsic emotion.

Why are you an artist?
I am not sure; it just seemed to become part of my life’s journey.  It wasn’t something that I deliberately planned; it all began when I wanted to learn ceramics.  The TAFE College experience was a stimulating one, and gave me opportunities to discover ceramics, photography, drawing, sculpture and painting.  I became hooked on the creativity and the freedom of expression that opened up for me, and now feel almost driven to create and question.

Is there any one thing that has given you a big buzz in your art career so far?
I have been extremely lucky in my art career because I have had several wonderful experiences.  I entered the Archibald Prize three times, with the encouragement of my art teacher Peter Biram.  I first painted my accomplished ceramicist teacher, a Master Potter, Chris Myers.

Then in 2007 I painted Peter Biram, and thirdly, my friend, and abstract artist, Kerrie Warren.  Even though I was unsuccessful in becoming a finalist of The Archibald, the portraits were accepted into the Salon des Refuses, which was thrilling.  And to top it off, last year I had the honour of being asked to sit for an Archibald Portrait, by Janette Arnold-Collins, which also got into the Salon des Refuses.
This year I shared my first photographic exhibition with my husband, Werner, which was very special and touching, because we could share the experience together.

And lastly, just last week I had my first solo exhibition at the Latrobe Regional Gallery, in Morwell, which was always one of my goals and turned out to be a dream come true.

Was art a thing that was encouraged in your family?
Yes, I was very fortunate to feel that art was an extremely important part of life and learned a great deal of art appreciation from my father.  He is a wonderful drawer, and talked about his dream,  long ago, to become an artist, but because he had to provide for his family, a choice many other people find themselves in, he put that wish aside.  He always encouraged me to draw, and look closely at nature and we spent many hours enjoying art books together and going to exhibitions.

What or who inspires you?
I think nature inspires me and a need to express our connection to the world around us.  I am also inspired by many artists like, Edvard Munch, Arthur Boyd, Mark Rothko, Jan Senberg, Susan Norrie, Peter Booth, Rick Amor and Mandy Martin, the list could go on.
But I also feel that inspiration for me is coupled with being able to work within a supportive environment.  I have felt this type of encouragement by the many wonderful fellow students, teachers, like Peter Biram and Chris Myers and friends, like Kerrie Warren and Leonie Ryan and my husband who all have stimulated ideas with their discussions and talented work.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?
I feel that this need to communicate with the viewer is extremely important to me.  Not in the terms of total understanding of what I am trying to say, but rather that the viewer connects with the work on an emotional level.

Are there special aspects to the making of your work that you want to share?
What I find almost magical about making my work is that while I am in a particularly focused process of mark making I feel as though I go into a type of meditative state.  When I become aware of my work again I marvel at the results because they have somehow come from within my subconscious. When this altered state occurs I feel particularly close and true to my work.

Do you have a connectedness to other art forms?
Yes, I definitely do.  I have felt connected to all the art I have undertaken.  My ceramics and sculpture work were such a tactile experience that you can lose yourself in the work and I enjoyed all the 3 dimensional problems that had to be overcome.  The ceramic work also required a great deal of skill attainment, like throwing on a wheel and learning about glazes that also took you to a new level of understanding of the creation of an aesthetic object.

Photography has opened up a whole new medium which helps push my exploration into human kind and nature and my personal journey which I can then extend further in my paintings by the use of texture and colour and through my emotional energy, hopefully, create my own individual instinctual expression.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
Well I feel that there are several factors that have worked for me. To begin with I think it is necessary to see yourself as an artist even as a student, with the experiences and education at school as a vital part of your artistic life journey.  With that attitude in mind I decided to immerse myself in all the different mediums on offer.  As a mature aged student I was able to not feel the same amount of time constraint as other students and had the luxury of being able to extend my course.  That meant that I took my time and focused on one or two art forms at a time and tried to learn as much as I could about them.  Then I moved onto other forms and did the same again.  To me each medium gave me invaluable creative experiences which helped open different perspectives and approaches to solving problems. In this preparation, the insights studied in art history were invaluable and of course remain a lifelong quest for more knowledge.  I found that by going through this multi-layered learning process it enable me to find my true direction.
It is also important to learn about the art industry and to consider yourself as a professional artist in your art practices and to be passionate about what you do.  Buy the best canvases and paint you can afford.  Have business cards, trifolds and a website as soon as you can, and remember to consider the point of view of the gallery, or media representative.
It is hard work to be an artist and it helps a great deal if you surround yourself with stimulating, like-minded people who are supportive and sharing.  I believe that creativity grows when you feel safe and accepted and most importantly, you must reciprocate those kindnesses.

Have you ever made an artistic pilgrimage? If so, where did you go and why?
While I lived overseas my family and I had many holidays in Europe and were fortunate to go to the many extraordinary galleries in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome and Athens, and many other wonderful destinations.  They were awe inspiring and moving. We also went to nearly every cathedral in each of these countries.  My husband and I were captivated but it was a little harder to convince our young son of the educational merit of the excursions! Now our son is in his twenties, he fondly looks back at his holiday experiences and realizes what a fabulous journey of discovery they were for us all.

Want to chat to the artist? Go to the comments link just below this and ask away!

Compiled and edited by Steve Gray

Amanda van Gils

Amanda van Gils is an established Melbourne Victoria Contemporary Painter working in oils. She is represented by, Anthea Polson Art in Qld, and with Jenny Port Gallery in Melbourne, you can see more about her, on her website

Others are saying…

Amanda has entered numerous art prizes and been the finalist in most, she has a Graduate Diploma of Visual Arts and a number of exhibitions to her credit. there is another interview you can read here.

Artist’s statement…
My work aims to engage with the longstanding tradition of Australian landscape painting yet offer a contemporary take on the genre. Through my work I aim to explore our dynamic psychological relationship to the world around us.
In the past I have explored the idea of people’s place in the environment through various permutations, primarily: the absence of people, people disconnected from the landscape, and moments observing others (most often children) at imaginative play creating their own space. In doing this, I have experimented with juxtaposing elements in unexpected settings to invert traditional notions of perspective and perception.

The landscapes in my works are not grand landscapes, they are small and familiar; these places are part of our everyday lives and they inform our understanding of the world. My paintings share their quietness, yet I draw on the unpredictable and the anomalous to explore how we respond to them.

My current body of work View from a Speeding Train, moves the figure off stage; the viewers are given the view of the landscape yet are drawn to the narrative of the viewer within the painting (the unseen person looking out the window). This interplay between movement and stillness, outside and inside, encourages the observer to make choices in their reading of the paintings that ultimately link to their own specific relationship to place.

What are you currently working on?
Finishing off a few paintings for my next solo exhibition, which is opening very soon on 3rd December at Jenny Port Gallery. They are essentially landscapes viewed through time with multiple layers of meaning.

Do you have one word or statement to describe your current works?
Movement.

Now give us a more descriptive outline on your current works.
I guess it is a meditation on painting, and using high speed travel as a metaphor to create images of the rapid glimpses captured as we hurtle through the world. A strange and subtle melancholia - as in a sense that none of us can be sure of where  ‘times’ are leading - metaphorically, spiritually, politically, economically - just this fast train we are all on in the early 21st century.

How did you get into art?
Quite by accident. When I was 15 I went with a friend to an art school open day just for something to do, we went our separate ways and I wandered into the painting studio. The smells were somehow just magical to me and that was it, I started drawing the next day and applied to the local TAFE to study art.

Your art education was…?
Fascinating, informative, sometimes lacking, sometimes melodramatic but always worth every minute.

What did you do before becoming an artist?
There was no before as I started straight from school. But there has been - in between and alongside - quite a few jobs; I spent a number of years working part time in Human Resources in management and consulting roles while also painting and exhibiting.

Is there any one thing that has given you a big buzz in your art career so far?
Just recently getting selected for four pretty good prizes in a row with my new work.

What is your earliest memory of art?
A Russel Drysdale print that hung in my parents bedroom

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?
It’s important when it is important to get the idea across. Craftsmanship purely for the sake of craftsmanship can lead to some hollow work so I see it as only part of the equation.

Have you had any “big breaks” in your career?
So far it’s been more baby steps than any “big breaks”. I have had to work hard for every small break that has come my way, a big break would be nice…..

Do you get to other artists exhibitions, openings etc?
Yes definitely. I try to get along to friends openings to show support but most openings conflict with baby bedtime routines so I don’t get to as many as I would like. Generally I go to exhibitions outside of openings so I can see the work.

Musical influences?
Music has always been important to me – music and literature nourish the parts that visual can’t always. I always have music on and have a fairly wide collection of music depending on my mood, but I must admit I have been painting to The Go Betweens ever since I started painting. I would love to be able to make work that produces feelings in the viewers that I get from listening to the Go Betweens, I think that’s pretty ambitious but if I get to the end and look back and can find that I had done that somewhere along the line I would be extremely happy.

What sort of research and or reference material do you do for current works and has that changed over time?
For years I have been heading off on solitary drives and taking photos that I can use later as reference material, the current works . I have a suitcase full of . My process is more immediate now than it used to be. I take photos to use as reference but don’t paint the photos as such. I have a bit of fun trying to work out my camera to get the sort of photos I want and I disregard quite a lot that is in the photo. I am less reliant these days on notebooks for pre planning preferring to get the idea down quickly on canvas.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
I hope that I am successful enough in conveying my intention that I don’t need to spell anything out. Having said that I am always interested in the viewers perceptions – sometimes they might pick up something that passed me by and a chance comment can spark off a whole new body of work.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?
I think the work needs to touch the viewer in some way: intellectually, emotionally, sensory for it to be of value to that viewer. And hopefully what is communicated is at least partly what the work is about for me, but I’m not too dogmatic about that.

What sort of depth or meaning is there behind the work you do?
It’s difficult to articulate the depth of meaning in words. Suffice to say that there is a lot in the work, not symbols as such, but when I hear someone have a ‘me too’ moment of recognition in response to the work that is really satisfying.

Has being involved in the arts proven to be a millstone or a point of elation?
Point of elation definitely. As with anything there are the bright spots and the dull times that seem to go forever but overall I just think it is exciting and interesting, stimulating and frankly a whole lot of fun.

If you stopped doing art right now would you miss it?
Absolutely, I ‘gave up’ art for a few years and it was without doubt the worst time of my life. I aim to never repeat that particular error.

Do you have a challenge knowing when a work is finished?
No. In fact I think I am pretty good at knowing whether 15 more minutes or an hour is needed. Getting a painting finished is about getting it to a certain ‘feeling of rightness’ and it’s not finished until it’s there. And once you are there you aren’t tempted to lay down any more paint.

You know you have “made it as an artist” when…
You write ‘artist’ as your occupation on government forms without giving it a second thought

The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts?
I think unless you are very lucky to hook up with great dealers early on there is so much work to do to effectively market yourself – and not just to buyers but curators, gallerists, media and so on - that it can eat into studio time if you aren’t well organised. Marketing and business also requires a very different set of skills to creating art so it can be challenging.

How do you feel about earlier works that are in people’s collections / ownership?
Luckily I didn’t show much early on. I’m quite comfortable with all the work that’s been sold – obviously the buyer responded to it and I have to respect the buyers response, even if it’s not how I would paint it today.

Name a book or books, which may have inspired your work as an artist?
Interestingly not one I would have thought of, it’s actually a self help type book called “Coach Yourself: It’s your life What are you going to do with it?” I was using it for paid work that I was doing and then read through thinking about my own situation and really got the synapses firing. It was probably the right book at the right time and acted as a catalyst for me leaving part time employment and backing myself to become a full time artist.

From your early beginnings at art school to now, how have things altered for you?
Really just more clarity and more confidence.

Tell us about your studio environment…
These days I paint in a garage out the back of my house as it’s most suited to my life. It is the messiest most unsuitable studio I’ve ever had…and I find I am producing my best work so really I can’t complain.

Do you have a connectedness to other art forms?
I love photography, especially cinematic photography in particular artists like Tracey Moffat, Deborah Pauwe, Rosemary Laing, Bill Henson

Some artists are more “at home” isolated in their creative process, while others revel in being part of a group to bounce “ideas off” how about you?
I have a really great network of artists who I consider myself fortunate to be able to call friends. I have a couple in particular who I bounce things off when I need a second opinion. And of course being married to an artist helps too, especially in stressful times like the lead up to a big show.

