Art Space Talk: Emily Smith

Emily Smith is a Gloucestershire based artist who creates sculpture and installation pieces. Primarily using plaster casts, her work reveals a constant re-appropriation of methods as diverse as carpentry, ceramics and needlework. Influenced by childhood memories, nostalgic spaces are suggested through symbolic objects which represent a particularly subjective interaction with the memory of a significant person or place. Subtle overlaying of projections onto sculpture builds up a visual palimpsest and restructures the narrative of each object. Emily's work is concerned with loss, memory and trace of an absence.

UNTITLED, projection on plaster casts, casts approx 10 x 15 cm, 2006

Brian Sherwin: Emily you have a Fine Art Ma from UWIC and graduated with a first class honours degree in Visual Art from the University of Gloucestershire in 2004. Can you tell us about your academic background? Who were your instructors? What can you tell us about these programs?

Emily Smith: I was very lucky to thoroughly enjoy my degree and Ma, I pretty much lived in the studios spending nine hours a day working. Like a lot of art students I found the technicians far more inspirational than the tutors, although this changed during the Ma where I was tutored by Dr. Chris Short and Louise Short (no relation!) both extremely demanding and passionate artists. I studied ceramics and painting at Ba (with Visual Culture as a minor) - the multidisciplinary approach suited the way I work. There was a interesting tension between my 2D and 3D work as I felt and still feel that the sculptural pieces are the real focus.

The Ma was very intense, a two year course condensed into one year. My work moved away from the organic forms to much more conceptual work. Living in a city changed the direction of my practice from being concerned with organic and visceral pieces, to exploring man-made objects and environments.

BS: Your work often appears as if it reflects time gone by. Several of your pieces have an aged quality about them. Is that something you strive for? Or am I just interpreting the works that way? What do you think of my observation?

ES: Yes there is certainly an aged quality, like a thin film of dust on objects which picks up fingerprints. In recent years I have been working with objects that have not been touched for many years so there is a kind of archaeology to the process of rediscovery. In earlier works the manner of construction is deliberately crude to suggest former use and clues to their construction. I am very interested in traces left by my own hands through the process of making, as well as the traces of a former use present on all objects, which give clues to who may have touched the object.

INSIDE, plaster, 2005

BS: Does you work involve any philosophical or psychological theories? Do you study philosophy or psychology?

ES: Freudian theory played an important part in my Ba work, especially the theories of the uncanny. Freud and Winnicott's theory of transitional objects onto which we transfer our desires and needs influenced much of my work: many pieces I made at this time were like fetishes or symbolic ritual objects. More recently Derrida's theory of trace has been pivotal to my practice.

Coming from a ceramics background, casting techniques are central to my work and I became interested in how the cast replaces the original. Derrida wrote about a grammatical trace that is created when a word is partially erased, placed 'under erasure' but still present. It is this paradox of absence/presence that I felt to be really significant as I was moving towards much more personal work that dealt with memory and absence.

Just as memory is often biased or false, the trace at once confirms the origin but questions or undermines its structure and meaning. Often what is left (physical trace, mnemonic trace) is more real than the original event and so trace itself becomes the origin of a completely subjective event.

Poetry is a huge inspiration to me, so much of my work comes from words which are translated into the visual or physical. Surrealist poetry (and the Surrealist poem objects) and the poetry of Paul Celan play an important role.

BS: Tell us more about the themes that you deal with in your work...

ES: Theories I focus on tend to pivot around the uncanny (specifically the unhomely or 'unheimlich'), feelings of nostalgia and loss. I see much of my work as a kind of detective work, seeking out traces of others in myself, revealing clues to long past events. However there is also a sense of me acquiring memories that are not my own, a conscious attempt to become someone I didn't know.

In previous work I explored my feelings relating to adolescence and childhood, the sense of a burgeoning sexuality that is explored through organic forms - often ripe, fecund and hugely magnified. ‘Box’ for example combines the tactile properties of latex and the obvious sexuality of the form and name, with the uncanny nature of something both familiar and unknown. Its form suggests functionality, but simultaneously confounds this expectation.

Box, latex, wood, chain, foam, approx 30 x 40 x 70cm, 2004

BS: Can you tell us about some of your other influences? Are you influenced by any specific artists or art movements?

ES: Artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse whose work is now experiencing a revival (or long overdue recognition) influenced me on a practical material level but also on a more poetic level, especially Bourgeois who combines objects, installation, traditional sculpture and words in a rich poetic structure. Bourgeois has created an extremely personal vocabulary of symbols and objects that reappear, but never lose their freshness. I find Doris Salcedo's examination of both a personal and a pluralistic, ‘meta-memory’ very powerful. Surrealist collage and poem objects fascinate me, as does Rachel Whiteread's use of casting unseen spaces and making the transient solid.

I site myself as predominantly modern rather than postmodern, perhaps not particularly fashionable. I am drawn to the material first, to the physical presence of a object of installation, I am more interested in the phenomenological reaction of a body to an object than with conceptual gags.

HIS CABINET, projection on plaster casts, approx 130 x130 cm, 2006

BS: I really enjoyed the images I've seen of His Cabinet and Drip. Can you tell us about these two installations and the thoughts behind them?

ES: 'His Cabinet' began as a cataloguing of an old cabinet filled with paint, wood stains, glues and other woodwork materials that hadn't been touched for years. It was interesting to see how the cabinet had been used; the bottom shelves were most densely stacked, the top shelf - out of reach - almost empty. The listing, dusting, sorting and cataloguing was cathartic and I felt like I was not only unearthing old memories but absorbing and reappropriating the history of the bottles and jars. of course none of this process is revealed in the piece but for me as artist it was vital to understand each object before casting began. By casting in plaster traces of the labels were transferred and when overlaid by the slide projection a palimpsest of traces was created; the plaster cast as trace, the fragments of label and paint picked up on the surface and the very transient photographic trace of the projection. The illusion is broken when a viewer walks between the projection and the cabinet, revealing the objects as non-functional simulacra.

The installation 'Drip' really emphasises the fragility of the material - plaster. It is a more directly emotional piece, a response to the effects of grief. A literal staining occurs, there is a slow measuring drip and a gradual darkening as the plaster absorbs stain. I am interested in how furniture is so close to the human body that it can often stand in for a person or take on human characteristics.

I have made five of these chairs so far, only one remains intact as they are often mistaken for the real thing and moved or sat on! I enjoy the precarious nature of these pieces; all my works are ephemeral, from fragile plaster and decaying latex to the slow burning away of the slide image.

Drip (after installation active for one week), Plaster, tin, chain, Fiddes vandyke and brown wood stain, dimensions variable

BS: Emily, you have several works in progress right now... care to give us any details about these projects?

ES: My practice feels fairly disparate at the moment, I think partly in response to a recent studio move and all the stresses and changes that entails. I am really enjoying pinhole photography and playing with lighting my cast objects with projected images.

There is a gradual (very tentative!) move toward introducing some colour into my work. I have stayed away from directly colouring pieces playing more with applying colour through light, however I am particularly drawn toward yellow at the moment, from my lemon pieces.

I am also investigating Braille and working on a music box that plays Braille phrases. It is the transition from spoken word to writing to touch to sound that interests me, how things are communicated and what is lost or gained through translation.

Untitled (work in progress)
Untitled (work in progress)

BS: Tell us about your process... how does a piece go from being an idea to a physical reality? Place us in your mind during the process of creation.

ES: Each new work stems from a previous piece so there is rarely a complete change of course. Most inspiration comes when I am away from the studio and have time to dream without being distracted by practical tasks. From initial sketches there is a direct jump to the actual pieces; I work directly without models or trials so my work is very labour intensive and there is always the risk that I spend weeks on a piece but then am not happy with it. My work is more like a jigsaw or collage, individual pieces can be modified and developed within the restraints of the whole. I sometimes miss the immediacy of paint but cannot move away from my love of process driven work. I suppose my ceramics background has a lot to do with this, within each stage there is freedom but the production of work has a clear process and direction. I use repetitive methods such as casting and sewing which are deeply absorbing. I have developed a deep knowledge of materials and respond to the physicality of the work, which is often tiring and almost always messy!

BS: Finally, will you be involved with any exhibits in 2008? Where can our readers view your work?

ES: There are a few shows planned for 2008, mainly in Gloucestershire. All are in the preliminary stages but more details coming soon!

You can learn more about Emily Smith by visiting her website-- www.easmithartist.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Brian Hoover

Brian Hoover was born in Pennsylvania and received initial undergraduate training in art at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He went on to receive a BFA in Fine Art from Kutztown University in 1988 and then earned an MFA in Printmaking/ Painting from the State University of New York in 1990.

From 1990-1995 he taught foundation art classes at the Harrisburg Area Community College, in Harrisburg PA. In 1995 he accepted a teaching position at Southern Utah University which is where he teaches Painting and Printmaking today. Brians highly detailed and symbolic work is exhibited nationally and is part of many private and public collections throughout the United States.

Girl with Fantastic Hat VIII (How the West Was Won), Oil on Canvas, 24" x 18"

Brian Sherwin: Brian, you are a professor at Southern Utah University. Can you tell us about your academic philosophy? What do you expect from students? Can you tell us about the art program?

Brian Hoover: The last thing I want to do as a professor is create a class full of little Brian Hoovers. One is more than enough. I’ve always asserted to my students that art is a form of language and painting is in essence, "visual poetry". I’m also convinced that poetics can not be taught- only encouraged.

I have participated in academic programs that prioritized "concept" and I’ve witnessed programs that were very "skill oriented". I think each extreme does a disservice to the student. I’ve always tried to balance my classes with a strong underpinning of traditional skills while encouraging students to research, explore and eventually discover their own artistic voice.

Traditional academic skills are part of the grammar of the language. To ignore them will only limit what a student can communicate. Overemphasizing craft or skill seems to produce only technicians… like playing scales on a piano ad infinitum. Eventually the goal is to make music. Its hard, maybe impossible, not to instill some of your artistic biases on students, but that comes with any mentor/student relationship.

Death & the Flowers, Oil on Canvas, 20" x 16"

BS: How do you find balance between your academic career and your personal art?

BH: I know many artists who teach and just as many who make a living from selling their work in galleries. I’ve dabbled in both. In each case, the demands can stifle creativity. Short of being independently wealthy, I’m not sure there is an ideal situation for an artist who must earn a living. However, teaching is a natural extension of my own creative process and when you have a roomful of motivated students the relationship can be very symbiotic (when they’re not so motivated I refer to them as "energy vampires").

Balance usually occurs when I’m being very regimental about studio time (usually in the mornings before my afternoon classes). Even when that regiment is broken because of academic responsibilities, having large blocks of time off (summers and winter break) makes up for that lost time.

BS: Brian, you have stated that your work revolves around dreams, myth, and spirituality. Can you go into further detail about these themes and why you have embraced them in your work?

BH: Joseph Campbell wrote "All the gods, all the heavens, all the worlds, are within us. They are magnified dreams, and dreams are manifestations in image form of the energies of the body in conflict with each other." I want to believe that. It has become somewhat of a mantra. I think it’s the bigness of that idea. Perhaps the infinite really exists in all of us. Infinity seems like a great place to look for ideas...and an ideal place to get lost.

BS: Would you say that you explore yourself with your work? Or is it more of an exploration of our collective thoughts in regards to these themes?

BH: Both. "Myth is the public dream and the dream is the private myth". Some of my dreams and dream imagery have struck a chord with a few collectors. According to Campbell, that at least puts me in the company of a few like-minded people and perhaps the collective thoughts of society. But many of my dreams are very personal; my own memories and experiences. I never set out to illustrate a particular dream.

"Death and the Flowers" (image above) is a painting that comes closest. It was inspired by a dream I had when I was only 5 or 6 years old. In the dream, I saw a row of flowers and lollipops, all of which had faces. Every one of them had different emotional expressions, but some were obviously dead, with little x’s where their eyes should be. I remember being horrified by the fact that I ate lollipops and here were a few that were suffering some major consequences. I imagine the dream was brought on by some developmental stage where a child becomes more sympathetic to the feelings of others… but to this day when I see M&M’s talking on TV, it gives me an uneasy feeling.

"Death and the Flowers" is not a literal interpretation of the dream, like most of my paintings, they are like dreams themselves – layered and out of context. This, I imagine confuses many who view my paintings. I think most of my private, disconnected works are about "exploring myself" as you suggested or as Campbell describes as "an adventure in the dark forest".

The Lovers, Oil on Canvas, 20" x 16"

BS: One could say that your work reflects the psychological theories of Carl Jung. Does his work, Man and His Symbols for example, influence your art? Or would you say the psychological direction of your work is more focused on aspects of the psyche that have yet to be explored? Aspects that are unique to you as an individual-- the exploration of your own mind...

BH: I have had several dreams that I am walking in a large gallery or museum and I am amazed at the art that I see on the walls. The work is strikingly new, complex, beautifully designed and skillfully painted. When I awake I realize that the dozen or so pieces I’ve dreamt about don’t exist... or at least in waking reality. Within moments, the memory of the paintings and their specific details slip further and further into the ether (in spite of the fact that I try to scribble down the basic ideas or images in my dream diary).

