1. Would you tell me the process of your paintings
and how you see them existing in the world?
The paintings are made with acrylic and spray
paint, wet over wet to create layers that can be peeled or sliced. Because the process
is quite physical and the illusionistic space within the paintings is
restricted, I want them to feel somewhat like objects rather than windows onto
another world. However, there is enough ambiguity in the scale of the forms
depicted that the paintings have a pictorial space separate from the one they
inhabit as objects.
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| Black Hand, 2016 (Triptych) |
2. Your work seems to have changed significantly
just in the last year. How do you view the work at SooVAC in terms of
representation and abstraction?
I’ve been oscillating between abstraction and
figuration for a number of years. Having just completed a body of figurative
painting for my show at the Groveland Gallery last year, it felt right to do
something different. Both sides of my work inform each other, and ultimately
they are both forms of representation. There are received and invented forms in
both, and the tension that exists between them is the place I try to operate as
an artist. Whatever the subject matter, painting is essentially abstract; it’s
simply a question of emphasis or the baggage one brings as a viewer that
decides the way in which a painting can be read.
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| Black Mass III, 2016 |
3. How do you come up with
inspiration/ideas/concepts for your work?
I try not to make anything with a preconceived
idea or concept. I have many sketchbooks that provide the fuel for a lot of my
work, I take photos and look around me; this is the visual nourishment I need.
I need forms for my imagination to feed on, and the ideas I pursue develop from
the process of making.
4. What does your studio look like? What is your
studio routine?
I work in my garage, which I converted to a studio
a few years ago. Generally, it feels too small and too dark, but it’s
convenient. I’m always grateful that I can duck out of the house and work when
time allows. This sometimes means before my children get up, or after they go
to bed. Once I’m in the studio, I listen to music, drink coffee and stare at
the work, breaking this routine up with bouts of frantic painting.
5. What are some distractions in your studio?
I try to keep those out. Besides, there’s no room.
6. When do you consider work finished? Is there a
planned outcome?
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| Black Mass IV, 2016 |
Completing a work is difficult; it can happen
quickly or it can take months. Sometimes it never happens. I paint in order to
avoid plans, and I’ve become skeptical of outcomes that can be predicted in
advance. Completing a work is usually a surprise, and occurs when the work
refuses any further discussion. If it’s a successful outcome, I immediately
don’t know how I arrived at the
solution.
7. You seem to be exploring a new process, could
you take me through how these paintings have come to be?
I’ve been experimenting with what acrylic and
spray paint can do for some time, trying to find a way these materials can keep
the qualities that make them so distinct from oil paint; I wanted to exploit
their synthetic character, using it to make surfaces that are simultaneously
graphic and unstable. I’ve been pouring liquid acrylic over panels, then spray
painting over that; the spray paint dries quickly while the paint beneath
remains wet. This means the upper layer can be cut into and peeled away. When
hung on a wall, the remaining shapes slowly migrate towards the ground,
buckling the surface and rearranging the composition in unpredictable ways. All
these states of matter and movement felt like rich metaphors to me.
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| Untitled, 2015 |
8. What is the reason and significance of reducing
your color palette?
I love color, and have always been obsessed with
its interaction in painting. I eschewed it for this work as part of the process
of letting go, stripping down and distilling. An earlier work in the show
(‘Untitled’) uses grey, as well as whites of different temperature, and allows
for an atmosphere within the space. I eventually rejected this direction as I
wanted all forms to feel more compressed, and the unequivocal contrast between
black and white provided that.
9. Has the interplay between your work and Mike
Calway-Fagen’s work affected how your view your work? What do you think of this
juxtaposition?
Mike’s work deals with direct and somewhat
unpredictable interactions between him, his work and the world it occupies.
There’s an unmediated quality to it that cuts through aesthetic consideration
in a way, although I think it’s highly visual. I think there are strong
parallels between the intentional and accidental aspects of my work and, say, a
pile of scrap that’s been documented and reconstructed. I want some of the
paintings to feel as though I’ve vandalized a perfectly good painting
underneath, which never occurred to me until I saw my work next to Mike’s.
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| Installation View of No here, nowhere |
10. Does your experience as a professor influence
the way you work?
Always, although I try to keep my teaching voice
on mute when I work. The painting should be a step ahead of what I’m able to
communicate through teaching.