Do you go into any contemporary art prizes, if so why?
Sometimes I do, it can be a good way to extend your audience and build a bit of a profile. I know some people argue that art isn’t a sport and shouldn’t be competitive and I appreciate that argument but I don’t go into these things hoping to be anointed ‘the best’ but rather hoping for the opportunity to be ‘in the room’ showing with peers.

Do you work from life, or from photographs or from imagination or some other method?
A combination of all of the above. I often take reference photos but I am far from slavish in reproducing them. They are often a springboard or a memory trigger and little else. A lot of what evolves is from the imagination or memory, things that I have noticed

When you create your work is it somehow an emotional relief as you do it or at the end?
It tends to be an emotional relief if I haven’t been able to paint for a while. I get the itchy craving to do some painting (and can be a bit stroppy) if I can’t work for a while, and while it is far from therapy there is a real relief when I can get working again. Aside from that though there is no particular ‘emotional relief’ either at the beginning, during or after a work is completed.

Do you aim to make “masterpieces” ?
My intent is smaller than that. You can’t make work with that in mind, in the same way that making work purely for commercial reasons i.e. ‘If I paint X it will sell’ having that as the end point corrupts the process and the outcome. If I manage to get peer recognition and make a living doing the sort of work that I want to do with my integrity in tact then the rest should look after itself.

What is your working routine?
I am pretty organised; I have calendars with dates to work towards and lists of what I need to get done when. I mainly paint during the day, a couple of days I have my son in childcare so I get to paint all day, the rest of the time I snatch time when he is asleep. I always listen to music ad normally have quite a few paintings on the go at once.

Are you the sort of artist that seeks out promotional opportunities or one that shuns the limelight?
I need to make a living with my work to allow me to continue to make the work so I certainly don’t shun the limelight, but I’m, not a natural attention seeker either, I hope I strike a good balance.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
If you want to be a professional artist you need to work a lot at your art, learn to be self-critical and be open to critique but filter it (critique from a family member is different than critique from an artist or gallery director). There is a lot more to being an artist than just making the work, I think it is important to learn as much as you can about the art industry and have an understanding of art history. But above all keep making art and keep learning.

Have you ever made an artistic pilgrimage?
In 2006 I finally got to Europe for the first time. My husband and I organised our trip specifically so we could see as much art as possible, even when it meant going to Madrid for just one day for The Prado. Seeing the collection in The Louvre was an incredible experience all on it’s own but we were lucky enough to see museums and galleries in Italy, Spain, France, Berlin, Amsterdam and London.

Do you have a question for the artist? check out the comments link below and ask away!

Compiled and edited by Steve Gray Contemporary Australian Artist

Erika Gofton

Erika Gofton is a painter from Melbourne Victoria , she paints predominately with Oil on Canvas, while some works have handstitching/embroidery. She is represented by Dickerson Gallery Melbourne and Sydney and Anthea Polson Art. You can find out more about her at her website www.erikagofton.com

Erica, what can you tell us about your works?
I am celebrating the sensitivity and beauty of the female figure. I wish to present an intimate look at womanhood and to create works depicting beauty, grace and harmony. I am captivated by the female form and intrigued with the subtlety between the sensual and the sexual, the unique motifs and iconography associated with femininity.

Texture, fabric and drapery play an integral role in my work. The natural beauty of the body and the echo of form beneath the natural folds of the drapery suggests a quiet and captivating sexuality.  The evocative suggestion of flesh showing through lace is enchanting.

Lacework, embroidery, patternmaking and fabric designs, uniquely female experiences and motifs, are also prominent in my work and symbolise characteristically female practices. The strong design and composition of these elements also aim to reflect shapes and forms in the figure and the chosen dresses, offering a work built on layers of pattern and form. By handstitching on the canvas in some works aims to give another layer of significance to the painted layers beneath but also employs the practice I am celebrating.

Butterflies, and more recently birds, feature in my work, as they embody beauty, grace and harmony. Their presence suggests quiet movement as a subtle contrast to the stillness of the figure. Birds also represent another uniquely female experience; motherhood.

What are you currently working on?
A body of work to be exhibited at Schubert Gallery in December

One word or statement to describe your current works?
Sensitive. Still. Tension. Layered.

How did you get into art?
I have always had an engagement with art and creativity. I was taught from a very young age to draw and paint by my Mother who was a graphic designer and illustrator I did my first oil painting at 10 and have always painted.

What did you do before becoming an artist?
I completed a Diploma of Education after my Fine Art Degree so that I could teach secondary school, ‘something to fall back on’ but found that it unfortunately had a really negative impact on my work. I ended up working in art supply shops and as a technician which was just fantastic as it gave me a whole new understanding of my materials and other mediums.  It really complimented my practice and was a great way to learn and meet other artists.

What is your earliest memory of art?
Sitting still for my Mum while she painted my sister and myself. My earliest memories are very much about my Mum, her wonderfully drawn paper dolls. Her tubes of gouache.

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?
Most definitely

Did the place where you grew up have an influence?
Not particularly. In fact I found it quite suffocating.

What or who inspires your art?
Oh where to begin. Everything around me really. Pattern, colour, texture, line, fabrics, words, drawing, printmaking. The paint itself.

Visiting galleries and reading contemporary art magazines gives me a huge amount of inspiration. It allows me to see how other artists approach their subjects, their materials, how they solve problems. I have a filing cabinet full and wall in my studio that is covered in other contemporary and historical artists work, it is extremely broad but I find inspiration in the smallest parts, maybe a colour or a line, a compositional choice. I have a deep love and respect for good abstract and non representational work and find that I get a great deal of inspiration from the different way of communicating a message, a different language.

How important is art for you?
It defines who I am.

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?
I have an immense love of paint, I always have had. I just love everything about it. The bar is constantly keep moving up. I just want to learn more and feel more in control, which only really comes with getting to know the medium more intimately.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?
I think it depends on the work to a degree and what you are trying to convey. The better grasp and understanding of the chosen medium I believe has the potential to makes the message stronger or at least clearer. If the artist has a vision in their mind but struggles to translate that through a lack of craftsmanship they have failed to communicate that to the best that they can. This doesn’t just mean painters or sculptors understanding their medium but video artist, performance artists. An understanding of the medium, its possibilities, its limitations.

Does the sale of your work support you? If no what else do you do to support your art?
My work is beginning to sell enough that I am holding my head above water, just, but I do also teach drawing to adults which I really enjoy.

Some say the lifespan of an “artist” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that?
I think the difference to life as an artist at art school and life as an artist outside of the institution is vastly different. They are two quite different experiences.  I can imagine that many artists struggle with the isolation that comes with life outside of art school, and possibly the self discipline that is required.

What has been a turning point in your career thus far and why?
Moving to Melbourne had a huge impact on my career. I had the freedom where I felt I could do the work I wanted to. I found acceptance in being a painter.

If you could have any piece of artwork in your personal collection, what would it be and why?
Any Chuck Close Self Portrait. I have always admired and been fascinated by his work. I really admire the way he has evolved through the years and his deep and passionate love of painting. Or John Millais’ Ophelia.

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.
I have been very fortunate in my life. I do struggle often with self doubt and lack of confidence. I have also found that motherhood has proven to be a struggle in my practice. Being an artist sometimes feels like it is such a selfish, self indulgent thing to do but motherhood requires you to be totally selfless. The two fight each other sometimes, but it is also really starting to inform my work which I find really exciting.

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind?
Yes I always have, I write in it most days. It helps me to organise the words, images and ideas that float in my brain. It gives me order.

What can you tell us about your creative development process?
It is ridiculously laborious. Begins with a lot of drawing and writing. I write a lot. Words factor a lot in my work even if it isn’t evident. An idea for a work may happen quickly or may stem from an idea some time ago. The last couple of years have seen works grow from previous works. I am noticing lately that I am looking more towards my own environment, more inward.

Has being involved in the arts proven to be a millstone or a point of elation?
A bit of both.  I often feel that I have a love hate relationship with my practice or at least the intensity that my work imbibes. I never feel like I can switch it off which sometimes is problematic.

What discourages you from doing art?
My own insecurities. Time.

The value of Visual Arts is…
Its capacity to communicate. To stir emotion. To create dialogue. To question. To Mirror.

Your first show at a “gallery” you thought was of value, how was the whole thing for you?
A huge learning curve as to what NOT to do! I taught me that I had to take responsibility for my own career. To be active in your own career.

Tell us about getting caught in a creative “slump” and how you got out of it?
It depends on where I am at. If I am working towards a show I can’t really take time away so I really just push through, which can often make it so much more intense. If I have time, taking time away from the brush. Time spent drawing, reading, looking at art. Almost denying myself so that I build up a desire to get back into the studio. I find a huge internal pressure to always have a brush in my hand because my studio time is so limited and this impacts quite heavily when I get into a slump it tends to snowball.

Metaphors, analogies, symbols, stories, how important are they to your work?
Subtly.

Name a book or books, which may have inspired your work as an artist?
Too many to mention. I love books and refer back to so many when I am looking for inspiration. I was given a copy of Robert Vickery’s Egg Tempera book when I was young and that is very special to me.

Tell us about your studio environment (too big, too small, enough storage or not, the light, the position, how you found it etc)?
I worked in shared spaces until having my son. I now work in a really lovely space at home now, a converted garage. I love being in there. It would be nice to be bigger but it is nice and bright and its my sanctuary. I do miss having other artists around though and the isolation is a struggle sometimes.

Is your work process fast or slow?
Extremely slow and laborious. Ridiculously sometimes!

Art as a therapeutic device; do you think it is useful for this purpose and is your work in this category somehow?
I think it can be very therapeutic at times but I also I think sometimes I need therapy because of my art!!!

People around you (family friends etc.) what would they say about the way you work, the moods you have, your life as an artist etc?
I work very privately, I don’t share my work with many people. I keep my work hidden generally until it gets to a gallery. I have some quite big lows and anxiety relating to my work, particularly when I am struggling with a piece. It tends to make it worse if I talk about it too much. It quite often affects me physically and I have learnt I need to have time to expend some of the pent up energy and anxiety, either by walking or swimming. If I am struggling with a particular painting I find it very hard to walk out of the studio and forget about it. I get very distracted with everything else around me until it is resolved. I am quite obsessive about how I work. I feel very private about my life as an artist. My family know that I am much more satisfied if I am able to work.

Do you have a connectedness to other art forms?
I have a real love of printmaking.

What is one thing you need to have in your studio before you work?
A cup of tea and silence for a while.

Which is more important to you, the subject of your painting, or the way it is executed?
They have equal importance. One can’t survive without the other.

From your early beginnings at art school to now, how have things altered for you?
I have gained more confidence in my right to be an artist. I am content with how I work I don’t feel so compelled to ‘please’ anyone but myself.

Is the making of art all it was “cracked up to be”?
So, so, so much harder but ultimately more satisfying

What is your working routine? Do you listen to music while you work, or stay up late for instance?
I listen a lot to talkback or podcast interviews while I work, it helps to break the isolation in the studio. I tend to listen to music towards the end of the day to pep me up a bit. I don’t paint of a night. Natural light is very important. I do a lot of prep work of a night, sketching in my journal and resourcing reference materials. I have a very set routine by sheer necessity with a young child I have had to learn to be very disciplined and be good at managing my time.

What do you love/hate about being an artist?
I love the constant challenges. I love being able to create for a living. I love seeing the world in a different way. I love the process. I love the endless learning. I love the constant exposure to other artists and their work. I love being surrounded by art.  I hate the stereotypical view of what an artist is, and does. I hate not being able to switch off being an artist, when sometimes you need to escape it for a while you can’t. I hate the long apprenticeship.  I hate the financial uncertainty.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
Find what is uniquely you. Be prepared that it is very different to Art School. Seek criticism from people you respect.  Learn how the gallery system works. Market yourself but don’t make your work just to be marketable. Develop discipline, determination, persistence and a thick skin. Be prepared for rejection, lots of rejection. Learn to like working by yourself, but try to engage with like minded artists when you can. Visit galleries. Keep learning. Read, listen, look. Don’t ever think that what you have chosen as your career has less value than other occupations.

Have you ever made an artistic pilgrimage? If so, where did you go and why?
I went to France and Italy, London and New York. I went to immerse myself in the works that I had so long admired and drawn inspiration from, but had never seen in the flesh. I wanted to study the brush strokes, and the surfaces. I was very fortunate and saw the big Holbein exhibition at the Tate which was just incredible. I also did a great portrait workshop in New York.