Jung suggested that those who are able to clearly tap into that rich vein of the unconscious are called geniuses. I have been accused of being many things, but never genius. However, there are geniuses or those who have had flashes of genius based on their ability to tap into that vein. I’d like to believe we all have that potential. Faith? Samuel Taylor Coleridge supposedly wrote "Kubla Kahn-A Vision in a Dream" (albeit opium inspired) in such a state.

I’m not claiming to be an oracle or a seer, but I have experienced many dreams that have suggested that there is something far bigger than anything I can imagine in my waking state. The unknown and the unknowable and the vastness of even the known universe give me hope that there is a god. My sense of spirituality is comforted by the fact that although infinitesimal, I am part of it.

On a side note: I’m also a self-declared agnostic zealot, one who is amazed at the arrogance of both devout believers and devout atheists.

BS: You have stated that you are not interested in the current trend of dealing with global issues, politics, and esoteric aesthetics with art. Why are you not interested in these issues? Would you say that you are looking for a more 'pure' art? One that goes beyond the fears and concerns of today?

BH: Not sure what pure art is, but I suspect like pornography, I’d know it if I saw it. I wouldn’t say that my paintings are disconnected from the fears and concerns of today either. And its not that I am uninterested in global issues or politics, all too much, the older I get, the more I find myself engaged in politics... alas. It’s probably because of my myopic vision that I have dismissed these topics as mundane.

I was educated in the 80’s with modernism and postmodernism the topic of most critiques and seminars. (Has it changed?) I was always in some other camp… or more, alone in my journey through the dark forest. It doesn’t help that every time I see a celebrated NEA or likewise sponsored artist, they still seem to be rehashing some form of aesthetic that was revolutionary when Duchamp first made his anti-statements… revisited in the ‘60’s, ‘70’s, ‘80’s’ 90’s…. To me it seems too easy.

I’ve lived as an artist in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and now Utah… never in any so-called cultural hubs, but I’ve try to keep abreast of what’s going on in the major urban centers. However, I continue to see so many artists constantly checking the wind for the whimsical and capricious changes in fashion and trend… and for so long the flavor of the month has been politics and esoteric aesthetics. I guess that alone has created a bit of discord with the subject.

You mention my statement concerning esoteric aesthetics, which I would define loosely as: aesthetics derived from over education, a penchant for sipping lattes and a need to separate oneself from the Thomas-Kincaid-loving masses. I think Odd Nerdrum’s musings on Kitsch are right on the money. In spite of my somewhat traditional approach to image making I do embrace Modernism. Without it I would not be able to make the art I do. However, I’m equally mystified by the other extreme. Movements like artrenewal.org that want to see Modernism pay for its crimes against the European Academies. Seems I’m always somewhere in between. If I had the technical skills of Bouguereau and the innovation of Duchamp, I’d be one step closer to self-actualization.

Girl with Fantastic Hat I, Oil with Gold Leaf on Board, 20" x 16"

BS: Brian, tell us more about your process. I understand that you spill or splash liquefied paint onto the surface of a canvas and from that the image builds from your mind... can you go into further detail about this and why you embrace this practice?

BH: This technique first emerged while a student in Michael Hollihan’s beginning lithography class at The Cleveland Institute of Art in 1984 (where are you Michael?). He had high expectations and very little tolerance for visual cliché’… which is all I had to offer as a freshman in his class. I found that making puddles in the tusche washes on the litho stones yielded many interesting and unexpected interpretations. I was inspired by Paul Wunderlich’s early erotic works using the same method. This was the beginning of exploring imagery through accident.

It progressed to gouache paintings in my undergraduate and then oils in my post graduate research. I am still exploring the splash method in both printmaking and painting today.

To recap my artist statement: I begin a painting by spilling and splashing liquefied paint onto the surface of a canvas; not unlike an abstract expressionist would. After the paint dries I begin to ARorschach@ images that my subconscious sees in the abstract puddles of paint. I then try to render in a more traditional manner- without completely disturbing the freshness of the spill- a representational narrative that often equals the strangeness and absurdity of dreams. Beauty, levity and horror are often combined in what I hope to be a seductive if not disturbing image.

Surrealists like Max Ernst used similar approaches. I even read somewhere that Da Vinci used to make color studies from the puddles of viscous human fluids found in the streets and sewers of Florence . It’s human to make order out of chaos and very self-revealing to do so.

BS: Would you say that Andre Breton and the surrealists are an influence on your practice?

BH: I’ve always tried to disassociate myself with surrealism, although that’s changing. I guess it might have something to do with the modernist mentality that there was something slightly sophomoric about the movement. I was enamored by Dali in high school but found his weird-for-weird-sake approach to marketing disillusioning. I guess I came to doubt the sincerity of most surrealists after that. Talk about being over educated.

However, Max Ernst, Remedious Varo and Yves Tanguy will always hold a fascination in spite of my Modernist brainwashing. I’m beginning to realize that there is a subculture of really fascinating contemporary work being produced in Surrealism’s camp. However, I still claim a flag in the camp belonging to the European Symbolists; Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Edward Burne-Jones and Fernand Khnopff… my real heroes.

BS: Can you tell us more about the symbolism behind your work?

BH: Only what I have already stated. I’m a sucker for narrative. I’m attracted to images that tell strange and exotic stories. I’m an escapist. I find most of life very mundane, but have had some experiences that suggest otherwise. I choose to explore those experiences. I love the craft of illusionistic painting. I love the flatness and paint-for-paint’s-sake of Modernism. I like finding order in chaos. I search to find a private myth in my dreams but I hope that some of my myths find their way into the public dream.

BS: Brian, what are you working on at this time? Also, will you be involved with any exhibits in 2008?

BH: I just finished a one-semester sabbatical. That gave me the luxury of exploring some ideas that were on the peripheral. I discovered a very old sketch that I made of two riders- one male, one female- on elephants. I made the doodle when my wife and I first moved from Pennsylvania to Utah 13 years ago. There are some elephants in our history…

I also just finished reading (guilty pleasure) "Lisey’s Story" by Stephen King. Among other things and foremost, it’s about love and marriage. Somewhere in the book (I’m looking for the exact quote) he says something like "every marriage has two hearts – one light, one dark". That describes my marriage, me being the dark one. I’m equally attracted to the purely formal aspect of contrasting light and dark shapes. If this series takes off, it will not start with the serendipitous splash method and I am initially thinking that it may take the form of B&W intaglios.

I just dismantled an exhibition at the Museum Gallery on the campus of Northern Arizona University , in Flagstaff AZ. The exhibition was titled "Mythical Object Redux" it was the second time I exhibited with ceramist Susan Harris.

(http://www4.nau.edu/art_museum/morgallery.html)

In August of 2008 I will be showing again with Susan at the Sears Gallery in St. George , UT.

Woman Scorned, Oil on Board, 16" x 20"

BS: What advice do you have for art students?

BH: Be cool. Stay in school. If that doesn’t work, than I would say that art is a highly competitive field that is inundated with thousands of artists. If you are considering another career, even if it’s just a small consideration, than perhaps you should not go into art. You can always paint on Sundays.

Art is more about tenacity than talent but know your craft well- the larger your vocabulary- the more you’ll be able to communicate.

Grades/Shmades. Grades mean nothing. Focus on your portfolio. It’s OK to judge your performance with the other students in your class but realize your real competition is other artists who have been working professionally for years.

Be a hungry looker. You are defined by your heroes. Always be seeking out new work and new artists.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your work?

BH: I had a discussion with a fellow painter once and the question arose "If you were the last person on earth, would you still paint?" I require my students to write an artist statement but I also ask them to respond to this question as well. I think that many are shocked when I tell them that my answer would be no.

I’ve never been an artist that entirely paints for myself. To me it’s about ego and exploring my psyche but it’s also about saying I was here, I lived, and I experienced these thoughts. If I couldn’t share them, I doubt I would cloister myself in my studio and paint my strange, highly detailed images with a 00 brush like I do, knowing nobody would ever see them but me. If I were to continue to make art, it would be more plausible that I would learn to operate large earth moving equipment so I could create earthworks that could be seen from space. So, as much as I am currently involved in exploring dreams, myth and spirituality, I think the impetuous for me to make art really breaks down to a need for me to say "I was here".

You can learn more about Brian Hoover by visiting his website-- www.brianhoover.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Holly Hughes

Holly Hughes is a full Professor in the Department of Painting at Rhode Island School of Design. Born in San Antonio, Hughes helped kick off the ‘80s East Village gallery boom with her first NYC show at Piezo Electric. During her "travels abroad in America" as a visiting artist and critic at over a dozen colleges (including Bennington, Brandeis, Middlebury, Parsons, Kansas City Art Institute, Sarah Lawrence), she developed an insight into curriculum planning and pedagogy, and an unquenchable thirst for new vistas.

Holly has been reviewed in ARTnews, Art Forum, Art in America, The New Yorker, The New York Times and D’ARS, Milan. Her work is represented in the collections of The RISD Museum, the Kemper Museum, Davis Museum at Wellesley, the Atlantic Richfield Corporation, Pepsico and the Freedman Gallery at Albright College, among others. She is represented by Joyce Goldstein Gallery in Chatham, NY and Lenore Gray Gallery in Providence, RI.

The Big Empty, Oil on canvas, 46 x 32", 2005

Brian Sherwin: Holly, can you tell us about your early experiences? Why did you decide to pursue art? Where did you study? Who were your instructors?

Holly Hughes: We started out in Texas. I was born in San Antonio. My father was a jazz percussionist. I have a great old photo of his big band with HH on all the bandstands. My brother and I were both named so that our initials would be HH - like his. Pretty theatrical. We moved New York eventually, as my father found the racism of Texas to be a horrible contrast to his diverse friendships in the music business. Later he managed singers and was a recording engineer. Hal and I both tried playing instruments as kids – but were not particularly gifted so it was suggested that we find other artistic arenas in which to focus. Art captured my heart immediately. (My brother became a pro bowler and pool whiz kid.) So I was seriously drawing and painting very early on – classes after school and lots of support from the family.

In high school I apprenticed with a very skilled portrait painter, Frank Covino. We were living in Westport, Connecticut by then. I assisted him mixing palettes – 9 values and three intensities of every color he planned to use. I learned his systematic classically inspired painting approach, completing fully developed underpaintings before building up color afterwards. It gave me a ready mastery that I was very suspicious of, even at that tender age. I wanted painting to feel more risky and provide more of a sense of the discovery. And then I went off to art school – Pratt at first, then Silvermine College of Art (only a guild now, but it was a college in ’69-‘70) then two years in France, initially with a Silvermine abroad program, before finally finishing my BFA at SUNY New Paltz.

Through all of these educational experiences I was privileged to have some amazing instructors. Jack Whitten was my drawing teacher at Pratt and I still remember some of the challenging exercises from his drawing class. Silvermine, back then, was run by an exceptional art educator who really knew his stuff – Robert Gray. I complained about my dislike of Pratt’s approach of breaking things down to study and never reassembling them. He had me read the big white book on the Bauhaus and took my questions so seriously. He gave me his version of the bastardization of Bauhaus teaching methods that occurred through its importation to America. I also worked with Murray Zimiles there and we are friends to this day. He opened many doors into how ambitious one can be using drawing as the base skill to build upon. Zimiles also introduced me to printmaking – a medium which is almost too much fun to study.

The acquisition of skill and technique is always engaging– but for a young artist printmaking can also be dangerous. Learning to rainbow roll or edition, when I had never made anything I was happy with or would want more than one of, luckily veered me towards a "one of a kind" painting and a works on paper practice. Just now, at this stage in my career, do I understand what I could do with prints.

At SUNY New Paltz I really enjoyed working with Henry Raleigh – who helped me realize that I was not getting enough of an intellectual education in art school and that I would have to continue to educate myself for the rest of my life if I was to "feed" my art responsibly. To continue learning, for an artist, is a survival instinct. It is like gardening – if you want to pick something later you have to plant it so it can grow.

And there was Joop Sanders, a seriously good New York school painter who was an important teacher for us there. He directed me straight to New York and began opening my eyes to what a hard place the art world was going to be. I began to understand that your own deep seated curiosity about what your work will be like "down the road" as you live and it changes and grows is really your biggest ally. Your biggest enemy is to let any bitterness creep into your viewpoint -- as you confront the complex balance of triumphs and struggles the life of art maker is bound to present.

Ceramica Historica, Oil on canvas, 46 x 32", 2005

BS: Holly, can you tell us more about your experience in France? Give us the ins and outs of your early years as a painter?

HH: So living in France for a couple of years at a formative stage really changed my life forever. Travel opened my eyes to how much exquisite visual information is out there and how much it can tell us about who we are and what we are capable of as human beings. I remember going into Venice on the vaporetto for the first time and spontaneously weeping. I wondered how it was possible for the Grand Canal to be so beautiful and for New Jersey to look like it did.

I understood the need to look for your artistic roots with a sense of freedom and the spaciousness of the world. Your artist’s family tree invariably leads beyond our shores. The dropped threads I was interested in picking up and going forward with…. would come from many time points in history and from many cultural locations.

Learning to speak French cleared the way for me to understand the visual language of painting in a more complex and expanded way. If my sense of humor was different in French, clearly the approach to drawing and painting one undertook would effect what one could communicate as well. Art was not about a display of skill or a stylistic positioning but about seeking a "voice" and a use of means that would enable some clarity to emerge. It was propositional - about the way we understand reality.