Compiled and edited by Steve Gray Contemporary Australian Artist

Steve Gray

Steve Gray from Geelong Vic Australia is a contemporary Visual Artist and has been making art for about 35 years (with some serious break’s in between) his website and blog is at www.stevegray.com.au

Interests you have other than art you feel are important to mention?
Business, family, music (I play a bit of guitar) the environment. I am fascinated by a whole range of things, from the day to day to the bigger picture.

What are the main medium/s you work in…
Acrylics, photographs and drawing with some pen and ink thrown in for exploration.

Artist’s statement…
I spend a lot of mental time evaluating things, I should do this, I can do that it’s about this and about that, then I swing 180 degrees and think the opposite, so my works float somewhere in between. In essence I always come back to universal  forces and exploring the various notions this can mean. I am interested in the duality of life, a happy scene can become tragic, a dry day can become wet, $100 in the hand can be stolen etc, and a myriad of options from there.

My later works have delved into and around some of the concepts of DNA and the ways it’s portrayed visually (by scientists), I loosely started out with the promise of “What if it’s not like that at all? What if it’s a double helix but not a strict or formal structure?”

Mind you all of this is fine to say, but a day or so on from writing this I can change my mind… hmm and anyhow , how can you put visual language into words, we often fall short.

How do you describe your work, realistic, stylised, abstract, narrative, symbolic, other?
Abstract and stylised (some of my more literal landscape type images) the photo’s are clearly realistic and I aim for the an awe inspiring feel with those (although I may rarely capture that sensibility!)

Does your work have social, political, cultural and or personal messages?
Some of the works are environmentally focused, the bridges series looked at the connection (Bridges) both literal and conceptual between man, and the landscape and the way it’s been fooled around with.

What fascinates you?
Life and lots of things, I revel in an almost existential fascination for things, I will stop mid stride to check out the effect of dappled light from a tree on to a surface, then watch an ant, a fly, a flower and walk off. Oh and business that is an art in itself. I also think life is full of EM - NM (Everything Matters - Nothing Matters) It’s like a pendulum swinging between the two, and depending on your view or involvement will depend on which it is and to what degree, Therefore I can spend time thinking which is this an EM or NM situation, I thought of this myself, pretty neat hey? “Umm yeah I guess so”.

The change of seasons, so about now we are in late spring leading up to summer, and this morning there is BRILLIANT sunshine  bathing everything, the plants out the front are perfectly lit (where’s that camera?) and the feeling is one of nothing can be wrong in the world. It’s brilliant, as a kid the leaves on the trees in autumn would go golden, and in the spring the new growth was a clear sign things were growing fast, so I always had a good feel for the seasons although we can have 4 seasons in one day! I am also pretty good at knowing the time without a watch, and remember being able to pick 2 pm fairly well as a kid.

As a kid I got to look after people’s places in the neighbourhood while they were away, so I got a more in depth feel for how people lived, I watered their garden, mowed the grass, fed their cat etc. Sometimes the cat would be an indoors one so you could wander about and experience the view from their lounge room, pat the cat, feed it and move on. I love seeing how people do things differently, the way they revere different things, the family photo’s the smells.

In our current house we have a view from upstairs over an elderly ladies backyard, her vegie patch, her grass, the washing on the line, the dappled light cast from her trees and so on. When she dotters and potters about the backyard it’s a glimpse of another life, another way of being… Now that’s fascination, What’s her history, what’s her story, how long will she live, what does she do, the list is endless.

That leads me to another area of fascination, day dreaming, as a kid I did it heaps (who did school work anyway?) I would watch the birds out the window in the garden, the light through the trees, imagine being elsewhere. Other kids read books to “escape” I had my own world to escape to. I figured out later in life I am ADD and so this fits, short attention span for crap in class.

You are about being “In the moment” by the sounds of things?
That’s a great way to put it… in the moment, I can get out of a car on a rainy day, my head hurtling in one direction full of things to do, places to  be and all that jazz, then get caught in the moment, mesmerised by a view (wet bitumen in a car park can do that to a person)… I also like to use the word “mesmeric” I am not sure if it’s a real word but it’s a way of saying “when a thing is mesmerising” so I call it mesmeric. Dad taught me (not meaning to…) to play with words, it’s one of those joys in life people speak little of, he used to say things like “Pass me the K-nif-e” now we all know it’s pronounced nyf but spelt knife, so he would dishup the literal phonetic chunk and throw it out of amusement.

I can get captivated by those day dreamy chunks of life that are so ADD, away with the faeries not a care in the world.

Why are you an artist?
I could say “to avoid leading a boring life”, but really it’s about exploring the world more and keeping my hyperactive being, being, well that’s part of it, I guess I like looking at things and checking out ways it could be represented, talked about and so on.. I can’t say it’s a vital part of my life, in a sense I have had big chunks of time with no production or showing… I enjoy the engagement of the mind aspect probably the most and the tooing and froing, does this work, does that work, try this try that, push the boundaries. Then you go to see a show and find someone else has done a similar thing, and how they went about it, fascinating…

How did you get into art?
It seemed like an easy option at school (Yr 11 etc…) but it turned out to be the hardest path (in more ways than one) It was the first real time I had bothered to do any decent form of homework… Something about colour, processes and the materials engrossed me, then VOOM it all became very engaging, the notion of conceptual art… wow, the notion of creating something new… WOW! the notion of being “allowed” to explore !!! WOW!!!. I remember thinking why are some of the students doing art not overly interested in this? They were just plodding in an awkward way, it was a trudge, a go no where challenge. I never got that, If I sign up for something (well most things) I do it because it holds some form of fascination for me.

How important is art for you?
Very important, it gives me a range of perspectives for handling and exploring a tumultuous world.

Your art education was…?
Good, I could have pushed the boundaries more, great opportunities were lost due to laziness. I had some great teachers and some lousy ones, no names please.

On the topic of art education I think it falls short, change the title to “Aesthetics” then that would give them scope to put in more interior decoration type stuff, and cover other aspects than just “Art” and lets face it even though they call it “art” it’s often more of a “busy hands” subject, and if a teacher gives them any theory or homework shite hits the fan. Go to a parent teacher interview and watch the art teacher, often underwhelmed with visitors, people don’t generally value the arts, tough really.

Have you always been interested in art?
Not really, but now, that’s a different thing, while people swan about going to sports etc on the weekend I go to galleries (not all the time, perhaps a few times a year).

What did you do before becoming an artist?
It’s what I’ve done while being an artist that is probably more important, from a secondary art teacher, technical support staff for a photo company, a handyman, business teacher, coach and consultant, entrepreneur, etc… I love business it’s an art in itself (hey did I already say that somewhere else…) but it’s true many businesses fail, they got too loose, and in art that can happen too, so follow the rules then break them, repeat that cycle, plan do check act, it’s simple and hard all at once.

But life before art, well is that possible, hmm let’s see well I have always pulled things apart and built things, been hyper, thought “what if”, created things like Billy Carts and cubby houses, and had a vivid imagination. As a kid I would climb trees and watch the world unfold beneath me, sometimes I was able to hide from mates, I learned to hide my bike so they could not find me at times (I like my independence). So a creative being always.

What is your earliest memory of art?
Kinder, doing finger painting, and Yr 7 drawing a figure, the legs were too big but the rest was good. I did a picture with textas for mum once on a chunk of ply, I asked for it back a few months later, I think the ply was for a seat on my Billy Cart (hey it was important okay!)

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?
Simply put, no, but they put up with it. Struggle and discussion has helped, at dinner mum and I would discuss if a thing was a sculpture or not, she typed some of my early art assignments when I got stuck and helped out with a few of the structural parts of those, so that was good. The job prospects were NEVER there but over time It has had it’s uses, hey look at this blog, mind you my mum never said, you should start a blog and I will support you, my wife didn’t really either although it’s really her ideas that sparked my interest in creating it so thanks Sal. I think art needs to be encouraged, but the struggling artist thing is a great cliche to fall on to support it not being supported (did that come out right?). We are the sum total of all the things we have done, and so a rebellion against the “tres ordinare” life of my folks? Yeah probably.

Did the place where you grew up have an influence?
Yep, Yallourn in Victoria had great spring, summer and autumn days, the sun in the trees we used to climb, the innocence of the community (in the 60’s) I loved being a kid in a great place (it was a very beautiful town) and watching everything unfold with graceful elegance. I could ride my bike for hours exploring that place (and did.) I guess over time I look back with fondness and wish it was still there to explore differently. (The town was removed to remove the coal underneath it).

What or who inspires your art?
The landscape, the work of Jacko Pollock, visiting contemporary galleries (I try to get out on a gallery “crawl” as often as I can.) Science, documentaries, human frailty, human stupidity, intelligence, philosophy, nature, the Simpsons, positive people etc. Oh and Zippy the Pin Head (cartoon) great influence (or perhaps diversion) “Are we having fun yet!” Go google that and you will see where some of my sense of humor, philosophy and outlook on life has been tweaked (thanks again to Max for that one, can I mention he was an influence). Yeah one more Fluke, happenstance, synchronicity, universal forces… (those sneaky gods, what lesson are they teaching me now, or am I just being used as a guide as to what not to do?)

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?
Acrylics dry fast and I can get some nearly oil like effects when I want to. It suits my Hyperactive ADD nature, if I want image now, I don’t want to fuss and mess about with a long process spontaneity is a big thing for me at times, if I want to do it now I darn well will or be angry for not being able to.

Has your work changed much since your early efforts?
Yes and no… I seem go in one direction and then return to the source, then off on another tangent, I was always interested in “Universal forces”. I have slowly developed a sensibility around mark making and hope that what I do has tome “Intelligent” mark making happen.

Have your artistic influences altered over time?
Yes, I see new artists in on a gallery crawl and think YUM, and sometimes even YUK! Or I can do that, how much are they asking for it? Hmm.. I remember Kaye Green (Tasmanian Printmaker) who was one of my lecturers at the end of my vis art studies at uni say “I am interested in the perfect hill, finding it, drawing it, exploring it, creating it… That’s what  am about in my work” Now that was at the time, it may have altered since then but you get the idea. I was totally taken with that level of absorption to the subject matter at the time. Then I go to a point of exploring things in other ways and search more for the essence of things, rather than trying to represent things in some way… However when it comes to landscape it can be SOOO tempting to throw in a ‘cliche’ horizon line.

You know you are successful in Visual Arts when…
You get a sense your peers are nodding in a positive way and the galleries show more than a passing glance at what you do. No stuff that it’s when people line up to buy your works and you can’t produce enough so you take on staff to assist you. No wrong, it’s when you are making $250k per year+ just from your art. Yeah that’s it, oh does that sound too much like I want to only make money from Art… Hmm, I guess I want a balance between producing amazing works that grab attention and stand on their own (whatever that might mean) and an income.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?
Basics are basics, well made will win out more often than not, mind you I have seen a lot of crap over the years going for top dollar in galleries, I end up saying I could do better than that! so it’s back to basics…

Creative streaks do they come in waves for you?
Yes, sometimes I get swamped, sometimes it’s a gentle current. Once I did a bunch of etchings and gave one to a mate for his 21st present, one of his “bogan mates” commented that it “looked like two bandaids jumping a barbed wire fence…” so the next day i did an etching had that title and was more literally like it says, I was so excited by the idea, the guy didn’t understand, thought I was a nut, I had a sleepless night waiting to get to the print room.

Some say the lifespan of an “artist” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that?
Fight it I say, ask how important is Visual Art to you and then make it happen, yeah easier said than done… It comes down to people not valuing the arts, and that falls on the education system as much as parental values and beliefs do. We should be holding artists aloft, treating them like goddesses and warriors… oh who am I kidding but it’s a nice thought, heck these people create anew, they explore boundaries, push limits, challenge our thinking, and that is VERY useful.

What has been a turning point in your career thus far and why?
Having a joint exhibition with Pete Biram, I pushed, he produced, I produced and we did it, 25 odd years after the first photo show we did together after art school, good value I got an itch to do more. The first solo show (the next year after the joint show) was also good value lots of friends and some family showed up, the friends that showed up were genuine in their support and I hope I have also been genuine in my support of them too.

Another turning point was at Uni I set up an art installation and one of the guys said “Oh your work is very existential” I then tried to figure out what he meant, that moment comes back often, and yeah he’s right. Its a branch of philosophy, with a view that things unfold day to day and my work now and then fits to that, then again so does so much other work too!

If you could have any piece of artwork in your personal collection, what would it be and why?
Blue poles by jackson Pollock, masterpieces are masterpieces full stop, I could (and have) stood and looked at it for ages. The same with most of Fred Williams work, as for a print, Melancholia by Albrecht Durer is simply sensational, the symbolism, the sense of foreboding etc… YUM! Yeah and a big indigenous piece in the Ian Potter Museum in Melbourne, it’s really long and was a joint effort between a bunch of artists, it is mind blowing!

Can you name a favourite artist or three… and why?
Pollock (clearly) Mary Tonkin (sublime landscapes) from a banal view to an exceptional concept, too good to be true. Denis Nona, lots of Indigenous works, lots my peers… Kaye Green, Euan Heng, Tim Storrier, Ray Arnold, Penelope Long, Pete Biram, Albrecht Durer, Ansel Adams, Euene Atget, Kerrie Warren, Colin Pennock (texture rocks!), and a bunch of others. I have one of Kerries, and Kayes Pieces, so vibrant.

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.
Life is full of “curve balls” a long break between shows and producing didn’t help I guess. I wanted to be prolific but that has come in fits and spurts, I get started and then fade, I guess I lose some interest perhaps from a lack of confidence in my own ability, I see how many artists are out there and I am only one small voice.

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind?
Only when working, I used to have a very active journal (lots of writing and not much imagery.)

Do you aim to break the rules of basic composition, layout etc or do you ignore the “rules” and just create?
Yes, rules are there to be pushed, it’s part of the “You can’t do that, mentality…” and the ensuing “Oh no? Just watch me…!”

What sort of research and or reference material do you do for current works and has that changed over time?
The internet is a source of lots of things. I draw a bit, use memory use photo’s as a sense of reference. In the good old days it was a conceptual world so not a lot of reference points were thought about, drawn, photographed etc.

I write a lot, jotting ideas down, getting strings of words together to assist me to make sense of the world, does it show that I like words? sometimes I am able to pull together a neat bunch of words and want to some how illustrate those or mimic them visually somehow.

Musical influences?
Zappa (thanks Max…) Absurd realities is what Frank was all about, I love the absurd views. Also instrumental stuff, new age sometimes, classical, but I generally work in silence. I tried having music in the darkroom as a student but I danced about too much and got little done, don’t tell anyone that! Oops…

My Brother has a band I was in one of them (playing bass many years back) the latest incarnation plays Blues, that’s been an influence, I used to also do sound and lighting for one of the earlier ones, so a lot of drinking played a part (hey can I put that down as an influence or a distraction?) Too much alcohol  took its toll in various ways but a big part of the scene for me at that time.

Another influence, STOMP these guys do a stage routine that has amazing beats and rhythms that are simply wonderful, and all on junkyard scrap, amazing. Oh and Cirque Du Soliel, yes the music and the performances… BRILLIANT!

What sort of depth or meaning is there behind the work you do?
Probably the best example is the Harm series I did with text (a comment on violence and how we accept it) these have symbols I created relating to the words I have used to explore the theme. (The symbols gave me a chance to get a directly visual connection happening to the words and therefore, hopefully engage the viewer somehow more deeply.)

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
I go back and forward on this one, but how can I know if they “Get it” or not. Some might say what is there to get?

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?
Vital, but then again how can it not communicate anything, is it communicating the right things effectively?

Art is about entertainment, experiment, inventiveness or shock for you?
Experiment and inventiveness, entertainment? Hmm not sure but the egotist in me says yeah… Would love to shock people but apart from using a tazer on the viwers I think I might not be there quite yet.

Your first “decent” gallery representation, how did it come about?
I thought I did then I didn’t… I had a joint show an art consultant saw, we still chat but the representation thing is a hurdle, confidence? fear of failure? fear of success? Enough work? no awards… no accolades?

The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts?
Business is mostly art or should I say a creative process, rather than a strict science, so art should be able to handle it conceptually and artists should go for the ride full throttle (my view). But it doesn’t happen often enough, I think there must be a lot of works under beds hidden away because of this. I guess there is not enough emphasis on the business side of art in educational institutions as it is seen as some form of “Prostitution” and you “sell out” if you sell your work, but then they talk about successful artists often in $$ terms.

Note how this swings through what I was talking about earlier, EM - NM. I think there must be many frustrated parents that have sent their “kid” to art school (because they were somehow “good at it” according to the teacher), this was covered with some thinly veiled notion of jobs being available… Lets take that for a moment and think if you spend three or more years at Uni on most other courses, you come out with a job prospect and a pay scale commensurate with doing that level of study, in Vis Arts, nup that rarely happens… Oh but go ahead and prove me wrong.

What is the most unexpected response you’ve received from a viewer of your work?
“These photographs are meaningless.” Gee Einstien thanks for that, glad you have diplomacy skills (not!) I had a giggle, he got a few mouthfuls from the crowd, the odd ooh and ahh (negatively) for that. (There goes that pendulum swinging between EM - NM again… If you don’t watch it it will knock you over…

Is your art, “art for art sake…” or a matter of “art for commercial viability?”
Sheesh! I wish I could decide and get on with it… I want it to pay it’s way, I want people to hang the works, I want to have a gallery say “more, more, MORE!” But for all the right reasons.

Your work seems to cover a range of stylistic diversions, thoughts, concepts?
Hmm yep, I like lots of things, so from a Mandala, a DNA type image, dappled light, war and harm, landscape, pure abstraction I like it all (and then some), so for me to explore all these things is great, the big thing is I have come back to art later in life and don’t have too many pressures of galleries saying I need to be consistent etc. Anyway I don’t stand too solidly by the consistency theory, I am more “art for art sake” than commercially viable, but I always struggle to handle that, perhaps it’s a response to not being represented (yet) and I am covering my lack of confidence, but then I also have forces working on the idea of “but if it’s got a decorative nature to it it will sell better? Am I looping yet?. What was the question?

If you have been working as an artist for a while, how do you feel about earlier works that are in people’s collections / ownership?
Fine, there is one piece I would like back it’s too good to be out in public/private hands… the guy that had it died so I hope his partner kept it. It’s a red scupltural piece that hangs on the wall with imagery and a waxed parcel of photocopies… I t freak my mum out as it has me wearing a blindfold holding up a mirror, she was spooked by it, so much so I had to take it off my wall at home.

Name a book or books, which may have inspired your work as an artist?
A photo book on Eugene Atget with Poems by Marcel Proust, I loved that book, it was $75 about 25 years back I read it cover to cover in two days and drooled over the photo’s… Images by Ansel Adams did the same thing, hey should I mention these guys as artistic influences or whatever? Oh and there was a photo book shop in Melb where I tried to buy $150 worth of books and I did not have that much on my credit card, it was hard to only get $50 worth, I had to choose! gee that was hard.

Shaun Tan’s books are a visual delight, they are worth a look and of course “Re-Imagine” by Tom Peters, the man is a legend in business management circles and yess ALL of it relates to art, the pasion for the subject, the passion for design, etc, it’s all there.

One other book that also stands out is by Dr David McLelland on Human Motivation, Brilliant!

Tell us about your studio environment.
At the moment I have a tight little garage space my wife wants back for the car… grr. Low light, crap space no room for much storage, but I am lucky I now want to do smaller works (rolls his eye’s).

Is your work process fast or slow?
Yes it can be. (rolls his eye’s again) But I don’t do nearly enough work, like a lot of artists I run out of room, (hey wanna buy a painting, give an old artist some more room to create?) I would like to be really prolific, but I start looping about, it goes like this… “I have to but I can’t, I can but do I want to?” repeat… Grr! again… (Steve fidgets a bit and says) So yeah it’s a conundrum, (He’s now jiggling one leg up and down rather fast, an almost nervous twitch.) So I would like to have a great situation, you know, someone supplies the canvas and the paint and I paint, or draw, or photograph, but I figure right… I would probably procrastinate,s o there is something about the struggling artist bit that makes things interesting.

Otto Dix the German artist said (in part)… “All art is exorcism…” Is that the case for you?
How can it not be? Devil be gone! But he keeps coming back, tortures the soul the prick, and if there is a god I think he (or it?) is in cahoots with the devil, they play good cop bad cop all the time, as to why they have singled me out is another thing.

Art as a therapeutic device; do you think it is useful for this purpose and is your work in this category somehow?
Yes, how can it not be… (Did I say that already?) cathartic might be a response here, see the Otto Dix statement. I am interested in how at can open dialogue between people, not that this happens much (or enough), but when it does “Watch out!” case in point when a work on a wall in a home causes a discussion and it goes back and forth for 20 mins + then that is a good thing, even if the discussion is an argument.

Some artists are more “at home” isolated in their creative process, while others revel in being part of a group to bounce “ideas off” how about you?
Deep in contemplation, no disruptions please and keep your ideas to yourself, nice that you might like it but rack off while it’s being developed.

When you get the urge to create art because something has “pushed your button/s” how compelling is it for you?
Try and stop me, it’s a hassle though, you can be a squillion miles away from the studio or your camera grr! Ever notice how many photo’s you see without a camera?

What is more important to you in your work, content or technique, concept or product?
Concept, I see it as the foundation the rest is built on, no idea, no art. End product is vital (as proof you made art).

Is the making of art all it was “cracked up to be”?
Never, it’s harder and very competitive, mind you the teachers did say that, we never belived a word of it though.

Do you connect with other art mediums and styles?
Yes lots, but printmaking and drawing (all sorts) is of perhaps deeper interest. I would like to get back into mono prints, they can be so rich, deep and alluring.

You just said it’s competitive, who are you competing with?
Myself mainly, but the big bad world of art has fresh faced graduates coming out and older ones stepping up, and mature ones coming back, and not enough galleries to go around, hey they should put a limit on how many artists there are… grr. (Rolls his eye’s and giggles.)

Do you aim to make “masterpieces” with the aim of being seen in the future as an artist that really made their mark in art history?
I wish… Masterpieces would be good, oh and how would you measure that?

What are you currently working on?
Did some pen and ink works to explore where I am at with my general imagery and concepts, it became a bit of an evolutionary process. I want to do more, some mono prints would be good, my latter paintings are very light so working in Black and white has been useful to break the bonds that provides.

You didn’t include any of the drawings or photo’s in the images for this interview, reason?
Go check them out in the album on the website (link at top), the drawings are all about exploring ideas and notional concepts of possibility, I guess they are not finished art works as such, hmm then again? the photo’s are a mix of things that interest me and a quick grab of things of value, I am so fortunate to be able to paint and photograph, draw and do whatever with all of it. My early photo’s are black and white (not on the website yet) are strongly contrasted against the colours and flightiness of the paintings and drawings.

Your blog is different from other artists blogs, how come?
Well It’s interesting, It started out as a resource to assist teachers to teach without having too, send the students here and let them do some “trawling” for resources, especially art theory at VCE level, but now the interviews have taken off and some great feedback too. I also have some web experience in other blogs and forums and have coupled that experience together and used it here, my web guy is right, he says content is king, so on start up I whacked up a bunch of articles and just kept going. So by the time people got here it looked well established, and in Blog terms it is.

Other artists start a blog to tell the world about their journey, but in essence who cares? (cynical is another trait of mine, so sorry if I have offended…) and in google search terms the idea is to keep it active and humming, many run out of things to say, many don’t have it as their home page and jump on it to chat to the world, many don’t even know how many people look at it, so after a while their interest wanes. Pity really so much that could be said, so little time.

Watch out for a fresh development a sister site (hey how come we don’t say a brother site?) with art activities and this site to have the gritty interviews etc.

Your work other than art is training and development based, how does that fit into the picture?
Well the idea was as an art student to make money making art. Then reality set in, over the years I have done a lot of things and one of the things I found I was good at was training people, so the stuff I do is about leadership, Innovation (creativity had to creep in there somewhere!) and communication. I use a lot of creative approaches to teach people, that means fun, that means more info shared effectively. Quick example of a creative training approach, I have used with groups a simple exercise to stimulate left and right brain, mind mapping and so on.

One of these activities is a physical one where you do a lot of “cross over” exercises, I coupled this with a mirroring and matching exercise build around building rapport. The end result after a few goes is a fantastic mix of the whole lot that had innovation classes with people taking the exercises to a new level and it became very 3D! (think twister with a twist.)

Oh and don’t forget the handyman stuff… problem solving all the time.

Thanks for your time Steve, Your welcome Steve, now how about a beer? Is that recorder still on? (click…)

“Hey here’s a photo of me as a kid, Interested?” No Steve it’s not professional… “Oh go on!”  Oh okay if you insist.