Bows in My Hair, Greeks in the Sky, Oil on canvas, 46 x 32", 2006

BS: You have traveled much of the world... as a whole, how have your travels made you a better artist?

HH: As mentioned, my travels have played a huge role in making me who I am today. They have been central to my continuing education and to my sense of the complexity of the world I try to express in my painting. China, Laos, Thailand, Mexico – I could do the whole interview on what these voyages have meant to me.

BS: Why did you decide to instruct? You currently teach painting at the Rhode Island School of Design. What can you tell us about the department? Do you have any advice for painters who are considering RISD?

HH: I never suspected I would teach while I went to school. I went to four schools just to get my BFA and never went to graduate school. That choice was not so obvious in my generation. Just go to New York and try and make good paintings was the advice I got. I was demanding and not always satisfied with the quality of my education. The really good teachers along the way made a big impact and remain voices in my head. Only in retrospect is it clear what each of them offered me. I appreciate this question for the reflection it has encouraged.

Being in New York City is like watching the river of art flow past – and after a number of years I really felt I had something to share. Invited to do a visiting artist gig at the University of Delaware after a painter teaching there saw my show at the David Beitzel Gallery – I found that I really enjoyed the experience and had the ability to verbalize very creatively about painting. I can offer insight into what someone’s work looks like to others and help them contextualize it both intellectually and visually. I seemed to really connect with the students and found the conversations very entertaining. I am sure I learn as much from my students as they learn from me. They trust me as I invest a lot of energy in their personal growth and the development of their work.

So that was the beginning of teaching – more visiting gigs followed including a semester at both University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Kansas City Art Institute. Getting the full time job at RISD was great and the challenge of teaching there is very stimulating. For an art education you really can’t beat RISD. The students – both undergrad and grad are amazingly talented and terrific to work with – and the peer group they form for each other lights a fire under them. They take the art world by storm and it is gratifying to see their shows.

Shazia Sikander, Julie Mehretu, Ben Snead, Benjamin Edwards, Kara Walker, Chris Ulivo and more all passed through our grad program on their way to making great careers for themselves. From the undergrad, Do Ho Suh, Molly Lowe, Kevin Zucker, Leah Tinari, Daniel Lefcourt, Megan Pflug, Marc Handleman, Ramon Vega, Fiona Gardner, etc., are doing fascinating work and showing. There are too many to list. I stay in close contact and count many of these RISD alums as my friends. New York is really a small town when it comes to art.

Memoryware, Oil on canvas, 36" in diameter, 2007

BS: How did you find balance between being a working artist and art educator?

HH: It is very natural and has been the way of the world way back into history. I consider myself very lucky to have this amazing institution paying me a good salary to think and talk about art in the work a day world. It also opens a lot of doors – I just created ceramic pieces in the Italian hilltown of Deruta. I painted images on majolica forms in a workshop and studied the 7000 object collection in the region’s beautifully renovated ceramic museum on a faculty development grant during my paid one year sabbatical. How bad is that?

When I was in Italy I was the artist and the people I was working with were educating me. These roles are constantly shifting. Artists are lucky to be in a field where we learn new things everyday. Art involves learning to pay attention in very particular kinds of ways and that applies to making and teaching and appreciating it.

BS: How do you give to one without taking something away from the other? Or do they mesh together?

HH: Yes - they mesh – but do I wish there were more hours in the day – of course I do. Finding time to write out the answers for this interview has been hard as at the end of fall semesters I always have 15 – 20 students, past and present, who want letters of recommendation for untold numbers of grad schools, residencies, and teaching jobs. This is the price we pay for teaching them to be go-getters. These kinds of balancing acts are part of grown-up life. It is all work. But one thing I have discovered about artists is that they are "big time" worker bees. I really only have one speed – full steam ahead – and I apply it to making work and to teaching.

BS: Tell us more about the philosophy and motives behind your work...

HH: I paint like I am drawing. And drawing is the first witness of -- ‘mark, image and word’s’ promiscuity. Marks combine with the activities of the mind – allowing the surface support to become something else. I experience an itchy urgency of interpretation when working with the forms as they appear. As though I am in heated conversation with them. I am at play in fields of language – visual, verbal, historical – citationally linked to the fullness of time and geography. Out of necessity, descriptions are formed of the near, the far, the global, and the ancient. There is cross-pollination, hybridity and a sense that we are all adrift in one and the same vast cultural soup.

Our minds teem with encoded versions of all they have processed – and much of what others have as well. Painting allows access to that attic of the mind with great efficiency. Memories are structural trees hung with words and images, roots deep into the subconscious, back into history and gene pools. My fascination with potentially arbitrary juxtaposing acknowledges the results of the overwhelming quantity of information in our age and thus the certainty of incorrectness. When it comes to the inventory of the visual I have inherited it all - and own it - at least to the same negligible extent that others do.

Artists count on the inevitability of the connection between description and interpretation – and through this circuitry organized paint becomes our proposition about reality. It is this very persistence of painting’s ability to serve up the world that allows us, individually and as a culture, to experiment with who we are becoming.

Dove Plate, Majolica made in Deruta, Italy, 12 1/2 x 121/2", 2007

BS: Can you discuss how your work has matured through the years?

HH: My earlier work was greatly influenced by painters like Gorky, deKooning, Lee Krasner, etc. Paintings, like the ones in my show at Piezo Electric in 1984, raised expectations from abstract expressionism – yet ended up providing different kinds of experiences. They were very verb oriented and compositionally inclined.

I remember a critic, Ronny Cohen, who asked me if my persistent use of the central void was some aspect of an eco-feminist approach. I did not fully understand her comments at that time but suspect she was on to something. Even though I like thin paint – the active accumulation of marks formed the surface and every implication of what could be seen. I remember Michael Brenson’s NY Times review discussing the tension between what was painted and the painting itself. My interest in the shift from "mark" to "sign" was already in place. "Sign" has been winning this battle recently.

The work I am currently doing takes advantage of my engagement with both textile and ceramic traditions – and particularly the way images from nature are treated fascinates me. I see it as a code – a visual language that allows us to get at what we need, what we desire, what we remember and what we cannot do without. I explore images built, accumulated and collected – packed full of the suggestive and the recognizable, the legible and the "just sub-noun."

Working with historical sources allows me access to broken narratives where I pick up dangling threads to develop. History is a tattletale - with not so hidden "other possibles" lurking everywhere. You can retell, reinvent, reorder and re-imagine. I can let nature images speak. I can take the liberty of toying with the coats of arms of the once powerful without having my head cut off. Recombinatory strategies unearth new meanings, sound warnings and reveal the telling instabilities of signs.

BS: Holly, you are known for avoiding boundaries in the art world in that you are willing to exhibit anywhere. You don't contain yourself within any geographic... you explore the market. Would you suggest that emerging artists do the same? Do you think that younger artists focus to much on New York and other hubs of the art world instead of paying attention to the opportunities that can be found throughout the world?

HH: I think you are skirting the issue with that phrasing of your question. I would be very happy to have a one person show in a good NYC gallery tomorrow should the chance present itself. I work at making this happen. I have the art and am ready and eager. However, Piezo Electric, David Beitzel, and Dru Arstark – my previous galleries all went out of business.

As I have spent more time in Rhode Island and gotten older, opportunities have come my way less easily. Out of sight, out of mind really applies to the art world. Lots of people whose opinions I value know and respect my work but younger dealers tend to show younger artists only naturally. We are all aware how hard it gets for mid-career artists to be seen – even those doing their best work right now. So for the moment, I’d go along with what artist Nancy Shaver said during her visiting artist lecture at RISD this fall -

"Art – like vegetables and politics – should be local and global."

I show wherever and whenever I can, within reason. Over the years this has included many states and several countries. Many people see these out of New York shows but most importantly - I see them. Looking at the works in context with one another is always revelatory, offering signposts for the development of the work.

With regard to younger artists – I feel they are more equipped than ever to make their own opportunities and to be creative about it. They are savvy and schools talk about these realities. This preparation is far more helpful than when I went to school. Yet, let’s not kid ourselves, it is important to go to art centers, to become part of the dialogue, and to see the work of your time flowing by. Curating shows oneself is always a good move – I am working on a monoprint show right now with fellow artist Nancy Van Deren for spring at the Spencertown Academy, a beautiful little not for profit gallery in Columbia County, NY. It will include, among others, Stephen Westfall, Melissa Meyer, Joan Snyder, Roberto Juarez, Stuart Diamond, and Ken Buhler.

One Hundred Suns Rose, Gouache on paper on panel, 16 x 12", 2007

BS: Holly, can you tell us about your recent exhibit, Farming Umbria?

HH: I felt the show had a magical light to it…. The space was a small white box of a room flooded with light in the afternoons. We did a Salon Style hanging on one wall that I was very excited about. It was a hue map that led my eye – flashing about the wall from one work to another was almost like a drawing in and of itself. You could follow all of the blues, or all of the yellows. It was almost musical.

I like to show oil paintings, gouache paintings, monoprints, and ceramics in one show as that combination reflects what I actually do in the studio. For me each of these material approaches has fed experimentation in the others. The show was named "FARMING UMBRIA" for one of the four gouache paintings that sat alone on a ledge on the other side of the room. It acknowledges the amazing wealth of ideas I have gotten looking at historical Italian majolica and my intense respect for artisanal traditions.

BS: Was it a success?

HH: I was very satisfied with the way the show came together, both the choice of works and the hanging. That and my two-person fall show at Lenore Gray Gallery in Providence, RI had a radiant quality, if I do say so myself. There were some sales but I certainly won’t be quitting my teaching job. Some of these shows are as much about community as anything.

BS: Will you be involved in any exhibits in 2008?

HH: I will be starting the year in a large group show at Sideshow Gallery in Williamsburg.

BS: Speaking of success, how do you describe a successful artist? For example your work has been reviewed in ARTnews, Art in America, Art Forum, The New York Times and other publications-- one could say that that you are a very successful artists based on those accomplishments alone. However, do you view the success of an artist in a different light? In your opinion, what are the forms of success that an artist can have?

HH: I remember being in France, around the age of twenty. I was sitting in a stone building making a painting and listening to the radio when they announced "Picasso est mort." It was the end of an era. I was deeply moved and at the same time felt completely connected to how he had spent his time. I still do. My curiosity compels me to go on.

A day comes in life when you realize that they may not announce your death on the radio and that it may not bring tears to people’s eyes – but that does not make me any less interested in processing my experience of the world through the making of art. My job is to make work in a conscious way – not to decide how others evaluate it. Second-guessing is not empowering.

BS: Holly, I'd like to know your opinion about the influence of technology on painting. Today information is just a finger-tip away-- students have access to what appears to be an endless stream of information. Have you noticed a change in the mentality of students who enter art programs today compared to in the past? In other words, has technology and the advent of the Internet created a new breed of artists?

HH: Students access a lot of photographic information via the Internet and have to struggle to learn how to use the photo sources and not be used by them. Clearly we do not see the photograph as truth anymore. Just one more thing to be manipulated – a new kind of plasticity perhaps.

Some visions of how painting operates are more like hypertext than the more straightforward narratives, expressive explosions or formal immersions of the 70’s and 80’s. Some artists seek to understand how computers alter our understanding of the world and want to reenact that experience in painting – reintegrating the hand. For others technology supplies the evidence and/or specifics of the layered complex reality they want to mirror or comment upon or situate themselves within. This would be my case. Some see painting as the antidote to that overload. Some have made paintings upon which to project digital imagery. In any case, there are as many responses to and uses for technology as there are artists.

Yet, I do not see anything I would describe as a new breed of artists. I see them more individually. They have a huge amount on their plates these days and being able to make choices and realize that you cannot do everything at once is a strength for any young artist. At RISD, I always have a lot of students who play music and are in bands. Speaking with them leads me to think that the Internet may have changed music and its industry more than the visual arts thus far. (We do, however, have a graduate major in digital and time based media at RISD and I am sure the faculty in that department would have more to say on this question than I do.) Simply put, I still see painting as a technology.

BS: What do you think of sites like www.myartspace.com and networking sites in general-- have they empowered artists?

HH: My students have almost all made networking sites part of their daily life. I seriously wonder where they find the time. Young artists have great opportunities to see what is out there, to form connections and communities and to promote themselves. They use these tools fluidly. It is really too soon to know just how all these sites will change the career paths of artists. The Tattletale, Gouache on paper on panel, 16 x 12", 2007

BS: Holly, I understand that you are interested in the current media fascination with art schools and the shaping of creative talent. As you know, the media often portrays artists in a way that ads to the collective myth of what an artist can and should be. Do you think these myths are dangerous in that they may give potential students a false sense of identity in regards to how they should behave and what they should pursue upon entering an art program? Or do you feel that most students are able to cut through the hype in order to focus on their unique personal growth? What concerns you about these media created expectations in regards to art education?

HH: I am interested in art education and how it is perceived by the public and through the media. I initiated a series of shows called CRIT at the Spencertown Academy investigating what we in art schools do in critiques. I did the first show with RISD undergrads and then Buzz Spector did the second one with Cornell students. We are currently planning the third. At public programming for these exhibits we carried out the kinds of conversations that take place in front of objects with their makers inviting the public to participate. People seem astonished by the breath of topics that come up in critiques.