Peter Biram

Peter Biram is an oil painter from Gembrook in Victoria who considers himself to be an environmental Expressionist, he is a contemporary artist who paints landscapes and portraits with equal gusto. Peter says he has been making art all his life and hopes to do so in his next life as well. Peter’s website showcases his works, blog, depth of media exposure, and exhibitions.

You are passionate about art, what about other areas of your life?
I have two passions in my life, Art & Art Education. Over the past fifteen years I have worked in Visual Art education, I have been placed into the frustrating position of having to continuously justify the value of the arts and arts education. At present there is a move in the United States recognising the value of the ‘creative industries’ and the value that in turn, contributes to the economy. I can only hope that rubs off here. Of course I am also passionate about my family, very supportive friends and the many students I have the pleasure of working with, some of whom have become personal friends and emerging contemporary artists as well.

What do you want to tell us about your background?
Born in 1959 studied Visual Arts at G.I.A.E. (now Monash University) where he graduated in 1981 with a Diploma in Visual Arts. In the years since I have continued study, which now includes a Graduate Diploma in Education, a Bachelor of Education and a Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts (Painting). In the 1980’s I worked as a photo-journalist which lead to the position of News Camerman with Channel 10 in Melbourne. In 1989 I began my teaching career as Photography teacher at Monash Universtiy (part time). In 1994 I moved to Gipps TAFE in the Latrobe Valley where I am currently teaching a range of Art subjects in the Art, Design and Mulitmedia Department.

Since becoming an art teacher I have had several exhibitions featuring a body of work exploring the ‘sublime in landscape’. Within this context the work also explores how humankind interacts with the natural environment, paying special attention to the ‘order and chaos’ that exists within the natural world. At the moment I enjoy the combination of both working as an artist and teaching.

How about your art?
I draw my inspiration from the Australian bush and express this love in the bright fresh application of colour. I prefer to paint with my hands and fingers, to feel the tactile quality of the painting process. I am also also a portrait painter, and a regular entrant in the Archibald Prize, I am currently working on a body of work exploring the theme of ‘land ownership’ and ‘usage’ within an environmental framework. This relationship includes traditional and non-traditional interaction with the land. Within this theme I am exploring the fine balance that exists in the natural environment.
My work reads on several layers-
Mark making
On this level the viewer processes the work on a surface level, that is to say the paint texture and colour of the work. The work at this level can be read in decorative terms.

Subject
At this level the viewer reads the work as a landscape, within this framework the observer can interpret the geometric forms as pure decoration.

Conceptual Narrative
This current body of work exploring the theme of ‘land ownership’ and ‘usage’ within an environmental framework. This relationship includes traditional and non-traditional interaction with the land.

For example, within this theme of land ownership I am exploring the pressure that is placed on the land in an environmental sense both in a western/ European standpoint (the ‘Triangle’) and the koorie perspective, (the dots).

Within this theme I am exploring the fine balance that exists in the natural environment. This is to say “Order & Chaos” found within nature and the balance of power shifting between the two states. The composition is deliberately broken into two sections symbolizing the two states of chaos & order, the fine balance of nature is placed under pressure re land “caretakership”. Within this framework I have explored both contemporary ownership symbolized by the triangle in the bottom half of the composition. (from a European standpoint) The ‘hard edged’ nature of the triangle also represents past civilizations (the pyramids of Egypt) this presents a symbol of ‘land ownership’ in the sense of  ‘branding’ the land.

I choose the triangle/pyramid shape because of its direct contrast to the soft organic nature of the bush motif. This also symbolizes human kind’s influence on the natural landscape. The two triangles “together” also read as a symbol for a ‘blackhole’ within the context of a universe the top triangle is a symbol for Steve Hawking’s theory on the ‘Dual Universe’. I use this as a metaphor for “Order & Chaos” and how one juxtaposes one against another, that is to say, as human beings our nature is to explore, from a ‘micro’ level, our backyard, to a ‘macro’ level our universe.

With ‘exploration, comes responsibilities re, the balance of the natural environment vs exploitation.
In this particular painting, “He who explores” I am expressing the impact human kind imposes on the land, this work is an extension from a previous work “The Human Landscape”. In this work I explore the impact that humankind expresses on a “VISUAL” Level, for example, the visual impact that thousands & thousands of kilometres of roads that crisscross this nation. Also the road and the vapour trail in the sky is used as a direct symbol of EXPLORATION Of our land, or in other words the taming of the “wilderness”, this vapour trail is also a symbol of ‘modernity’ and how our attention turns to the sky for the next evolution of – He who explores.

What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on a portrait of’ bud’ Tingwell for the 2009 Archibald prize.
I previously been accepted in the 2005, 2006,2007 Salon Des Refuses, am hoping that next year ‘Bud” will do it for me.

The Archibald is about controversy and I love it, because we can criticise it.
That’s what I love about being Australian, we like having a go at the establishment and while I worship the Archibald - and would worship it even more if I won it - it should be able to stand up to criticism. An artist’s job is to act as a commentator on what’s happening. I think most artists feel the same way as I do (about the Archibald Prize) but if they feel they’re being gagged then they’re not doing their job.

Why are you an artist?
Because I don’t have a choice

What is your earliest memory of art?
Grabbing a can-opener and gouging an image into my parent’s bed head

Do you have questions for the Artist? Go to the comments section at the bottom of this post and ask away.

Compiled and edited by Steve Gray Contemporary Australian Artist

Mike Maxwell

Presenting Mike Maxwell from El Cajon,California you can see his site at www.mikemaxwellart.com

 

Mike also has a blog you can view here.

Teachers and Students: you can download a worksheet on Mike’s interview here.

Mike works mainly on Acrylic on hand made birch panels, a unique approach.

Born in 1979 San Diego based artist Mike Maxwell has built a loyal following with his signature stone-blue faces, gloomy churches and beautiful windmills. Self-taught and continuously improving in his work, the poetic dreamy scenes examine humanity, conceptuality, genetics and consciousness. With subtle changes in both theme and process, Maxwell has sharpened his skill providing more depth in his current work. Maxwell’s choice of color is deliberate and with purpose reflecting a lack of race and ambiguity in the stone-blue faced pieces. The work has a lot to do with his personal re-education and a desire to learn and understand things that are so prevalent in our society but are often forgotten by the masses. Focusing his work around the human experience, themes of religion, sex and science captivates our attention in these acrylic beauties. Mikes work has been shown nation wide and over seas at galleries in  Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Japan, London, and Australia. Mikes work is described as subrealisim.

Mike, what are you currently working on?
I have a bunch of shows coming up. I have a new print being released through Friends and Co. out of Bristol England. That is available now. I’m in The Helsinki Biennial I also have some stuff at Studio 27 28 in Philly in November I’m in a group show at Distinction Gallery that was curated by Kelly Vivanco in December. I’m also starting work for 2 solo show s next year at The Shooting Gallery and at M Modern Gallery both in California.

Is there one word to describe your current works?
Disobedience

How did you get into art?
My Mother and Grandfather were both talented artists, I did two landscape paintings with my Grandfather at a very young age that had a lasting impact on me. I always wanted to make things. My Mother always challenged me to improve my craftsmanship and that is something that has stuck with me my whole life.

What did you do before becoming an artist?
I’ve always been an artist, but I have worked a ton of odd jobs, I’ve done graphic design, tattooed for awhile, lots of some how art related jobs.

What is your earliest memory of art?
My moms murals on our bedroom walls.

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?
Yes and has continued throughout the years. They have been my biggest supporters.

Did the place where you grew up have an influence?
I would assume. I think our geographic location on this earth always has an influence in everything we do and everything we are.

What or who inspires your art?
Everything inspires me, the whole gamut of emotions obviously, lately ignorance has been a  big inspiration. Art always inspires me, everyone out there working hard doing what they love inspires me. Independence inspires me.

How important is art for you?
It’s as important as everything else I enjoy in my life. Financially its how I support myself, but if it didn’t I would still deem it important. As far as others art, I feel like my day would be lacking somewhat if I didn’t see new art everyday. I see art in many things, so luckily for me, that never happens.

Some say the lifespan of an “artist” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that?
What about artists who never stop being educated? Or does this statistic only apply to those who are “formally” educated? If you are a true artist your artistic lifespan last your lifespan.

Tell us about your connection to your subject matter, way of working, concepts etc?
Most of my work starts as a research project, I learn as much as I can about a particular topic, then make work based on what I have learned.

What has been a turning point in your career thus far and why?
Working with Shepard Fairey back in 2000. I spent two years working with him, Dave Kinsey, and a handful of other talented artists for two years. I learned a hell of a lot in those two years.

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.
I think everyone has had struggles in some way. That’s how we learn new things and adapt. I hate to complain about having it rough because there is always someone else out there in the world who has had it twice as rough as you. Its better not to whine about it.

Musical influences?
I’m listening to a lot of Roky Erickson right now, The Juno soundtrack has had a lot of play as of late. Bill Callahan. Modest Mouse.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate?
I’d rather the viewer find something in the work that they relate to on their own, regardless of whether they “get it” or not. Unfortunately I often find that the viewer is more interested in being told how to “get it”, instead of figuring things out on your own. But that sort of parallels the society we live in these days.

Want to ask Mike a question about hiw work? Check out the comments link below, then ask away!

Compiled and edited by Steve Gray Contemporary Australian Artist

Simon Collins

Simon Collins from South Sydney paints in oils and is represented by
Ian Dawson Gallery http://www.antheapolsonart.com.au/ his websites are http://www.simoncollinsart.com/ http://www.smallartworks.blogspot.com/  http://wwwlife-draw.blogspot.com/ 

Artist’s statement…
My inspiration is simply the visual appeal of ordinary moments in my life, mostly on the road that just cry out to be painted. I’m subjected to a visual torrent every day on the road and grab at will. I like the viewer to take what they will from the work, what they read into it they read into my experiences, so without saying a lot about my life (I’m quite a private person), it’s more just about my investigation. Subject matter aside, I quite simply mess with the medium and try to paint a pleasing picture and reach a level of sophistication in doing that. I’m very interested in the translation of nuances of digital photography to that of paint, which is where I want to further push my work.

How do you describe your work?
Direct energetic and intuitive

How did you get into art?
Always took to drawing from earliest memory, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up and applied for art school, got in, took it from there.

What is your earliest memory of art?
Winning a colouring in competition at age 3 or 4

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?
Yes, in that my father dabbled in oil painting, I copied him a little as kids do and my parents always seemed to be impressed with my art, as good parents do

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?
Playing with my fathers oils at a very young age created a mindset that it’s the real artists stuff, but I loved it since then and love it more now.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?
Very Little. I believe the most creative musician can be a kid thrashing it out in his or her bedroom with a cheap electric guitar missing all the notes; it can still be music that has real meaning. I believe the same for visual art

Does the sale of your work support you?
I rely on my business partnership doing aquarium and pond services/consults which affords a freedom to not be a sales motivated artist and at the same time busy as I am, being my own boss allows me to take a day or even a few hours off at short notice for painting or dropping work to a gallery etc.

Some say the lifespan of an “artist” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that?
Post educationally (bachelor degree after high school) I have trouble seeing how anyone can be too ready for life as a full time gallery artist inside of 10 years, but accept there are exceptions. I spent 15 years ‘maturing’ after my bachelor degree before I felt ready to create seriously and then a few more before deciding I wanted to pursue a career as a gallery artist.

What has been a turning point in your career thus far and why?
Finding a good weekly life drawing group to join and religiously attend. Drawing the body is varyingly challenging. These days I treat it like training and therapy.

If you could have any piece of artwork in your personal collection, what would it be and why?
Perhaps Robert Raushenberg’s Quarter Mile? I’d never get bored of that, and it would certainly be a constant source of discovery and inspiration.

Okay this is about Visual Arts, but most artists have favourite music they enjoy while working or just in general what about you?
Very much so. I tend to listen mostly to artists who are artists in the sense that they exist on their own terms and are truly original, are creating work that are timeless and not part of a fashionable trend. A few long-term staples are Nick Cave in his various forms, Iggy Pop, Ween, Beasts of Bourbon, The Melvins; there’s many more. But at the same time I can enjoy a Jazz show on the radio or abc classic FM.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
I don’t ever feel compelled to explain my work, and there’s certainly not a whole lot to ‘get’, nothing too profound anyway. The subject matter is symptomatic of my situation and experiences, which I paint to investigate, and that choice can be read into and is what the viewer can read into as they will, I don’t believe I spell it out in any certain way. When experiencing art there’s nothing worse than having it spelled out to you. When art, be it literature, books, movies, music or painting treats the audience like a moron the work becomes pedestrian and suffers. What I hope the view ‘gets’ is the sophistication of the visuals and the use of paint more than anything.