Art education is a changing field that reflects much that goes on around us culturally, politically and economically. Books like Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class examine just these kinds of reflections that artists and their communities offer society. Many of my students at RISD are very aware of their responsibilities as citizens, as cultural producers, and as the potentially "out of the box" thinkers of their time. We live in an image driven time and young artists were raised awash with information. Their struggles to find themselves are no different than in the past and I personally find that they are less romantic about being artists than we were when I was in school. They are more aware of what is needed to make a go of the commercial art market.

Some are intimidated or feel that that direction is not for them. We encourage them to investigate many different options – including careers in museums, conservation, art therapy, art ed, etc. It is not a horse race – and there are many paths to personal fulfillment and many ways to make a living. RISD offers a problem solving education that turns out to be inspiring and practical for most students. As educators, we try to keep them in touch with "reality" and to address an awareness of world problems. We are not a trade school and these young artists are getting more well rounded educations than some might imagine.

BS: Finally, do you have any further advice for emerging artists?

HH: Pick your friends like you were going on the wagon train together. Choose those who will get out and push through the mud when the going gets tough. Look for hard working, fun, generous, supportive people and be that for others. Skip anyone you’d have to throw off in Ohio – it’s a long road and you do not need undermining folks around you.

You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

myartspace Facebook Widget

myartspace has introduce a facebook widget which can be used to make a person's profile much more interesting.

The myartspace staff selects a number of images every day to be highlighted or "featured". These daily picks are then made available to every person that is running the facebook widget to show off the rich array of incoming art on the site. For the artist, their work is exposed to potentially millions of users of facebook (there are more than 50 millon people with facebook accounts). This increased visibility can and often does spark interest in their art. Facebook users can easily click on the image and see the full works of the artist as well as their profile. We at myartspace believe that as an artist develops their career, name and work recognition are key to getting representation and sales.

To install the myartspace widget on your facebook profile, click below:

Art Space Talk: Michael Banning

Michael Banning was born in Boulder, Colorado. He attended the University of Colorado, Boulder where he received his BFA degree in 1989. During his undergraduate studies he also studied drawing and painting at the Atelier of L.V. Davis in Boulder and traveled to Italy to study art history in 1988. In 1995 Banning moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Studies at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2004, and taught drawing and painting at the college in 2005-06.

In 2005, Banning received an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. He has also received two Minnesota State Arts Board Career Opportunity Grants and a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, which allowed him to study fresco painting in Detroit, Michigan.

In 2001 Banning participated in a two month Artist Residency at the Mill Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has also exhibited work in Chicago, Denver, and New York where his paintings were exhibited in a solo show at the Chuck Levitan Gallery in 1998.

Banning has been represented by the Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis since 1998 where he has had four solo exhibitions. He currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois where he teaches drawing part-time at Columbia College and The Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago.


Houses Near Smoke Stacks - Northeast Minneapolis, 2007, Oil on Panel, 9" x 9"

Brian Sherwin: Michael, you studied art at the University of Colorado and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Can you tell us about your academic years? What kind of student were you? Who were your instructors?

Michael Banning: I started out as an architecture student. In some ways studying studio art was an accident. I was unable to get into the architecture studio classes twice as a freshman, so I elected to take care of all my art foundation and elective classes in the art department. I really enjoyed the freedom of the painting and drawing classes I took and this, coupled with my less than stellar performance in calculus and physics made me reconsider my career choice and I eventually changed to studio arts. Also, my mother is an artist and I grew up in a household focused on art and creative endeavors, so this seemed like a natural course of action.

The environment at the University of Colorado in the mid-eighties was one of extreme freedom and experimentation in painting and drawing and the school maintained close ties with the kinds of "post-modern" work that was happening in New York at the time. I was inspired by my professors, Linda Herritt, George Woodman, and particularly Chuck Forsman a painter of realistic yet conceptual western landscapes. I remember spending most of the time of my undergraduate years in the studios at the University of Colorado. There were a core group of students who were serious about painting and this early artistic community was important to my development.

I attended MCAD many years after receiving my BFA from the University of Colorado and after having lived in Minneapolis as a working artist for many years. My goals in going to graduate school were to explore the conceptual concerns of my work as well as to study realistic painting in a more in-depth manner. With this in mind I studied at MCAD with Mike Kareken as my mentor. Mike was a great teacher for me and is also a painter of realistic yet conceptual landscapes and figurative works.

Houses Near Railroad Tracks - Northeast Minneapolis, 2007, Oil on Panel, 18" x 18"

BS: You have experience teaching as well. You have taught at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Columbia College, and the Illinois Institute of Art. How has teaching influenced-- or inspired --you as an artist? Has the experience enhanced your personal study of art?

MB: Teaching has been great for me. I was really terrified at the prospect of teaching at first. However, now it has become a comfortable situation. One thing about teaching for me is that it forces me to constantly review my knowledge base in painting and drawing; often forcing me to do assignments before I teach them. I learn a lot from working with students and find myself constantly trying to improve my mastery over certain skills and techniques in an effort to teach them better.

BS: I understand that you've been represented by the Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis since 1998. Will you be involved with any exhibits at the gallery in 2008? Do you have any advice about sustaining artist/gallery relations?

MB: I've been really lucky in terms of the Groveland Gallery. They are a very stable gallery and have been really supportive of my work from the beginning. In particular, they have been good at finding a market for the work and also at being flexible and supportive through changes in my artistic direction.

I think the important thing about working with a gallery is to think in terms of a long-term relationship. Galleries make markets for an artist's work over a period of years, not just a period of months. It's also important to find a gallery where the prevailing aesthetic fits with your direction and where the gallery isn't just looking for the same kind of work over and over again.

I think a lot of artist's approach a gallery kind of like applying for a job, with this idea that they are trying to get a gallery to accept them as a "good fit" for their programming, however, I think it's equally important to find a gallery that is a good fit for your artistic direction. It's really a partnership.

I will be exhibiting at group shows at the Gallery and other venues in 2008.

Dumpster in Empty Lot, Near Stevens Expressway, Chicago, 2007, Gouache on Paper, 13.5" x 18"

BS: Michael, your recent work in painting and drawing focuses on images that are both natural landscapes as well as depictions of the built environment. These works are are very honest in that they don't deny what most people would consider an eye-sore-- industrial ruins near homes, bits of trash upon the ground-- do you strive to give the viewer a true depiction of these spaces, so to speak? Can you go into further detail about this interest?

MB: The images I've been working with recently are all about exploring so called "eyesores" or even further what I call "blind spots", places that are so ugly and banal that we often don't really see them as we pass by. In addition, some of the places I've been depicting are so out of the way - along side roads and service roads - that one would never encounter them unless they were trying to.

Yes, I would say I'm trying to give the viewer a true depiction of these places. On the one hand, I'm trying to bring into the spotlight things that we do see everyday but choose not to think about. On the other hand, I'm also trying to depict subjects that ,although we may not see them unless we seek them out, are nevertheless there.

I often feel like we are living in a kind of Disneyland movie stage kind of society - where things look cheery, perfect, and optimistic, from the front view, but if you go behind the scenes you find that what you thought was reality is in fact a façade- unsubstantiated by a stable structure and often being undermined by abandonment and decay.

BS: What are the specific themes that you explore within the context of your work? Is there a certain philosophy behind what you do?

MB: I've been focusing on depictions of urban decay, post-industrial abandonment, and the presence of nature within these kinds of spaces - basically searching out places that are literally "going back to seed" - as the expression goes. For me, this work is very much concerned with how to represent what is real.

Baudrillard's notions of the simulacrum and his idea of hyper-reality come to mind- for instance the relation of photography to reality, and of photography to painting, and full circle back to the relationship between painting and reality. I'm also very interested in finding spaces that have not yet been subsumed, altered, and re-presented by consumer and popular culture to the point that they no longer bear a resemblance to their source.

BS: How do you select a scene? Do you work from memory? From photographs? Tell us about your process...

MB: I currently work from photographs. Most of my recent work has focused on abandoned urban area on the west and south sides of Chicago. Also, lately I've been investigating Gary, Indiana, Detroit, and some of the smaller industrial towns on Lake Michigan.

Basically, I drive around, learning the city as I go. Although, I do sometimes use Google-Earth to identify areas that seem to have potential for exploration. A large open area within the midst of an otherwise densely populated urban space shows up fairly clearly on Google-Earth and I have found some sites in this way.

Behind Abandoned Building, Gary, Indiana, 2007, Gouache on Paper, 20.5" x 29"

BS: Can you tell us about your influences? Have any artists or art movements influences you?

MB: I've been influenced by many artists and movements. I've certainly been influenced by the well known American Realists such as Edward Hopper, The Ash Can School, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, George Caleb Bingham. Also, I'm very intrigued by the work of some of the French painters such as Courbet and Daumier, and Northern European Symbolists like Casper David Friedrich, Villhelm Hammershoi from the 19th century.

I also feel there are many contemporary artists whose work has an affinity to my concerns. Painters such as Antonio Lopez Garcia, Rackstraw Downes, Andrew Lenighan, George Nick, Nicholas Evans-Cato, Morgan Craig, Michael Kareken, James Stephens, Chuck Forsman, Yvonne Jacquette, Rebecca Silus, and Carolyn Swicz among others; and contemporary photographers like Camillo Jose Vergara and Richard Misrach.

BS: What do you find interesting about landscapes in general... compared to say-- figurative works?

MB: I really love figurative work as well as landscape. For me, though, the depiction of landscape without figures is a first person experience for the viewer. In other words, the viewer is not watching someone else interact with the landscape, but rather they "are" the figure in the landscape. Also, much of my work simply is more about the landscape itself, almost in the sense of the landscape "as" figure.

BS: What are you working on at this time?

MB: I'm working on several new paintings - As a group I would say they differ slightly from my most recent work because they focus almost more on the "nature" that is reclaiming abandoned urban spaces more than the decaying urban infrastructure itself. They palette is switching more to various hues of green rather than a focus on somber hues of grey. I'm painting lots and lots of leaves and weeds.

Empty Lot near Stevens Expressway, Chicago, 2007, Gouache on Paper, 13.5" x 18"

BS: Michael, you've been the recipient of several grants... do you have any advice for emerging artists who are seeking grants?

MB: I think when applying for grants one of the most important things to make sure of is that the work you present in support of your grant proposal actually relates to the concepts you are presenting. It's very easy to get carried away with explaining concepts about future work and where it might go to the point that it no longer bears a connection to the actual work you are presenting. The artwork is the most important part of a proposal - and your ideas should have a clear connection to your images.

BS: Finally, do you have any further suggestions for emerging artists? What advice do you have for a student who is thinking about applying to art school?

MB: My only advice to emerging artists and students trying to get into schools is to simply keep trying. You can't let yourself be discouraged and put off by rejection letters to the point that you stop working. If you apply for a 100 opportunities you may only get one, or a few, and the more opportunities you apply for, the more likely you are to get some of them.

On a related note, I would also say that it is really important to research the opportunities you are applying for, and make sure your kind of work is within the focus of what is being sought. This is especially true of galleries - don't waste your time sending your work to a gallery that focuses on work that's totally unrelated to what you do.

You can learn more about Michael Banning by visiting his website-- www.michaelbanning.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk Margeaux Walter

Laura Pabst from the Nohra Haime Gallery introduced me to the art of Margeaux Walter. Margeaux recently graduated from The Tisch School of Arts in NYC with a BFA in Photography. She uses photography and photographic lenticulars "to explore the evolution of human interactions, technological innovations, and the relationship between them." The Nohra Haime Gallery brought Margeaux's work to Bridge Miami in December, and she was quite the rage, catching the eye of press, and selling all the pieces that were on display.

Brian Sherwin: Margeaux, you were born and raised in Seattle, Washington. You moved to New York City in order to attend the Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), where you received a BFA in Photography and Imaging. Can you tell us about your academic years? Did you have any influential instructors?

Margeaux Walter: I started studying photography in high school at The Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut. There I realized that I wanted to pursue photography and art, and was fortunate to attend the Tisch Photography and Imaging program at NYU. This program forced me to delve into all aspects of photography: to try out different mediums, camera formats, styles etc. It was also a very conceptual program requiring students to define for themselves what art means to them, and what they hope to communicate with it. One of the many great teachers at the Tisch School of the Arts is Diane Bertolo, who specializes in digital photography. I took all of her classes and she became a mentor who helped me bring my project ideas to fruition.

BS: How did the transition from living in Seattle to moving to NYC inspire you as an artist? Did the geographic change make an impact on your work?

MW: As I went to boarding school, I haven't really lived in Seattle since I was 15. My time in New York City has had a great impact on my art. It is a city that inspires creativity with so much happening all the time. NYC is also a claustrophobic city, cluttered with people, lights, signs, noise, and motion – all which influence my views of modernization. But I do love this city, and the subway makes for an amazing place to observe people.

BS: Margeaux, since graduating in 2006 you have been working in design and fashion, while continuing to create and exhibit your own artwork. Was it hard to find balance? Or would you say that one aspect of your work feeds the others? For example, does your commercial work help the development of your personal work?

MW: At first I found it hard to find a balance. I think I was trying to push my commercial work away from my art. Eventually I realized that it is a large part of my inspiration. Since I have accepted this, my work has grown from this interplay. The media, advertising, and marketing play a big role in my view of society, and of my artwork. Design work has really given me access to experiences and materials that I would not have found otherwise. I strive to use advertising techniques in my work, as these are the visual cues that people respond to.

BS: You explore the evolution of human interactions, technological innovations, and the ever-changing relationship between them in your work. What interests you about this? Do you view technology as dangerous to humanity? Do you see it as positive? Tell us more about the thoughts and motives behind your work...

MW: I see our obsession with technology threatening humanity in that we are eager to replace our own skills, and innately human characteristics with digital tools. For example, we access our memories less with so many information-cataloging devices. Our interactions are being turned into TLAs (three letter acronyms) via text messages and email. We are becoming more sedentary because we can now access anything we want with the click of a button.

This said, I am a complete techno-fanatic. Always one of the first to try out a new device, I am fully immersed in technology. My art (and my life as I know it) would not exist without it. And my fears stem from this dependency.

BS: You often use yourself as a model in your work. Based on that... would you say that your work is a very personal form of expression? By allowing yourself to experience your own fears, observations, and fantasies first-hand are you suggesting a search for identity? By using yourself as a model are you suggesting that due to technology the identity of an individual can be lost-- a Ctrl-Alt-Delete of the soul, so to speak?

MW: My work may seem personal, but I tend to assume the roles of imaginary characters in my pieces that are distinct from my identity. These characters are generated by my observations of others and express how I view the world around me. Stepping away from my own identity while I am creating a piece frees me up to experience and portray fantasies and fears that I don’t feel when I am wrapped up in my daily routine.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that technology can delete the soul, but I do see individuality becoming obsolete in the sense that there is less room for it. I see people’s priorities shifting towards the desire to work (produce) and away from family, love, community etc. We are modifying our lives and routines in order to keep up with technological innovations. Each new device that we integrate into our lives forces us to conform both to its limitations, and to mainstream society. These choices can lead to a blurring of our individuality to the degree we embrace the cookie-cutter digital world.

BS: What are your specific concerns about the role of technology in contemporary society? Does your work serve as a warning? Or is it more of a representation of what has already happened... what is already with us, so to speak?

MW: My concerns with technology relate to our continued reliance on it, and that it is slowly becoming a replacement for many of our skills. This is happening without our awareness and it is camouflaging itself as natural evolution. Like many advances in society, we have to take advantage of its attributes while we retain those behaviors that distinguish us as individuals.

Whether my work is seen as a warning is dependent on the viewer and his/her own relationship with technology. I also see my work as playful, and satirical. Although I have concerns about technology, I am keen on using it. I enjoy playing with this contradiction in my work and therefore it can be interpreted in many different ways. When I make my art, I take my observations, combine them with contemporary hypotheses, add my own fantasies, and create each piece from there. The emotions that go into my work are a mix of fear, excitement, desire, anxiety, hopelessness, and so forth. All of these represent my views on society and our future, and thus my work is not created to have one message. Rather I am offering all of these sentiments and asking the viewer to notice his/her own reactions to the images.

BS: What about influences? Are there any specific artists are art movements that have influenced you?

MW: I am inspired by new things everyday, so it is hard to pinpoint a few. But I think the artists that have had the largest influences on me are Cindy Sherman for using herself as a model to express the world around her, Aziz + Cucher for their sculptural work in which they combined the animate (skin) with the inanimate (machine), and Vanessa Beecroft’s repetitious use of the human body in her performances.

BS: Can you tell us more about your process? Place us in your mind as you think about a new piece...

MW: I come up with new ideas in really odd places, so I always carry a notebook, and start each piece by sketching out my thoughts. Once I have a rough image in mind, I create the costumes and photograph and/or montage the backgrounds. Then I photograph the characters (me) in various forms using a timer, cut them out in Photoshop and assemble them into the background. For the lenticulars I create multiple layers in a Photoshop file with the various movements, which I interlace together to create the lenticular print. This means that each photograph/scene is printed in thin strips. A lens, made up of curved ridges is then laminated over the print and lined up with the strips. When the viewer looks at a lenticular from different angles, the lens creates the illusion of movement.

BS: Margeaux, you are involved in an exhibit titled Peopled People at the Nohra Haime Gallery this month. You will have a solo show at the gallery in February. Can you tell us about these two exhibits? What should we expect? How long have been represented by Nohra Haime Gallery?

MW: The first show I had with Nohra Haime Gallery was in December at the Bridge Art Fair in Miami where there was a gratifying response to my work. I am really excited about these two shows in her gallery. The group show has four lenticulars from different bodies of work that I did in 2006 / 2007.

The solo exhibition will be mostly of work from my new series, Oneness. This is a collection of minimalist portraits that highlight subtle motions, gestures, and expressions that I notice in everyday interactions. They express the growing distance between people, as even the simplest act of making eye contact may cause discomfort. These portraits convey the isolation that occurs with every lost, unseen, and confused interaction, and forebodes a mechanical existence.

BS: What else do you have planned for 2008?

MW: I am working on a lot of new projects and also experimenting with other mediums such as 3d, as well as continuing new photographic and lenticular pieces. I am also involved in community collaborative projects with an NYC based art collective, Super Glue.

I have been energized the last several months, preparing for these two shows. As a result, my notebook is full of ideas that I am eager to bring to life in 2008.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?

MW: Ctrl-Alt-Delete or Restart… Take your pick.

You can learn more about Margeaux Walter and her work by visiting her website-- www.margeauxwalter.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Kirsten Rae Simonsen

Kirsten Rae Simonsen's work has been described as a "fairy-tale gone wrong" (Margaret Hawkins, The Chicago Sun-Times). Fred Camper of the Chicago Reader writes: "Simonsen's main subject...(is)...the loss of human identity." Her work has been exhibited in Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Seattle, New York, London, and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She is represented by Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia. After studying art in Bali, Indonesia, she received her MFA from the University of Chicago. Her summers are spent leading an Art and Design Program in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She lives in Honolulu.

Brian Sherwin: Kirsten, you are interested in the idea of children as transgressors in suburban and small town life... with your work you observe how children act beyond the norm that is expected of them as far as acceptable social behavior is concerned.What motivates you to explore this societal observation that you have made?

Kirsten Rae Simonsen: I am very influenced by Martha Stewart and the current obsession with babies and domesticity (observe all of the craft and cooking magazines) in our culture. I see a real move back to the 1950s these days. Also, too many people in our culture have too much disposable income, and they create interiors, exteriors, and, indeed, entire lives based on images in magazines. What does not fit well into these images are messy and unpredictable children (and animals, for that matter). I love the idea of the child with its fingers in the cake, or screaming bloody murder at a birthday party and messing up mommy's beige or taupe carpet (see my "Birthday" series). Another thing that does not fit into the world of formica and cream/ecru colored couches is aggression or even violence: violence between children and/or between adults (see "Stories for Girls" and Stories for Boys").
The Story of a Girl, Mixed media on wood, 11×14, 2007

BS: Critics have noted that your work is visually deceptive. By visually deceptive I mean that your work appears charming on the surface, but further investigation reveals a darker world where children are not exactly innocent. What interests you about this form of disconnection between what is expected from the viewer and what is actually displayed within the context of your work-- would you say that your work is a psychological play on the expectations of the viewer?

KRS: Yes, my work absolutely is a psychological play. I actually have had adults in the art world, highly trained in the discipline of art, ask me why I make illustrations for children's books, as in, "aren't you a little old for that?"

I see my work as exceedingly dark, and the point is proven when a collector balks at actually buying the work and taking it home because "it won't match my couch" or, more often, "I love it but I can't look at every day...it is too disturbing." I work with a wonderful art dealer in New Jersey who completely "gets" my work and she explains it to others. I often feel it is helpful to have dealers and reviewers describe, explain, and interpret your work; in some ways I feel that should be the job of those people.

BS: Does your own childhood creep into your work? By exploring these themes are you attempting to gain a bettering understanding of who you are and what you have lost-- or is it more of an exploration of our collective experiences? Who are you placing under the microscope, so to speak?

KRS: As far as my own childhood goes, I suppose it only creeps in in a very abstract way. More than that, I am quite interested in the Victorian era, especially Dickens and the cult of the child. At the beginning of the Victorian era, life for children was quite harsh: many were sent to work in factories as soon as they were able. Many children grew up near factories, suffering from ill health and bad nutrition. In contrast, children from the upper classes were expected to dress well and behave like little adults: be seen and not heard. While the poor children were working, the rich children were attending parties and upper class schools.

By the end of Victoria's reign, the view of children had softened: education had become more emphasized, and adults realized that children needed protection and love. The view of children had become more sentimental, as popularized by Charles Dickens, who had a great affinity for the poor and disadvantaged members of Victorian society. Other influences on my work include fairy tales, especially "The Little Match Girl," a Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, also Victorian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Match_Girl). In this rather sentimental but very sad little story, a ragged little girl dies trying to sell matches on Christmas eve.

The Victorian view of children as workhorses or as China dolls has greatly influenced me. I am putting this view of children under the microscope, because I feel to some extent it has not left us. To some extent, even in (or especially in) America, some children are exalted and placed on a pedestal, and others are ignored and left to their own devices, dropping out of the education system and turning to drugs and crime. More often than not, even in our country, this is still based on class. More than anything, I would like to examine this cult of children that exists now (just pick up any celebrity gossip magazine to see all the happy mommies and their broods). This cloying, sickly sweet vision of the lovely, innocent child popularized in the late Victorian era and in these current magazines really fascinates me. I want to see that lovely, sweet kid with mud on her face after playing all day in the woods.

The designing of lifestyles in magazines like Blueprint and Martha Stewart's Living is related to the cult of babies in the celebrity and even fashion magazines: the baby is touted as the ultimate accessory. In a recent Vogue spread, a model was seen from the waist down only in very fashionable shoes and skirts: in every image, around her feet lay an expensive purse, costly and colorful toys, and a smiling, happy baby. This is the yummy mummy: hot, thin, and fertile.

BS: It seems that with each generation innocence is lost. In a sense, children are growing up faster than they would have in the past. Children are dropping their toys for the remote control and for the computer. Thus, in many ways one could say that technology and the media has caused this reaction. I'm not suggesting that children are maturing faster... they are just barraged with a gambit of experiences on a daily basis-- and some of these experiences are very adult in nature. What are your thoughts on this? How does this play a role in your work?

KRS: Two of my pieces, "A Girl's Life" and "Story of a Girl" speak directly to the experience of growing up as a girl in America, trying to navigate through technology, societal pressure, and expectations to form an identity. I am very impressed by my two closest girlfriends, who are trying very hard to raise their girl daughters so they do not end up addicted to technology. They also are raising these girls in non-suburban atmospheres (New York and Chicago), which I find very inspiring. I think there is definitely a move away from all this technology in parenting now, and I wholeheartedly support it. Letting children just "plug in" is a big problem.

Running Scared (detail), Mixed media on wood, 11×14, 2007

BS: Kirsten, you are represented by Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta, GA and Artspace in New Haven , CT. Your work can also be purchased from Domo Gallery in Summit, NJ. What exhibits do you have scheduled with these galleries in 2008? Also, can you discuss the importance of the relationship you have with these galleries-- perhaps you have some advice for emerging artists who are seeking gallery representation?


KRS: I recommend that artists take control of their work and their career; do not be afraid to switch galleries if you feel your work is not being represented properly. Galleries change quickly and they can fold as easily as any business. And remember a gallery is a business like any other business. It's really important to have someone representing you who understands your work and does not try to get you to change it. I have been represented by Peter Miller Gallery in Chicago in the past, and now am represented by Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta, GA. My work is also in the Flatfile in Artspace in New Haven, CT. I also have a wonderful dealer working on my behalf in New Jersey. I feel very fortunate that all of these people understand my work and where I am coming from.

Here's some advice regarding juried group shows I'd like to share with artists:

1. DO send your work to THEMED shows. If you make work about submarines, and it is pretty good or very good work, and you apply to show about submarines, there is a high likelihood you will get in.

2. DO look at the curator of the show. Do they work at the MOMA? Are they nationally or internationally recognized? Apply to that show. You want those types of curators seeing your work. On that topic, RESEARCH the work that curator likes before your send your work in. If the curator likes installation and you do traditional glass blowing, there is less likelihood she will like your work.

3. DO donate your work to auctions. That's where people who, frankly, have money will collect your art.

4. DO send your best work to shows and galleries. You really have to control what work of yours is out there. What if you become famous and you have all this really bad, early work floating around?

5. DO change your style or subject matter (not drastically) about once every three years.

6. DO NOT send your work to un-themed, all-media juried group shows unless the curator is someone you really want to see your work. Those shows are too much of a free-for-all in my opinion, and hard to get into.

BS: You mentioned a return to the 1950s... are you concerned that a form of glass culture is on the horizon? A culture that is filled with falsehoods and big fake smiles-- one that could be easily shattered?


KRS: I am concerned about the Disneyfication of America...I blame the media, for putting forth this idea that "every little girl wants to be a princess," for example...and for obsessing over celebrity stories of good girls gone bad, bad girls gone good, etc. It turns people's real lives into narratives that involve female self-destruction, subjugation, and redemption. In a way, the celebrity stories with the happy ending with the baby and handsome husband are the worst of all...the ultimate Disneyfication. Yes, these narratives do create an imagined culture, filled with falsehood and people smiling behind white picket fences.