Your first “decent” gallery representation, how did it come about?
In both instances the best way possible in that my work was noticed, communication initiated and a suggestion that we could perhaps work together that was followed through.

The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts?

It’s an unfortunate necessity for a career artist. Some artists I know find it a lot less challenging than others. Having a good dealer eases that challenge somewhat, but there is always work for the career artist in marketing.

Tell us about your studio environment?
Getting into a decent size studio was a major catalyst to me raising my work level a peg, but it could never be big enough, light is ok. One must work with what they have.

Is your work process fast or slow?
I work very directly and get through a painting faster than most, once at the easel.

Otto Dix the German artist said (in part)… “All art is exorcism…” Is that the case for you? If so how…
In a way. I need my easel time. I don’t get to paint every day, but I make sure I step in the studio every day. Contemplation of unfinished and future works keeps the wheels turning in art and life, and somewhat therapeutic.

Do the seasons affect your work or work habits?
I work at night in a converted garage. It doesn’t really affect my routine, only the comfort factor in the winter cold. I much prefer painting in shorts and bare feet.

Which is more important to you, the subject of your painting, or the way it is executed?
Definitely for me it is in the execution. The subject matter is important because it is snapshots of my life, but most of my important decisions in the creative process are about the visual qualities of paint and the painting and the intent in which it is delivered.

Do you prefer a perfect smooth technique or a more energetic expressive technique and why?
My surfaces are always very far from smooth and an important part of the work. I like to paint the whole canvas at once, which lets me see the whole composition. If I can’t see it fast I’d lose interest. I’m not one to work up through the layers to achieve a tone or colour. I need to mix it and put it down and see it. So I’m efficient with time, but also paint strokes, and feel successful when all that energy is evident in honest and confident (if not audacious) paint energy. At the same time it lets the viewer in on the process.

Have you won any awards?
I haven’t won awards, but I got highly commended (runner up) in the Waverley Art prize 07 and 08. Getting hung in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize 08 was pretty good too, as was being hung in Mosman Art Prize 07 and 08.

Technology (websites and social networking sites to name a few) has become an important marketing tool for many industries and individuals, what are your thoughts from a “You Inc” perspective and your art sensibility.
Having a website is key to getting your work seen, and makes getting a gallery a whole lot easier too. Then there is a myriad of ways to get your website seen.

Do you work from life, or from photographs or from imagination or some other method?
I unashamedly work from photographs, but I don’t paint the photo, I use it as a reference.

What is your working routine?
I always listen to music. I catch a few favourite radio shows, and listen to cd’s otherwise. I paint at night once the kids are down, sometimes working through to 4am.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
Paint a lot, learn to be self-critical, listen to the opinions of other respected peers when they are good enough to give it to you honestly.

Do you have questions for the Artist? Go to the comments section at the bottom of this post and ask away.

Ursula Gullow

Ursula Gullow Lives in Asheville, North Carolina you can check out her website here www.ursulagullow.com and also her blog www.artseenasheville.blogspot.com

So Ursula, before we jump into the art questions, do you have any other interests?
Everything relates back to the art I make. I’m fascinated by ideas like the collective conscious, the dreaming world, animal super powers, mysticism, magic, history, cyber communication, electronics, plant propagation. Issues like competitive sports, war and the stock market hold a different inspiration for me.

As a painter, what can you tell us about your work…
My paintings are an exploration of the spaces occupied by almost-formed narratives and the awkward uncertainties of in-betweens. Politics, people and nature all provide source imagery. The paintings, in oil on canvas, are created in fluid layers, with fragments of under painting showing through the finished surface, figures painted just enough to catch the essential gesture, character and movement. The backgrounds and foregrounds shift energetically as paint fields overlap at the edges of a form, resolving into a kind of illustrative expressionism. The approach maintains an economy of detail; stripes may be painted on the shirt of a small figure, but the features of the face left off. The goal is an awareness of something unresolved in both the paint surfaces and the scenarios they reflect, as if an animated storyline has been momentarily paused. The subjects are fragments of narratives, which describe situations we don’t quite know, can’t quite pin down, each a moment so specific as to be universal.

Is there a reason for you becoming an Artist?
It’s the thing I found that makes the most sense to me and suits my lifestyle the best. I need flexibility, community and a minimal budget to live the fullest life possible. Making art in a small city like Asheville affords me all those things.

How did you get into art?
I just have always been into making things. I didn’t go to school for art but surrounded myself with creative types. I was involved with a ceramic artist and started drawing on his pots, then started making tiles, and gradually gathered enough confidence to show my paintings publicly.

Have you always been interested in art?
I wasn’t interested in aesthetics until I decided to try my hand at graphic design about 10 years ago. I wasn’t interested in the art world until I began showing my paintings six years ago. I was always creative, but I didn’t know what I wanted to paint until I turned 30.

What did you do before becoming an artist?
I’ve had a million food service jobs, cleaning jobs and production jobs. I spent my twenties trying out a lot of things – from illustration to glassblowing – I also spent my twenties moving around a lot.

What is your earliest memory of art?
I was in a museum in Washington DC probably when I was 13 and I reached out to touch a painting – it was huge and had big globs of paint that I wanted to bite off. Instantly a security guard stepped forward and reprimanded me. I was really embarrassed and felt like a country bumpkin for not knowing the proper art appreciation etiquette. I’ve always been terrified of people in uniforms.

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?
Music was a huge thing. My mother made sure every one of her 6 kids played an instrument. I played piano for 6 months and was terrible. I played violin for 10 years and really liked playing in orchestras and chamber groups. We grew up with a lot of classical music and opera. My mother is a deeply creative and passionate person and she contributed a magical element to everything when I was growing up – she still does.

Did the place where you grew up have an influence?
I grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York. The land and seasons were beautiful, but the emotional dissociation that is necessary to operate a functioning dairy farm is heartbreaking. I think about the concepts of good and evil a lot and the exploitive properties inherent to agrarian societies.

What or who inspires your art?
Everything. I like being in the know. I like to keep abreast of trends and celebrities. I like to feel what the collective conscious is feeling. This doesn’t necessarily inspire my art but it inspires me, and to some extent my aesthetic choices. I’ve always been drawn towards meeting all types of people – I’m not that sort of quiet, anti-social pained artist you read about or see in the movies.

How important is art for you?
Everything is art. So it’s not even a question of being important. My social life revolves around it. Art happenings and art openings are celebrations of humanity and I love that – the same is true for graffiti and dance parties and political movements.

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?
I really believe economics plays a big role in this. I chose painting because it is cheap, accessible and saleable. That sounds disgusting, but I think it’s true. I wanted to work with metals when I was in college but the lab fee was too expensive for me. I don’t think I’d want to work with a medium that I need big and dangerous equipment for. On the other hand, painting chose me too. I could be drawing for all the reasons I’ve stated but I like the luscious quality of paint.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?
The concept should be fabricated as well as it needs to be, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be well crafted in order to have the concept communicated.

What has been a turning point in your career thus far and why?
My first showing of paintings in Seattle was so well received that I continued on. That was the turning point in my life I think.

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.
The biggest struggle for me is the will to continue and maintain inspiration and fresh ideas. Too many rejection letters in one month can be draining.

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind?
No. I have tried but it always feels forced for me. I keep a notebook near my bed to write my dreams in. The thing with me is that really I am painting whenever I have a moment so that is like my journal.  When traveling I occasionally do sketches, and I have a blog which is a great device for communicating ideas.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
I am continually amazed at people’s responses to my work. Most often it is not in line with what I was thinking when I made the piece but I value their perspective.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?
It will always communicate something and I can’t force the viewer to see what I see. I’m happy if they take time to notice it and comment on it. At best a discussion will be provoked. A man recently saw a piece I did that had kids throwing rocks and he was completely disgusted by it.

What can you say about your work that might not be evident to the viewer?
A lot of people think my work is funny and quirky, and that’s probably because they’re funny and quirky. There is a real seriousness I have when I’m creating it. In my mind it’s a recreation of the sublime beauty of struggle and the human condition and debunking myths of hierarchy and good vs. evil.

What can you tell us about your creative development process?
I didn’t receive a formal education in art and I often wonder how things would be for me if I had. Maybe I would hash out concepts and ideas more. I tend to have a bit of attention deficit regarding my work as it is always changing in scale, subject matter, color schemes etc. I might paint small tight narratives one week and large organic landscapes the next. I let myself experiment and then return to my comfort zone with fresh perspective.

Art is about entertainment, experiment, inventiveness or shock for you?
All of those words mean the same thing to me, and yes, art is about all of that as well as celebration and community. Creating art and living a creative life within a dominant paradigm that does not value art (such as in the United States) is the most revolutionary aspect inherent to art. It is the beginning of social empathy and transformation.

If you stopped doing art right now would you miss it?
Yes. But there is no way I would stop being creative unless I really wanted to. Even if I was blind and deaf and had no use of my limbs. I’d probably smear my face around in mud at that point. Or make brilliant spit bubbles. Or sing. Or go insane - which is its own creative form.

Is motivation to work an issue for you and how do you overcome it?
Sometimes I have no motivation to make paintings. I usually find a different creative outlet like video or blogging. But the creative process is cyclical and at this point I know my patterns enough to not get too freaked out if I’m not producing work. If I don’t feel like painting that month I might put my energy into researching grants and galleries, applying to shows, networking or just taking care of my emotional and physical health.

Do you have a challenge knowing when a work is finished?
It’s just something I intuitively feel when the piece is complete. I usually sign it when I know it’s almost done, and finish it up shortly thereafter.

Are their special aspects to the making of your work that you want to share?
I just really want to avoid being formulaic. I think I know when that’s happening, and then I’ll play tricks on myself like maybe removing a particular color from my palette – or adding a new one I’ve never worked with before.

You know you have “made it as an artist” when
When you stop asking yourself if you’ve made it as an artist.

The business side of art how does it work for you?
The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts? Approach it like you approach your art. If you’re slow and methodical that will pay off, and if your bombastic and manic that will pay off. Either way, marketing is an art in itself so have fun with it. Artists are some of the most entrepreneurial people I know. We have to be! I mean, mostly we’re totally self-possessed and don’t trust anyone to run our business but ourselves. This whole idea of the “flaky artist” is an urban myth – or at least one that preceded the cyber era.

What is the most unexpected response you’ve received from a viewer of your work?
One time a woman came to a studio sale I was having and had to leave because she felt like my materials were too toxic and giving her a headache. Sometimes I don’t know how to deal with the complaint that my materials are not eco friendly, or that as an artist I am just creating more “stuff” in this already over commodified world.

Tell us about getting caught in a creative “slump” and how you got out of it?
I just hunker down and wait it out. It passes. Everything changes. If you’re slumping now you won’t be doing it forever. It’s part of the process to be dormant. There is always a fear of becoming dissociated with the work during a slump but gaining perspective on it helps – the slump is part of the work ultimately.

Metaphors, analogies, symbols, stories, how important are they to your work?
They seem to become more important after the work is made. I don’t think about it while I’m making it as much. Later things take on meaning to me.

Is your art, “art for art sake…” or a matter of “art for commercial viability?”
I have a hard time separating those two. I usually make a piece based on what I want to make, and hope its cool enough aesthetically that someone will want to live with it or hang it in their gallery, or write a review about it.

Name a book or books, which may have inspired your work as an artist?
I often get my titles for my paintings from piecing together sentences I randomly select out of books. Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration” by David Wojnarowicz is my bible for titles. “In the City of Shy Hunters” by Tom Spanbauer is another one. Both are tremendous books written by tremendous men that have inspired my worldview and thus my art.

If someone says to you “Oh your work is decorative and lacks any meaning…” your response would be…?
If that’s what they see and how they respond I can’t tell them they’re wrong. I can handle most criticism as long as the person isn’t mean. Ultimately there is truly no “right” and “wrong” way of critiquing art, and if they think its pretty and lacks meaning — well the beauty is the meaning.

What is one thing you need to have in your studio before you work?
Daylight and coffee.

What moves you most in life, either to inspire or upset you?
The interconnectedness of beings and our short sightedness in this matter.

Which is more important to you, the subject of your painting, or the way it is executed?
The execution is as important as the subject matter, and in fact becomes the subject matter in the best works of art.