Before I moved to Honolulu this past September, my husband and I lived in Florida, which is a fascinating place. We visited the Orlando area and drove around Celebration, Disney's planned community (residents can drive straight into Disney property from their neighborhood; more info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebration,_Florida and at www.celebrationtowncenter.com/ee). It really was the world of "The Truman Show;" everything was in its place and every house looked perfect, each with a rocking chair on the front porch (no joke! And it was the SAME rocking chair!). But the funny thing is, the place was almost deserted. We went back again the next day and still it seemed hardly anyone was living there. It was eerie. The local paper's biggest story (and it was a very long story) was about how to keep your kids from catching intestinal bugs from Celebration's public pool.

Special Day (detail), Mixed media on wood panel, 11" x 14", 2007

BS: Are you interested in any specific theories of psychology? You may have noted from my past interviews that I'm a fan of Carl Jung... does his theories apply to your work?

KRS: Though I have some problems with Jung's ideas, I do believe in archetypes, the collective ideas we are all born with such as parenting, initiation, and death, the idea of mother and father, etc. Many of my works are based on something that is part of the Western, privileged collective unconscious that has been LOST: for example, the ruined birthday cake (symbolizing the ruined birthday celebration), the burning automobile (loss of material objects that are important to us), the beautiful little girl (with lost identity), the loss of innocence in general. Although some of the imagery and outfits I use for my characters is Victorian, much of the iconography I use is meant to trigger memories for middle to upper class people who grew up in America since the 1950s: party dresses (usually light pink), communion dresses, birthday cakes, bows (for hair), cars that one has in high school (see Drag Race, Ghost Car), yearbooks.

I also am very interested in the psychology of girl culture (see the photographer Lauren Greenfield) and in the writing of Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth). Both of these people make a study of (among other topics) eating disorders...the ultimate attempt by womankind to disappear, to control, to have willpower, to feel free (the motivations are many for anorexia, for example).

BS: Would you say that the Victorian era view of children-- as you interpret it --has never really left... in that there is still a division between how one child is treated compared to the next? Would you say that we, especially politicians, describe children as hope for the future when in reality there is often little hope for our youth? For example, people will donate thousands after viewing a commercial with crying impoverished children in another country, yet when they see poor children in their own communities they look in the other direction. How is that reflected in your work?


KRS: Yes, it's true. It is a much safer, neater, easier, and cleaner activity to write a check to a organization that helps children in foreign countries than it is to help poor and impoverished children you see every day on our own streets. I think this is a colonial attitude as well...there is something "exotic" about caring about children in other countries, plus it helps one feel smug. I don't mean to sound so negative and judgmental...I hardly work for the UN myself...I am just trying to say it is important to care for and about ALL children, rich or poor, in ALL countries. And (this is a side note) one topic my work DEFINITELY touches on is how hard life can be for rich, well-off children too...that is true as well.

BS: Do you have any specific concerns about the state of the art world at this time?
KRS: I love the way artists are taking charge and managing their own careers now, through sites like myartspace and others. We should not feel at the mercy of the white cube art gallery. I also love that drawing has come to such prominence.

I am concerned about art education in colleges and universities, though. I see a division over and over between old-school, pure technique-based ways of teaching and new-school, conceptually-based ways of teaching. i believe students can be taught using a healthy mix of the two. The worrying part is that many technique-based professors are being hired now...ONLY technique, NO concept. When I see this, I feel elementary art education is creeping into the university, where I feel students should be challenged to think conceptually as much as possible. Luckily where I teach now, this is not the case.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your work?

KRS: I think that is it. Thank you so much!!

You can learn more about Kirsten Rae Simonsen by visiting the following page-- http://elasticlimit.com/kirstenrae/. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Kara Petraglia

Kara Petraglia was born in Yonkers, NY and raised in Hollywood, FL. Kara has traveled all over the United States. She now resides in the city of her birth. Her paintings provide the space where unspoken stories are given form; the space where she turns her materials into a historical record. As she works and reworks the surfaces of her canvases, she records her struggles with formlessness, fragmentation and the groundlessness that results from being shaped by inherited traumas.

Constellation I: I Remember Remembering

Brian Sherwin: Kara, do you have any formal training in art? If so, where did you study and who were your mentors?

Kara Petraglia: This past May I graduated from the University of Florida with my BFA, concentrating in painting. I worked closely with professors Jerry Cutler, Ronald Janowich and Richard Heipp. These three professors have very different approaches to art making and viewing, and through a good amount of struggle and a fair amount of agreement, each helped me grow into my own. For printmaking, I studied with Professor Robert Mueller. He has enough dedication and passion for his craft to fill a whole room. And I would be hard pressed not to mention Jason Mitchum and Steve Panella—two graduate students who helped me to realize early on that I love to paint.

BS: Kara, you are interested in the ability to make a statement by creating your own visual narrative. You view this exploration as a form of inherent power that can be utilized to shape history. Thus, you address this power of communication by giving a voice to unspoken stories. Can you go into further detail about the motives behind your work and what you strive to convey to viewers?

KP: My main motivation is knowing that if you don’t tell your story, someone else will, or no one will. The latter two are options I’m not interested in allowing to happen. I hope to show viewers the process in which I construct an understanding of my life in a very material way. Process is an important idea for me in knowing one’s identity because life is nothing but multiple processes of constructing identity.

In the grand scheme of things, I feel that a history’s importance should lie with the teller of the tale; with people appreciating that all accounts are faulty to an extent.

BS: By exploring the collective trauma that women have endured are you establishing a feminist message within the context of your work? Are these works a message of strength and endurance or are they revealing the stereotypes that men have forced upon women throughout history? Perhaps they explore both?

KP: The main message I want to convey in my work is that, everyone can and should take responsibility for their life. I hesitate to identify this as a particularly feminist ideal although I do not deny the influence. My focus on the collective trauma of women comes from growing up knowing that there are threats against women that don’t seem to exist as clearly for men. Sexual violence is a truth in our culture and our world, with or without trying to eliminate the stereotypes placed solely on women. Although I recognize that sexual violence against men exists, I focus on "womanhood" because I am a woman and that is what I know. There is a lot of work to be done to know where the stereotypes end and the truth begins, so I would agree that my concept of "women’s collective trauma" explores both a generalized stereotyping and the truth of surviving trauma as I know it.

Yet another aspect of the trauma I explore is what I call inherited trauma. This differs from collective trauma in that it’s specifically related to the violence against women I know and empathize with. This seems to be much more dangerous in that the whole mindset of "if it happened to her, it could happen to me" is much more prevalent. I am a woman but do not necessarily identify with all women; I identify with those I know.

As for the Constellation series specifically, these paintings are meant to be markers for the point in my life that I began to understand, pin down and work through my anxiety and panic disorder. Instead of allowing the anxiety to become a destructive force, I concentrated my energy into channeling the force into a constructive arena of exploration and production. This aspect is where I can identify "strength and endurance" because for me, that is what they demonstrate.

Constellation II: Icarus

BS: Have you experienced any form sexism as an artist... in regards to exhibits and opportunities? When I spoke with Sylvia Sleigh she mentioned how the art world is still conflicted with a form of male dominance. Have you experienced anything like this?

KP: I think sexism exists today as much as racism and classism do. It seems most of these -isms exist in a more subtle way than before, so it’s harder to pinpoint where the prejudice is and when it’s just an honest disagreement. One thing that did strike me while attending school is that most of my peers were women, especially in my Art History classes. I always wondered where they all disappeared to if it’s still a "man’s world".

BS: Would you say that your work offers any sense of hope for the future? Or is it more about capturing the concerns and fears that you have in order to restrain them when these pieces are created? Do these works speak of the past or do they span time?

KP: I think the hope in my work lives in the act of capturing fear. By capturing and identifying even one trigger of fear, it’s possible to gain that much more control over your perceptions simply because you know one more thing about what causes that fear.

The works speak more of the past for me because I like to think of them as markers for past moments in my life and how I was framing these issues. The result of working on these ideas is I usually wind up reshaping how think about them.

BS: Your Constellation Series exists as three windows in a groundless world where thoughts and images are continuously moving and shifting perspective. Can you tell us more about this series and what it means to you? How does it define you as an individual-- how does it explore issues within a social context?

KP: The Constellation series is meant to exist as windows into part of my mind. It’s the realm that’s full of doubt, uncertainty and an honest questioning of why I am the way I am. It’s the serious, honest part of me that has to confront my anxiety and all that comes with that. Using Icarus to tell the story of panic episodes came about as a natural way to redirect the truth of the event. Making false diagrams and trying (and failing) to rewrite the original myth are exercises in attempting to author new stories about my history.

Inherited trauma is what brings me back to a social context. I came into this idea from being warned, mostly by older women, about things like going for a walk alone and to not walk too close to the hedges, or about going on a date and to be weary if my date has unannounced friends join us. No explanations were given, just warnings. These sorts of stories made my young mind wander and where it went never made the warnings concrete. It abstracted them. As an adult I’m now more aware of the violence against women every day but in rewriting my own childish understandings, I make those unfinished stories something to confront instead of what-ifs to tack on to my woman-hood.

BS: I understand that you have been working on a new body of work that you plan to reveal in fall of 2008. Can you give us any insight into these work? Will they further explore the themes that we have talked about?

KP: So far, this work is in its infancy. I’m experimenting with more materials than my last work—Yupo is the big one right now. Thematically, I feel this work pulling me in a slightly different place than before. I’m currently researching traditional silhouette making and Dada sound poetry. I’m excited about where this can take me.

Constellation III: My My My

BS: Kara, can you tell us about your process? Place us in your mind as you stand before a blank surface... what happens? What is released? What are the thoughts that consume you as you work? How do the materials that you use reflect the emotion and issues that you capture upon the surface?

KP: To begin, I take a few days to build up layers of gesso, acrylic paint and pigmented wax. I aim to transform the unstretched canvas into something resembling plasticized paper. I then apply my image tracings and being to carve. All of the contrasting lines are made by carving into the surface with an X-acto knife, printmaking tools or mechanical pencils. This process is long and tedious—I once spent 18 hours carving text into a piece that was 4"x 6". But the time it takes to carve out my images and text is where I have a place to really consider my next move. A great deal of planning goes into the preparation and execution of the work, but a lot of time also goes into reconsidering the piece. But every step, including the editing, is a part of the final piece. I cross out, circle and make notations about how things should be read or linked to other visual elements. Uncertainty, doubt and self-editing are a part of my life and I want to exploit the ability of the materials to make these limitations available for consideration. The history of the piece is accessible to the viewer in a way that mimics how I consider editing of the self to be accessible through time.

The act of carving intricate shapes and text into my surfaces sits on the cusp of obsessive and what needs to be done. The focus needed to get through that process is enough for me to redirect my anxiety. Making my uncertainty literal allows me to confront many thoughts and feelings at one time by showing how they compete for space and acknowledgment.

BS: Is there anything else you would like to say about your work?

KP: An undercurrent in my work that I have yet to pin down is a connection that I keep making between "text", "texture" and "architecture". Some relationships are tangible enough, especially for text and texture, however, in my mind I can't separate architecture from the mix. For the most part, working has been a great search to reconcile my thoughts about these words (sound, use, origin) with the other themes taking over more central roles.

Kara Petraglia is a member of the www.myartspace.com community, login ID--
makeyounosense. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Andrea Blum

Andrea Blum was born in New York City and received her education at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts and the Art Institute of Chicago. Andrea has built permanent projects in California, Ohio, Minneapolis, Wisconsin, and Boston, as well as France, the Netherlands, and England. She has done many commission installations including installations for A.T.& T. and the Marina Bank in Chicago. Andrea is a Professor of Art / Combined Media at Hunter College CUNY. She has held academic positions at several others schools, including-- Cooper Union School of Art, Princeton University, and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Birdcage 2007

Brian Sherwin: Andrea, you studied at Boston Museum School of Fine Arts/Tufts University and the Art Institute of Chicago. How did your experience at those schools influence you as an artist during those early years?

Andrea Blum: The museum school made me realize I could be an artist..for me it was fantastic...

BS: Andrea, you have taught at several schools-- Rhode Island School of Design, Princeton University, Cooper Union School of Art, and most recently at Hunter College CUNY. How did you find balance between instructing art and creating your own art? I've spoken with several artists who have said that it can be very difficult. Has it been a challenge?

AB: Interesting... sometimes fun... currently my teaching position is supportive of my career which makes it less of a burden... however it is non-stop work.

BS: Let us discuss your work. In many ways your work reveals a sense of voyeurism and vulnerability. For example, your furniture projects often involve strategically placed 'windows' that target specific locations of the body when seated. At first sight, many of these works appear to conceal the sitter, but in reality they are left vulnerable-- a false sense of security and comfort is established. Can you go into further detail about this?

AB: I have always been interested in how people display their neuroses, how embarrassment is something we all have in common, triggered by our own personal histories. At the same time my own nervousness keeps things at a distance-seemingly remote, often times couched in metaphor. An example of this is how I arrange space, orchestrate intimacy, and turn the public into unknown performers. There is admittedly a starkness to this approach, but I think of it as a perversion which accompanies my tendency towards voyeurism rather than malice.

Leg/Neck 1994

BS: Andrea, when did you first start this journey-- I suppose I can call it a journey --of giving new meaning to the environment around us by dismantling-- exposing-- the traditional qualities of functionality in public design that we come to expect?