How do you think art can change people or their perceptions?
I think the creative process has a real rehabilitative effect on people, whether its creating a painting or a garden. It is also a useful device for mediation. If George Bush is making any art, I’d love to know about it, because maybe that’s something he and I could connect on. Maybe his art could alter my perception and vice versa. Maybe that would be a good thing.

What do you love/hate about being an artist?
A friend of mine once said you can’t take it personally if someone doesn’t like your work, and you can’t take it personally if they do. For me, the attention I get surrounding my art can be like a drug – the more I get the more I want. There should be a 12 step program for ego maniacs.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
Just keep making art, exploring your personal technique and your personal vision. Try to be as honest as possible and be open to critique but filter it. Critique from your mother is different than critique from a gallery director – one knows you, the other is in a business relationship with you.
I think it’s also important to maintain a balance of work and play when it comes to art but that is something that takes years to hone. I’m still working on doing that.

What do you think sets you apart from other artists in your approach to work etc.
Well, I know I’m not the only artist that does this, but I think about titles a lot. I want the title of a piece to be as poetic as the piece itself, probably because I’m creating visual narratives. In a literal world, the title communicates as much as the piece and is not separate of it.  So I craft my titles with the same intention as I craft a piece.

Do you have questions for the Artist? Go to the comments section at the bottom of this post and ask away.

Linden Langdon

Linden Langdon is based in Hobart Tasmania and is represented by Ballan & Pannan

Her web address is www.lindenlangdon.com and blog: www.blog.lindenlangdon.com

Linden, what are the main medium/s you work in?
Printmaking – etching, lithography mainly – drawing and painting

Artist’s statement…
With a long and enduring interest of human interaction with the environment, and the natural environment with an absence of human interference, my work seeks to present the experience of such interaction in an intimate way. In a fast paced modern world, there is often little time to embrace the finite detail found in every living thing and remember our intricate and interconnected existence.

There is a suggestion of an uncomfortable undercurrent of natural reality and the collision between what we perceive before us and our subliminal experiences of life. The work is offered as a window from which the perspective can be unsettling. With undertones of environmental concerns, the art is based on an expression of personal observation and influences, projected into the public arena.

Have you ever made an artistic pilgrimage?
Recently I had three weeks in Alice Springs and the surrounding areas. It was a combination of needing to be engaged with the central Australian landscape, experiencing a complete contrast to the coastal environments and family that drew me there, but the area really gets under your skin in a creative way, so now I can’t wait to go back again. I think this is the value of being immersed in different locations – new work becomes possible with new influences.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
Maybe to make art a part of life – keep up other aspects of living as well to ensure a balanced outlook and opportunities other than art. Perhaps in the past an artist had to disconnect – to be a fringe dweller to be considered a serious artist, but I think it is more the case that people of any chosen field of endeavour need to keep in touch with social networks. There are so many more people who have taken up art in today’s global community - the crowd is a lot larger.

Do you work from life, or from photographs or from imagination or some other method?
Combinations most of the time. Very often work starts with a conversation with someone, an idea is born from description, perhaps in text of some sort, then worked through a process of photographs to gather visual information and then transferring those ideas into a printmaking method.
Technology (websites and social networking sites to name a few) has become an important marketing tool for many industries and individuals, what are your thoughts from a “You Inc” perspective and your art sensibility.
Along with international communication through the internet comes a range ways for people to talk about who they are. I love the idea that someone can read something I write, or not, from anywhere in the world that has the technology to tune in. And conversely that I can read things and see work that people have done from a hugely diverse range of background and cultural influences. Why wouldn’t I, as an artist, want to be involved in this medium?

Do you go into any contemporary art prizes?
Yes I enter a few that I think are relevant to my practice. It is something that I have considered and debated a bit with colleagues as on one side you have a culture that pits artist against artist to fight for the prize, which is not really such a desirable image. But then as a selected artist in a competition you can add that to your CV which is important when applying for funding etc. The bottom line is that competitions are extremely subjective by the nature of judgment, so as an entrant you have always keep that in mind.

Are you a purist with your art materials or willing to mix things about?
Not a purist at all, I love trying to combine methods in all sorts of ways. Perhaps a bit of a traditionalist though, as I like to try to work in the most basic way rather than use modern technology (automatically, but of sometimes modern technology is the right answer) to create a result.

Art as a therapeutic device; do you think it is useful for this purpose and is your work in this category somehow?
My study at the moment relates to art as a means of expressing repressed or subliminal experiences. The art itself doesn’t have to be viewed as a specific narrative, but maybe it carries an expression of the ‘internal landscape’. I think working in a creative way is extremely important for therapy, and some of the things that were commonly worked with the hands as a craft are now moving into the art realm as people aren’t doing things like these (eg knitting or whittling wood) at home much anymore.

Are there any books which may have inspired your work as an artist?
Books, books, books – I have so many books! My hallway has bookcases lining it and they are overflowing – how could I choose only one or two? Reading is a great way to gain inspiration and that can come from novels or artists books etc. At the moment my favourite reads are related to my research, like Jill Bennett, “Empathic Vision” and Jennifer Biddle, “Breasts, Bodies Canvas”.

What discourages you from doing art?
Sometimes it is hard to work as I need to be available for ‘life’, but I think that is good as it keeps me balanced. The trick is to not get too disconnected from where you are with your work, which can happen with too big a break.

What can you tell us about your creative development process?
Sometimes my family will ask a question like “what are you thinking about?’ when I’m looking a bit vague, but I usually say something like, ‘nothing much’, as my head gets very busy working through a visual idea. This starts with something I want to talk about, then I try to work out how this will look as a visual image and probably do some sketches, then I start working out how the print will be constructed and so most of this is milling about in my head for quite a while before the physical print starts to be developed. So it is a great relief to finally get a printed version of what has been occupying my mind for so long! Once an initial print has been made, then the process of developing that work begins, which can also lead to sleepless nights and angst driven moments.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
Perhaps there has always been work that has descriptive text beside it – an aboutness – and perhaps there has always been work that requires no introduction. I’m not concerned if people don’t see what I see or intended in the work, I think it is good to hear people talking about seeing totally different things in one work, so I try to avoid being too descriptive in my titles or statements, but it is an expectation that they exists in many situations.

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind?
Journals are great! It is amazing what you find in old journals. Mine are stacked with all sorts of ideas, clippings, drawings, photos, plants that have been pressed, colour swatches and lines of writing all offering moments to follow up sometime in the future.

Some say the lifespan of an “artist” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that?
Well I thought that you were an emerging artist for about five years after a degree in the world of academia, but I guess that the question refers to how you follow up your degree. If you sit back and do nothing waiting for someone to find you, and then perhaps being an artist has a lifespan, but then that is only relevant if you don’t pick it up again when you’re ready. As a mature age student, I say it’s never too late, and you can make it happen if you really want to.

What or who inspires your art?
Emotions would be the most simplistic answer. I can’t imagine working on something without feeling emotionally connected to the subject matter somehow. But of course what I see in the landscape is also a really strong element, so in a bundle there is a social comment and environmental interest or concerns.

What are you currently working on?
I’m in the last few months of working on my MFA. The project is centered on expressing subliminal experience through art. I have worked with both etching and lithograph as the primary methods for producing prints for the submission and combining these in the prints is also a technical approach to the work. I also maintain my connections with the broader community through my website and blog and I am involved in several print exchanges each year. This is an exchange of work with a group of printmakers from around the world, so it is a lot of fun and a really great way to expand ideas about how to go about making a print. I’m also always developing work for Ballan & Pannan Galleries in Melbourne.

How do you describe your work?
A traditional approach with abstract qualities offering cultural and social commentary with a contemporary feel.

Do you have questions for the Artist? Go to the comments section at the bottom of this post and ask away.

Art Toys

This just in from Alex Pardee I was wondering where this genre had come from, seeing it more and more in Australian art but perhaps the groundswell happened elsewhere.

Hazel Dooney

Since 2006, Hazel Dooney has emerged as one of the Asia-Pacific region’s most controversial young female artists. According to the Australian Financial Review, she “walks the razor’s edge between respect and celebrity in today’s artworld” (September, 2006). She has exhibited in solo and group shows in major cities all over Australia, as well as in the USA, Japan, and England.

http://www.hazeldooney.com
http://hazeldooney.blogspot.com

What are the main medium/s you work in?
Painting (all media), collage, photography, video and sculpture.

What are your thoughts on artist statements?
I hate the idea of artist’s having to make statements – as if the art can’t or won’t speak for itself.

How do you describe your work?
Essentially conceptual, my art is a forensic investigation into my own psyche. It deals with issues relating to how we are constantly re-imagining and re-defining ourselves in relation to entertainment media and consumer advertising – oh, and religion, which, these days, in the West, is just another form of popular consumerist culture.

What are you currently working on?
At any given time, I am preparing for a couple of shows and completing several commissions. In other words, too many projects to discuss with any coherency.

One word or statement to describe your current works?
Discomforting.

Why are you an artist?
I’m not sure I really had much choice. I’ve been making art ever since I can remember.

How did you get into art?
Art wasn’t a career choice. It was – and still is – a necessity for me, like breathing.

What did you do before becoming an artist?
Nothing. However, in order to survive as an artist, I have been a model, a shop assistant, and a waitress, among other things.

What is your earliest memory of art?
Making sculptures from leaves and twigs.

Did the place where you grew up have an influence?
Only in the sense that I grew up in a lot of bleak, empty rural spaces from which I felt the need to retreat within my art.

What or who inspires your art?
Who? Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Eva Hesse, and Francesco Clemente – in roughly that chronological order, I can’t help but like Damien Hirst’s chutzpah too.. What? Nearly everything I experience in media and the consumer environment, from TV and the web to fashion and electronics stores.

How important is art for you?
It is the life I live. How much more important can it be?

What caused you to choose the medium you currently work in?
I’m not sure any artist chooses their medium, It chooses them.

Do you have a personal description of “Art”?
No. Too many people waste too much time arguing over what is and isn’t art – and why. I’m not going to add to the noise.

How important do you think craftsmanship is to artistic creation?
I value it very much in my own work but the degree to which I value it in others’ depends on what they are trying to express and why and in what medium.

Does the sale of your work support you?
My work supports me and several others. I am, by any definition, successful – I have been financially independent for three or four years now.

Some say the lifespan of an “artist” post educationally is about five years, any thoughts on that?
Who listens – let alone bothers to comment upon – what ‘some’ say? You either commit to the life of an artist or you don’t. Some of us have little choice in the matter. One way or the other.

Tell us about your connection to your subject matter, way of working, concepts etc?
My work is deeply self-absorbed and self-reflective. Every minute I’m awake I am delving into myself for material and documenting or preserving it in some way. It’s pretty weird, I guess, and very egocentric. I spend a lot of time alone.

What has been a turning point in your career thus far and why?
Learning how to free myself from the traditional sales and marketing mechanisms of the art world using the web.

If you could have any piece of artwork in your personal collection, what would it be and why?
Any of Eva Hesse’s drawings or a Clemente watercolour from his series, ‘Fifty One Days On Mount Abu’.

Have you had any “big breaks” in your career?
I have had several but nearly every one of them was a double-edged opportunity: in other words, they took as much from me as they gave.

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.
My struggles have mainly been with mental illness: I suffer from Bi-Polar Disorder and every day, I work hard to maintain my sanity and stability.

Do you keep an Art Journal or Visual Diary of some kind?
Yes. Apart from a visual diary, I also maintain a blog online, which is very candid day-to-day account of my life and work.

How important is it to you that your work communicates something to the viewer?
If and when I am trying to communicate something, it’s important but sometimes art isn’t about communication. It just IS.

What can you say about your work that might not be evident to the viewer?
It’s harder than it looks – and less obvious.

What can you tell us about your creative development process?
It tends to be long and painstaking, with several iterations of the idea in text before I even attempt a sketch.

Has being involved in the arts proven to be a millstone or a point of elation?
Both. At different times. But I’m not sure art has the monopoly on this.

Art is about entertainment, experiment, inventiveness or shock for you?
Oh Jesus, none of these. It’s about so much more.

If you stopped doing art right now would you miss it?
I couldn’t. Could you stop breathing, even if you wanted to?

What discourages you from doing art?
Nothing.

Is motivation to work an issue for you and how do you overcome it?
Motivation is overcome every day by discipline and focus. I don’t believe in inspiration. If inspiration flags, I work harder.

Do you have a challenge knowing when a work is finished?
Sometimes. But that is often the difference between a good work and a less good one.

You know you have “made it as an artist” when…
You don’t have to ask the price when you go to buy new art supplies.

The value of Visual Arts is…
Whatever the highest bid at auction happens to be.

Your first “decent” gallery representation, how did it come about?
I’ve never had ‘decent’ gallery representation – which is why, in 2005, I took the major step of breaking off all my gallery relationships in order to represent myself.

Your first show at a “gallery” you thought was of value, how was the whole thing for you?
Awful.

The business or marketing side of Art can be a challenge to some, what are your thoughts?
If artists truly want independence and freedom, they have to be prepared to represent themselves, and to communicate themselves. The business of marketing and promotion isn’t rocket science but it should not be left to others.

What is the most unexpected response you’ve received from a viewer of your work?
Reverence. And sexual arousal. Together. It was very odd. Especially in a female.

Tell us about getting caught in a creative “slump” and how you got out of it?
I’m manic depressive. Slumps are long and deep, productivity (when I am up) is high and energetic but less long-lived. I’ve learnt to manage it better over the past few years.

Is your art, “art for art sake…” or a matter of “art for commercial viability?”
I do what I want to do, when I want to do it. I let the market sort it out later.

Name a book or books, which may have inspired your work as an artist?
‘The Outsider’ by Colin Wilson, unquestionably.

If someone says to you “Oh your work is decorative and lacks any meaning…” your response would be…?
“Who the f*@! cares what you think?”

Tell us about your studio environment?
I have a wonderful studio in a small house on a cliff above the Pacific Ocean. It has plenty of storage and on most days is bathed in light. The only problem is that the humidity and salinity play havoc with the drying process of enamel paintings.

Is your work process fast or slow?
Slow. Tediously, grindingly slow.

Otto Dix the German artist said (in part)… “All art is exorcism…” Is that the case for you? If so how…
I’m not sure I’m trying to cast out anything. But there are certainly aspects of ritual to the process of making art.

People around you (family friends etc.) what would they say about the way you work, the moods you have, your life as an artist etc?
I am too self-absorbed to have paid much attention to anything they’ve said.

Do you have a connectedness to other art forms?
Yes, particularly music and poetry.

Some artists are more “at home” isolated in their creative process, while others revel in being part of a group to bounce “ideas off” how about you?
I am emphatically solitary and introspective. I don’t like people much.

What is one thing you need to have in your studio before you work?
Coffee. And, often, loud music.

Are you a purist with your art materials or willing to mix things about?
Oh I love to mix things up. I do like high quality materials though. No matter how poor I have been, I have always used the highest quality materials available.

What moves you most in life, either to inspire or upset you?
Love and passion. And chemical imbalance.

Which is more important to you, the subject of your painting, or the way it is executed?
I’m not sure anyone would – or should – separate these.

Are there times of the day when you prefer to do your work?
I think I’m pretty much a night person, although one of the drawbacks of success is that I have to be more accessible during office hours!

From your early beginnings at art school to now, how have things altered for you?
Oh s*!#, what HASN’T changed. I am happier, more productive, more inspired – oh, and richer too, in all senses of the word.

Is the making of art all it was “cracked up to be”?
What’s it ‘cracked up’ to be? If you don’t want to do it, then f*@! off. Plenty more where you came from.

Do you go into any contemporary art prizes, if so why?
No. Art isn’t a f#@!ing  sport – let alone the spectacle the Turner Prize tries to make it.

Are you the sort of artist that seeks out promotional opportunities or one that shuns the limelight?
When it comes to my career, I am a complete attention whore. Any opportunity to promote myself or my art is grabbed with both hands. In my personal life, I’m a hermit.

Technology (websites and social networking sites to name a few) has become an important marketing tool for many, how about  you and your art sensibility.
The traditional gallery system is dead, the business of marketing and selling art and artists disintermediated by the web. If you don’t accept and embrace this idea soon, your career will be dead too.

When you create your work is it somehow an emotional relief as you do it or at the end?
The end is always the real hot, orgasmic rush of completion – and much anticipated release.

Do you aim to make “masterpieces” with the aim of being seen in the future as an artist that really made their mark in art history?
Does anyone do that? We don’t get to determine greatness. That’s not an artist’s job. That comes later, long after we’re dead.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
Listen to no one. When it comes to “what works”, nobody knows anything. Be totally fearless.

Do you have questions for the Artist? Go to the comments section at the bottom of this post and ask away.

Artist Kerrie Warren - The Chaos Girl

I am delighted to interview Visual Artist Kerrie Warren, a passionate Abstract Expressionist painter and advocate for the Visual Arts. She co-ordinated a cultural art exchange to China (2007 - 2008) with a show called “Wild Dogs From Down Under” The show was so successful she won a regional arts award.

Kerrie Lives in Crossover a minor  but scenic dot on the landscape north east of Warragul in Victoria, amidst green rolling hills not far from native forest, high up from the Latrobe Valley, a fine country environment for an artist. Kerrie has a website (www.kerriewarren.com.au) and is represented by a range of galleries in australia and also in Singapore.

Here is a link to a video of her working, makes for very interesting viewing.

Most artists have an “Artists Statement” Kerrie, what’s yours?
“For me, it is like writing poetry.  As words begin to sing their own song when placed down in such a way on a page, so do the paints, the inks, the mediums…  the process itself begins to take over and at some point I become completely submerged in it all.

It is a dance with colour and texture… the canvas on the floor… no up or down…. and I move around in an energetic fashion: - dribbling, splattering and squeezing the paint in colours guided by my instinct in the moment.

It is a joyful torment for me as the painting won’t let me go until it is finished. It demands my full attention until a climax is reached, the point where it resonates on its own and I am released from the process… “

So, what or who inspires your art?
Nature inspires me, Jackson Pollock inspires me, galleries and art supply stores inspire me, inspiration is everywhere!

I take it that Pollock is your favourite Artist, are there any others that come to mind?
Yes, Rothko, Leonie Ryan, Peter Biram, Steve Gray, and Ursula Theinert.

Kerrie, how did you get into art?
I’ve always been that way inclined, always loved drawing and writing poetry but it wasn’t until I was 25 that I enrolled to study art full-time and embrace it as a ‘career’.

Many artists struggle to support their “Art Habit” how about you?
At this stage, my work supports itself and sometimes treats me to a journey overseas.  My understanding husband and a company that I am a director of supports our Day to day physical existence.  Though very soon I do hope to be ‘the best investment’!

Have you had any “big breaks” in your career?
I feel like they happen quite frequently, I generally feel like something wonderful is just around the corner and often it is.

What can you tell us about your connection to your subject matter, way of working, concepts etc?
My aim is to remove ‘thought’ from the process itself and allow other doors to ‘open’.  That’s the concept behind my work. This is very important for me to achieve ‘sensation’ and  ‘the experience’ which is expressed through gestural movements, gravity and paint, captured on canvas and offered as a form of communication to others.

All artists seem to have struggles, tell us about any you have had.
These happen quite regularly too!  Mainly financial struggles.  As my ideas grow, so do the expenses that are attached to them.  Inside the studio I feel rich, timeless and in harmony with the universe….  Outside the studio I can sometimes feel financially poor, challenged by time and not so harmonic with my environment.  Best to stay in there as much as possible!

What sort of depth or meaning is there behind the work you do?
I work to the rhythm of life; I follow instincts and am content to drown in the depths of it all.  I don’t question it, I just paint.

Do you hope the viewer will “get” what you are trying to communicate or do you feel compelled to spell it out to them?
I watch some viewers search for a hidden ‘meaning’ when there is not one.  I don’t mind whether they get it or not.  My work is either loved or loathed and I like the fact that it stimulates such strong emotions in others.

Was art a “thing” that was encouraged in your family?
Being a ‘good drawer’ was encouraged, but not Art as a Career choice.  It was never discussed in that manner so I had to discover that for myself.

Has being involved in the arts proven to be a millstone or a point of elation?
Both!  Mostly elation of course or I would of ceased this as a profession a long time ago.  It is a ‘torment’ at times as it has such a strong hold on me but then I like that too…

So what would happen if you stopped doing art right now would you miss it?
A part of me would die.

Do you have a challenge knowing when a work is finished?
I can feel ‘tormented’ leading up to the climax sometimes, but it clearly resonates to me when I need to put my brushes down.

Can you give us a descriptive approach to your current works?
Patterns in Chaos.  As I work with instinct and energy, I can see that my work clearly relates to Quantum Physics.  Particles and Molecules moving in unpredictable bursts, sometimes in pattern like waves….  I’m fascinated by this, the fact that what appears to be a solid object is not.  Whilst watching a TV documentary program one night, I viewed a slide of molecular activity and I was surprised to see how much it looked like one of my paintings!

Tell us about getting caught in a creative “slump” and how you got out of it?
Thank goodness this doesn’t happen that often and only when I have asthma or a cold and my ‘energy’ to paint is running low.  To get out of it I need to take better care of myself, relax and flick through art books!  When my personal energy returns, so does the need to paint!

How would you describe your creative process?
After building the stretcher, whitewashing and preparing the canvas, I already feel that I have a relationship with it.  I require uninterrupted time to paint.  I become a hermit and don’t answer my phone.  I like to have a clear mind and an open heart and let myself go, allowing instincts to push and pull me…  there is a point where it takes over and I become a witness.

Tell us about your studio environment?
It’s cozy, the size of a double garage and well fitted out.  I love being in there.  I store my finished works in the house so that I have as much ‘space’ around me as possible!

Do you have a connectedness to other art forms?
I love ceramics and sculpture….  I have a soft spot as I studied ceramics initially for 4 years.  I love the’ tactile’ and bring this into my paintings.

Some artists are more “at home” isolated in their creative process, while others revel in being part of a group to bounce “ideas off” how about you?
I’m definitely a hermit when I work! and people know not to stand in my way when I get started.

From your early beginnings at art school to now, how have things altered for you?
It has been a constant evolution for me.  One step has clearly led to the other and I can see from an objective point of view that I am working hard for each achievement  and earning each step as I go along…. there is still a long way to go…

So finally Kerrie, is making art all it was “cracked up to be”?
Oh yeah and it’s so much more!

Do you have questions for the Artist? Go to the comments section at the bottom of this post and ask away.

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Compiled and edited by Steve Gray © 2009+

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Check out our other Art Site http://artstuff.net.au

6 Artists and a Vision = A Wild Dog Approach.

Take one artist with a vision, a supportive community of five other artists, a council with connections in China, then couple that with supporters “prized out of the woodwork” and you have the Wild Dogs From Down Under, the result a fantastic journey for all involved.

Kerrie Warren Painter, and her five artistic associates pulled off an AMAZING feat earlier this year by doing what many would have thought was too challenging to contemplate, let alone attempt!

Let’s see where do I start, take six regional artists from Gippsland (most with little or no exposure out of their region) and give them an opportunity to display their works in a range of small art galleries, then head the whole show off to China for a show utilising a sister city relationship developed by their local council. with the aim:

- To Interact with other Communities and Cultures
- To break down language barriers through ‘Art’
- To express our individual love of ‘Gippsland’
- To live with Passion
- To Inspire others to follow their dreams……

That all sounds feasible, except anyone in the “bigger” art scene would tell you that such a notion actually should involve well known artists, an entourage of emmense scale, HUGE logistics, PR on a scale not heard of in the arts and a solid disregard for regional “whatever that word means darhlings… no no why waste your time doing such a thing with ‘regionals..’”

So without the impediment of even thinking that the “Bigger” art scene would hold such a view, the task’s were undertaken with a “heck why not” view instead of the opposite. Barriers arose, (costs and logistics) and these were all over come. Even “Regional Galleries” were not initially in with the project…

I guess no one really factored on the tenacity or the drive with which Kerrie and her team approached things. I don’t think anyone took that into account, indeed on first hearing of the project I tilited my head and said why would anyone do this??? But then after chatting to Kerrie a few times I was soon saying “Yep this will happen and happen well!”

So it did, the experience for the artists “once in a lifetime” the experience as a device to inspire others in their community, probably too big to measure. The fact remains that they did it and did it well, and yet many in the “bigger” art scene probably didn’t know until now that the whole thing took place… Another strike for the “quiet achievers” and artists everywhere with dreams and ideas. To Kerrie and team, well done!

Artist sells for millions - Damien Hirst

The news media is all over this guy (English Artist Damien Hirst) and the ongoing success with his work.

If he is making this sort of money I think I’ll become an artist! (Oh I already am…? darn what went wrong?)

It raises the BIG question, what makes an artist successful?

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