AB: When I felt that the scale I wanted to work with had to responsibly address the context... which for me meant the public.

BS: You are interested in psychology. Can you discuss the psychological implications of your work? Are there any specific schools of psychological thought that you adhere to within the context of your work?

AB: Whatever the form, the work considers the relationship of the social/political world to the private psychological one. My approach is to combine humor and cynicism to zoom in and out of the conditions which organize us as a culture, thereby hoping to affect us as individuals. I take a non-specific approach to my work as far as specific schools of psychology are concerned.

Suspended Aviary 2006

BS: Is there a spiritual side to your art?

AB: Absolutely not.

BS: Andrea, can you tell us about some of your other influences?

AB: Architecture. My work falls somewhere between sculpture, architecture and design. The work takes various forms and scale; I design public spaces, libraries, small architectural structures, live /work spaces, and bedrooms. I make furniture, not as ‘good design’ but rather as a way to isolate the body in its social environment. I think about how furniture can be used as a camera to isolate body actions and behaviors, and I look for the moment when the way people live at home is displaced into public view.

Spiral Love Seat with Birds

BS: Can you tell us about one of your more recent projects? For example, Spiral Loveseat with Birds. What was the inspiration behind this project?

AB: I am currently building this one for my show in Paris in march... it is a tower of babel... with chattering birds(canaries)... the spiral is structured so as to bring the ‘partner’ into the fray with complicity... IE (s)he adds to and is part of the confusion of mis-communication.

BS: Would you say that you enjoy changing the conventional into the unconventional? If so, do you want viewers of your work to question their perception?

AB: Sure.

BS: What are you working on at this time? Do you have any exhibits planned for 2008?

AB: Insitu-Faibenne Leclerc, Paris March 2008, MUDAM museum Luxembourg -may 2008, Maison Rouge, Paris June 2008

ZIP 2006

BS: Andrea, you have had a lot of success with your work... do you have any advice for emerging artists?

AB: It is a lot of work but have fun with it... lots of highs lots & lots of lows.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say?

AB: Thank you.

You can learn more about Andrea Blum by visiting her website-- www.andreablum.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

myartspace and HotShoe International launch "Next Perspective", a juried photo competition.

myartspace and HotShoe International launch "Next Perspective", a juried photo competition.

myartspace, the premier online social network for the art world and HotShoe International, Europe's leading contemporary photographic magazine, have collaborated to sponsor a juried photography contest – "Next Perspective". The grand prize is US $2000 in cash and a featured article in HotShoe International. The second prize is a digital SLR camera. Third prize is a US $500 gift certificate to B&H Photo. Entry to the competition is online. To register, photographers must first become a member of www.myartspace.com, the free online community for the art world and create an online gallery of their work with up to 20 digital images. Music and video can be added to their gallery. The deadline for registration and submission is April 12, 2008. The winners will be announced on April 29, 2008. Cost for competition registration and submission is $20. Visit the following page for more information-- www.myartspace.com/hotshoe

Catherine McCormack-Skiba, Founder and Creative Director at myartspace noted "We wanted to highlight key trends in fine art photography. We felt a competition for the community was a great vehicle for this. myartspace, with its large base of artists, unlimited upload capacity and powerful ability to integrate video and music to photography could serve as an excellent platform for such a competition. We’ve found a great partner in HotShoe International to help us address that photography market".

Melissa De Witt, Editor of HotShoe International added, "It is very difficult for photographic artists to get their work seen by the people who can help launch their careers. Next Perspective is a fantastic opportunity for individuals to get their images in front of some of the top professionals on both sides of the Atlantic, and to have the chance to get international exposure through HotShoe’s readership and participation in fairs like Paris Photo, the largest gathering of international galleries exhibiting photography in the world. We are particularly excited to be working with myartspace and delighted that they are focusing on image-based work, giving artists working with photography the ability to get their work out there and seen by a large audience."

A jury, headed by Henry Horenstein, will select the top three winners. Horenstein has worked as a photographer, teacher, and author since the early 1970s, his career as a teacher started at Harvard in 1974. He is an author of over 30 books, including many monographs (HONKY TONK, HUMANS, CREATURES, AQUATICS, CANINE, RACING DAYS). His newest book, CLOSE RELATIONS, recently published by powerHouse Books, is a collection of photographs he made as a student studying under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). His textbooks have been widely used by hundreds of thousands of photography students over the past 30 years. Horenstein lives in Boston where he continues to photograph, exhibit, publish, and teach at RISD, where he is professor of photography. He is known for being one of the most influential photography educators in the United States.

Joining Mr. Horenstein on the jury panel is Dr Juliet Hacking. Dr Hacking is the Programme Director of the MA in Photography (Contemporary and Historical) at Sotheby's Institute of Art in London. The MA is unique in that it allows students to study photography entirely as a branch of art history and visual culture, while also developing their skills of professional practice (as curators, gallerists etc). . Juliet joined the Institute in 2006 from Sotheby's auction house (London) where she was the Head of the Photographs Department (from 2003). Prior to joining the auction house as a cataloguer in 2000, she worked as a researcher at the National Portrait Gallery (London). She was the curator of the N.P.G. exhibition Princes of Victorian Bohemia: Photographs by David Wilkie Wynfield and wrote the accompanying book (NPG/Prestel 2000). She trained as an art historian at the Courtauld Institute (B.A., M.A., PhD) specialising in nineteenth-century British photography, and has taught as a Visiting Lecturer at the Universities of Derby and Reading and at the Courtauld Institute.

About myartspace:

myartspace, the premier online social network for the art world, is one of the fastest growing and diverse communities on the internet. Its members include 30,000 artists, collectors, galleries and other art world professionals from across the globe, and it currently hosts the work of nearly 10,000 artists. membership is free and artists can upload an unlimited amount of work including images, music and video. www.myartspace.com is created and run by CatMacArt Corporation-- www.catmacart.com.

About HotShoe International:

HotShoe is Europe's leading contemporary photographic magazine showcasing the best of established and up-and-coming photographic talent across a wide range of photographic genres. Its informative and incisive comment is complemented by extensive information on what is happening and what is new in the international world of contemporary photography. HotShoe has established itself as the magazine for top professionals from all fields – documentary, advertising and the arts – and is read by those who commission their work. It is also chosen by teachers and students, as well as anyone with a serious interest in photography.

HotShoe is owned by World Illustrated Limited in the United Kingdom. For more information about HotShoe, please refer to the website: www.hotshoeinternational.com. Visit the following site for more information about the competition: www.myartspace.com/hotshoe.

Art Space Talk: Ross Barber

Ross Barber is an installation artist from Australia. He is also the Executive Director of Access Arts Inc. A curator statement nicely describes the work of Ross Barber: "Bodies looking at art, become bodies negotiating architectural space. Rather than expect particular bodies, he, Ross Barber politicizes such an expectation. Rather than ordering bodies, he creates disorder for them to negotiate. Rather than provide solid ground, he leads us to question who makes the ground on which we situate ourselves on, why and for whom."

Quartet four love songs, vinyl wall text, spoken word sound installation with accompanying Braille books. Image from Angela Robarts-Bird Gallery installation, 2006.

Brian Sherwin: Ross, you studied at the University of Western Sydney and Queensland University of Technology. Can you tell us about your academic experiences? How did they influence your later work? Also, who were your instructors during those years?

Ross Barber: I had a great deal of freedom to experiment while at UWS Nepean and while I only jumped ship from the painting strand of the course in my 3rd year and moved to sculpture it felt very natural. I had been a house builder and supervisor on large industrial sites prior to my accident in 1987 so I had a lot of fine and technical skills that had just built up over the years. I found I understood the built environment very well as a location of social/ architectural histories and their politics.

Also the university-- even for undergraduates --fostered independent research and thinking. As long as you were working and processing you got quality time with lecturers which was not pedagogic in nature, but collegiate and of course you find a ready group of collaborators in the student body who are ready to push each other and test ideas and outcomes. Probably the best person I worked with at UWS was Nick Dorrer not a lecturer, but the head technician. Lecturers I had a great deal of time for were Michael Goldberg, Anne Graham, Dr Sue Best and Dr Phillip Kent.

At Queensland University of Technology I was extremely lucky to have the Head of Visual Arts JM John Armstrong as my primary Master of Fine Arts supervisor and Dr Brad Hasman as my theory supervisor. Again they allowed me to follow what was natural my eclectic practice and encouraged my tendency for theoretical bricolage to flourish. John Armstrong was instrumental in my receiving my first major grant to travel and take up a residency in Cooperations Luxemburg. My time at Cooperations turned the world upside down for me. It was there that I learned the true meaning of collaboration and the proper role of an artist in a major social project.

I returned to finish my Master of Fine Arts and while doing that taught drawing to post graduate architectural students and acted as a non-assessing lecturer in the first year undergraduate program where my brief was to incite students to try things they would never tell there formal lecturers about. It was a great joy to see those students hit the ground running in second year.

Matrixs Nature Morte, 1999 - 2006, size variable, multiple configurations. Modules under construction, collected sticks copper wire, cell phones, birdcall ring tones, sparrow screen saver images.

BS: Ross, you are the Executive Director of Access Arts Inc. For those who don't know... can you tell us about Access Arts Inc.?

RB: Access Arts is the Arts/Disability peak body in Queensland. We operate on three levels of activity:

1. Entry level arts workshops and programs

2. Identifying and nurturing emerging artists experiencing disability and disadvantage

3. Employing Professional artists, administrators, and cultural workers experiencing disabilities and disadvantage

I have to say I am an artist who purports to be a manager. I took on the job as Executive Director in mid 2004 and the circumstances around that time were not pretty. While the organisation had had an illustrious history it had lost its vision and I found myself on the first day staring at a previously hidden $40000 deficit. The organisation only had sixty five members left and was threatened by the real possibility of the loss of all financial backing. I told the board of directors that I needed a free-hand otherwise they would be winding up the organisation within a year.

My appointment by the board was not taken too well by the then staff and I felt like I was in the Australian equivalent of Fort Apache. So after a frustrating time fruitlessly trying to get the staff behind revitalizing the organasation, not to put to fine a point on it, I finished their contracts and started recruiting artists and cultural workers experiencing disabilities who had never got the jobs when they had applied to the organisation before. Three years on we now have ten staff who are all artists and about fifteen extra artists working on a range of social and professional Creative Industries projects and we have a membership of 18,050 people.

We have survived a Commonwealth and state government arts sector wide program of budget cuts where fourteen arts organisations lost their funding and a further fourteen were put onto reduced annual funding only. We actually improved our position and will have a recurrent base funding income from government and philanthropic sources of just over one million dollars in 2008. In 2007 we generated about $400,000 into the community economy in wages and in kind through strategic partnerships.

Access Arts proactively recruits and employs skilled administrators, arts workers and volunteers experiencing a range of disabilities. Developing local, regional, national and international reciprocal partnerships and the provision of appropriate training and skill development opportunities are essential elements of our philosophy for staff, volunteers and members. Membership Services staff provide creative support, encouragement and programs for members of the organisation experiencing a disability or disadvantage, which is enhanced by first-hand knowledge of living with a disability. Here is the Access Arts Web address www.accessarts.org.au

Still from- She is always walking away....... 1948 - 2006

BS: Ross, one of your most well-known projects is titled 'She is Always Walking Away". Can you discuss this project? What are the thoughts behind it?

RB: I'm not sure how to explain she is always walking away as it is in reality a work in progress and shall always remain so. It is probably best for anyone interested to read about it on my site www.rossbarber.com/she_is_always_walking_away.html

There are layers that keep being exposed-- sometimes with a sense of delight and other times like raw nerves that hurt like hell. And of course this is about identity and memory where I have some concerns of being locked in a representational impasse and shall never escape it. I began to explore the work after a conversation with Michael Goldberg in 1993. He was encouraging me to begin writing. I had disclosed the experiences of being in a coma for 11 weeks after my accident which even to this day are so much more 'real' than everyday life in terms of clarity.

One experience in particular is where I returned to the Chinosorie garden of my childhood to find the ceramic doll I had found at about four years old and named Rosa. This doll that I had abandoned at about five years old had grown old in the garden and was clearly not happy that I had abandoned her. Rosa had been my secret companion and of course representative of my unformed femininity. I now understand that her name is derivative of my first signature attempts that I wrote in special books in my grand parents library at the time, RosA Barber.

There are a number of other parts of work that I have derived from that period in the coma state, as examples-- I'd kill for a cup of tea lagoons and Quartet four love songs which I believe is the shortest version of the Odyssey written.

Concept image- Lagoons Installation

BS: In your opinion, what are some of challenges that disabled artists face in the art world?

RB: I can only speak about the situation in Australia which is very concerning. There is a systematic devaluing of people experiencing disabilities across the socio/economic system in Australia. You can see it in the ongoing losses of basic services and support. This has led to great difficulties for artists experiencing disabilities to get into the vocational training that they need in the equivalent of your art colleges or in universities. Only .03% of people experiencing disabilities are succeeding in vocational training because the lack of either the will or awareness by colleges and universities to meet the access needs that people experiencing disabilities require.

Unlike Access Arts, the commonwealth and state disability arts sector organisations who are supposed to advocate for and develop emerging professional artists, do not employ artists, cultural workers or administrators experiencing disabilities except in very tokenistic ways. As I said in my Something is rotten in the arts and cultural state of OZ. There is a dearth of ‘disability’ arts and cultural policies at a national and state level, which underpins the lack of opportunity.

BS: Ross, tell us more about your art. Is there a personal philosophy behind your work?

RB: I value all that has come before and the work of contemporaries, but I reserve the right to challenge them-- some times respectfully, sometime playfully, and sometimes with a touch of irreverence. Similarly, I like to challenge the very ground that we situate ourselves on culturally and politically. There are things that have to be said about our contemporary world and I hope I will always be honest enough to say them at the least through my art.

Two bored workers wishing aprons, each made with 7 sheets of A4 paper covered with text, one in 16th century korean characters roughly translated means, “I would rather be eating soybean curd than planting soybeans in the field“ and one in english saying : “Some other body someplace else", 2003.

BS: What is the message you strive to convey to viewers of your work?

RB: I guess in the milieu of reception theory there can be an enormous difference in what I am trying to convey and what the viewer reads in it. All I can try to do in terms of the installation work is to try and create an immersive environment that will engage and challenge the viewer. Somehow I feel that I would like the the viewer to become a co-producer.

Recently, at a Pecha Kutcha Presentation, a young performance artist responded to a work of mine titled In the winter of 68 -- a text based work that was being displayed on the screen. She just got up and performed it moving through the audience reading off the screen with a empathy and cadence that I could never have anticipated. People were stunned and not sure what to do when she finished... all I could do was applaud, it was very moving. I am hoping she will interpret some of my other prose works.

BS: Can you tell us about your process of creation?

RB: A fair description of my practice would be eclectic installation and multi-arts in form, to say the least. I liken the maintenance of my practice to the use of the analogy of the plumber’s bathroom, all the taps leak. Even in this very demanding job of executive director at Access Arts, and because of the job in which I am surrounded by very creative people, I manage to continue my work and write lots of crap prose to describe my arts practice/work relationship .

There is a story about French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan who was out fishing with fishermen from the village he was born in and he spotted a shining object floating on the sea ( it turned out to be a jettisoned sardine can). One of the fisherman noticed him staring at it and said to him, "Ah you see the shining object the object sees you, I see only what it is". Sometimes a work comes into mind and is just there, 'a thing in itself'. Others will take many years to come to a reasonable state of being and then each one starts working back to me... a process of reviewing, refining, and shifting layers of meaning that cause new works or forms of the work to emerge.

Consuming Cambells Soup after Warhol, 2006

BS: Do you have any exhibits planned for 2008?

RB: I just keep making work-- the shows come and go. They are of little consequence. This year seem to be shaping up for me. I'm engaged to do a number of presentations of my practice, mainly at universities and for state arts bodies. I have applied to undertake a PHD and if accepted I will start mid-year.

BS: Do you have any advice for emerging artists?

RB: Keep investigating that myriad of shining and not so shiny objects. A close friend of mine, who is now very well known, complained to me that she no longer had the time to really look at what she was doing. She was torn between supplying the market with what she had got a name for, instead of what she loved playfully experimenting with. She felt she was always running, but stuck in one place. "Of course it is up to you", I said. "but you have to make up your mind on what it is you can live with and be happy."

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?

RB: I am very grateful to have had a life where I have been able to have the basic means to make art and to meet others on a similar journey. It is a gift.

You can learn more about Ross Barber by visiting his website-- www.rossbarber.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Jack Chipman

Jack Chipman is a graduate of the Chouinard Art Institute (now Cal-Arts) in Los Angeles and has exhibited his abstract paintings, collages and witty assemblages throughout California and abroad. His rippings series began in San Francisco in the 1970s soon after graduation from art school. At that time artist friend Lynn Hershman, writing for Artweek, dubbed him "Jack the Ripper." Knute Stiles, in an Art in America review, wrote: "The rhythms and accidents, like the grain of wood (or the surge of the sea), are perhaps the magic factors—the intuitive aspects that give these pieces their commanding presence." At one point Jack seemed to have vanished from the scene, but one can only stay away from his or her work for so long...


ADHARMA 2, 118" by 108", Acrylic & Dye on Canvas/Wood, 1969

Brian Sherwin: Jack, you studied at the California Institute of the Arts and the San Francisco Art Institute. Can you recall your academic years? Who were your instructors? What kind of student were you?

Jack Chipman: My time spent at the California Institute of the Arts was during the bumpy period of transition from the original Chouinard Art Institute. I recall that many of the students were quite reluctant to see the old school in Los Angeles be closed in favor of Walt Disney’s new model of interdisciplinary studies which he built in remote and undeveloped (at least then) Valencia.

I studied with many of the old-timers who had taught at Chouinard for years but my favorite was Emerson Woelffer. He was an inspiration to me because he was a real painter with an established reputation as an Abstract Expressionist at the time. He was one of the major West Coast practitioners but I think his reputation suffered at the time because he lived and worked in LA instead of NY.

BS: Can you tell us about some of your other early influences?

JC: I liked many of the prominent AE painters in NY like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, but I was also aware of Californians like Richard Diebenkorn and Sam Francis. However, I was totally unaware of developments at the Ferus Gallery in LA then—something that I now regret.

ADHARMA 29, 104" by 120", Acrylic & Dye on Canvas/Wood, 1972

BS: You've mentioned that it was hard for you to shake the influence that Emerson Woelffer had on you in order to develop your personal direction. At what point did you find that direction? Was it a sudden burst of inspiration?

JC: I found my direction after relocating to San Francisco . I enrolled in Transcendental Meditation (because of the Beatles) and during an early session the concept of the "rippings" just came to me. I’m a believer in what is sometimes referred to as the "muse"—the universal creative force or energy that can be called upon to support ones endeavors (if you’re willing to accept it.) So, I guess you could call it a sudden burst of inspiration.

BS: Jack, at that time you were experiencing growing success-- collectors were starting to notice your work. However, by the 1980s you had-- for the most part --stopped exhibiting. Did you create any art during those years? Do you mind talking about those years?

JC: It all began innocently enough with my first visit to a flea market. I noticed some brightly colored pottery dishes that some of the dealers were selling and decided to buy a few. This unfortunately led to a pottery collecting obsession that consumed my energies for about 6 or 7 years. I also began to research the California companies that had produced the ware, which led to the writing of a succession of reference books on the subject. Meanwhile, I had moved back to LA where I met a fellow collector and artist who hounded me no end to get back to work. I finally caved in and rented a studio in an artists’ retreat located in San Pedro and set about to paint again. But it was difficult getting back in gear after an extended absence from my work. It was a real struggle!

RIPPING AFTERLIFE, 1, 32" by 42", Acrylic on Canvas on Metallic Bubble Pack, 2007

BS: How did you re-discover your artistic direction? Was it difficult leaving the research room for the studio, so to speak? Also, can you tell us about your series called "Loss Angeles". It was the first series you did after returning to your artistic practice, correct?

JC: At the San Pedro facility I produced one significant series called "Loss Angeles" which was about the many landmarks and attractions of the region that have disappeared over the years. As an LA native I had witnessed some of this demise—an unfortunate attribute of a "progressive" city. The series was especially important to me because it married my two competing passions—painting and pottery. I used an example of California Pottery as a signifier for each of the landmarks that I memorialized, including the famous Brown Derby restaurant and my old alma mater Chouinard.

BS: Did you ever feel like giving up during that time? What kept you focused on your creativity?

JC: No, I haven’t ever felt like giving up, even though it’s been tough trying to re-establish myself in the larger and more competitive LA art world. When you’re an artist, you just do your work even if the hoped-for rewards never come your way.

BS: At what point did you start to revisit the 'rippings' of your 1970s work? Why did you decide to return to aspects of that method?

JC: I moved from San Pedro to Long Beach and spent a productive year there in a large live-work space along with other artists. I just decided to revisit the concept that had distinguished my early work in San Francisco when Process Art emerged as a post-minimal development. But I did things differently by ripping (deconstructing) and reassembling completed paintings. Before, the process itself had been the key element of the work.

PORTAL, 23" by 28 1/4", Acrylic & Cardboard on Wood, 2007

BS: Jack, your newest work merges hard-edge elements with fluid abstract color-field paint handling. Can you tell us more about your recent practice? Do you still 'rip'?

JC: I’ve been trying to retire Jack the ripper but he keeps rearing his awful head. So far, my latest series of paintings are pure—no ripping has occurred.

BS: Philosophically speaking, how are the works that you create today different than the works you created in your youth-- do they reflect a change in time? In thought?

JC: Time changes everything. You can’t stay in the past with your work. It must progress and keep pace with what’s happening today in order to be taken seriously. I hope my current work, although not revolutionary, will be seen as a continuation of a painting tradition with roots in the NY and LA schools of the not-so-distant past.

BS: With these works do you return to your roots as far as your artistic influences are concerned? Or do you strive to focus on your own direction and set the influences aside?

JC: You follow the muse wherever it leads you and try not to look back.

FAMILY SCRAPBOOK REDUX #1, 36" by 36", Acrylic & Collage on Panel, 2007

BS: What do you hope viewers obtain from observing your work? Is there a message behind your work?

JC: I’m a believer in art for its own sake; not for the sake of critiquing society or changing the world. If there’s an underlying theme to my recent work it’s that we all have a better life to look forward to someday…but not in this world of turmoil and puzzlement.

BS: Jack, do you have any advice to emerging artists?

JC: Don’t get sidetracked. Keep at it no matter what. The reward is in the work itself.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?

JC: I’m not opposed to selling. We do live in a commercial world.

You can learn more about Jack Chipman by visiting his website-- www.jackchipman.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Javier Albar

Javier Albar is an artist from Madrid, Spain. Javier produces abstract pieces with a restrained and subtle palette. Circles, jagged lines and solid masses of black create compelling designs of powerful presence. Javier combines printing (woodcut, xylography, lithography and plastic) and painting on canvas with mix spray and acrylic colors. He explores the essence of his being by meshing organic and geometric shapes together.

Munsterland, 2007, woodcut and lithography, 70 x 50 cm.

Brian Sherwin: Javier, can you tell us about your early years? Can you recall any experiences from your youth that impacted your decision to pursue art as an adult?

Javier Albar: I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, and always wanted to work on something creative. I was not very content during the time that I worked as an interior architect even though it was creative work... I always felt a desire to express creativity more freely. I was 28 when I made the big decision to change my direction. Since then my life has changed completely.

BS: Javier, tell us about your academic background. Where did you study? Who were your instructors? How did your work mature during those years under that guidance?

JA: I started studying interior design at age 20. For 8 years I worked as an interior architect while struggling with the need for having more freedom with my creativity. While working on interior design, I was recommended to go to Brita Prinz Gallery workshop. It was there that I discovered the joy of xylography and met Eloisa Gil Pena. She showed me a new world. Three years later, I studied fine art at the University of Aranjuez, Madrid under very influential instructors.

While attending the university, I worked independently, parallel with the school work, to develop my unique style and to reach my artistic maturity. The University of Fine Arts has given me more practical resources and theoretical training, but the real essence of my art is self taught.

Huella Efimera, 2006, lithography and woodcut, 76 x 50 cm.

BS: You are from Madrid , Spain ... does your cultural background play a part in your work?

JA: My work has a universal cultural background, and I do not identify with typical Spanish culture. I am inspired by-- and identify with --the essence of works from other artists, my own life experiences, the culture of cities and countries where I have traveled, and the marks left by the people with whom I have related... the magic of life.

BS: Javier, you are interested in organic and geometric abstraction. In these works you deal with themes of architectural deconstruction and you utilize circular shapes as a form of transition between the organic and the geometric. Can you go into further detail about these these works-- the thoughts behind them?

JA: My abstractions stemmed from a book of drawings of dinosaurs bones. From it I invented my own drawing of bones and created compositions with them. I then drew lines on the transparent papers as if they were architectural plans, and transferred them onto wooden planks. My work combines the influence of interior architecture and the shapes of vegetation and organic materials.

A professor of art history once said to me that the organic and geometric were not compatible-- I thought a lot about this and came up with a solution that using circles would be the best transition between the two. I started experimenting by deconstructing forms and creating the connections in poetics forms, emotional and intuitive.

With it appeared in my work, what seem to be maps of invented cities, aerial views of cities lit at night, man made mechanisms, and textures controlled and uncontrolled. I call these textures skins of memories of thoughts.

Organicirculo del Deseo, 2006, woodcut, 78 x 54 cm.

BS: In your use of geometry you do not wish to follow a mathematical calculation. Instead, you adhere to an intuitive and emotional use of geometric forms. Can you go into further detail about this? In your opinion, why do these forms 'speak'?

JA: I drew circles intuitively to create compositions. I discovered that the circle I drew intuitively were connecting randomly at one point. I call this the 'hidden connections'. The precision in their connections were incredible. Then I realized that my art was a reflection of my life. A circle represented me and the other circles represented people in my life whom I have interacted with and the way the circles connected was the connection I had with others. I felt pure magic.

BS: As you have mentioned, you discovered xylography at the Brita Prinz Gallery workshops... and that the knowledge of this technique influenced you greatly. For those who don't know, can you tell us about xylography? Also, why did learning about xylography change your artistic direction?

JA: Since I had discovered xylography while I was working in interior architecture, drawing many compositions of architectural plans, my xylography work is heavily influenced by architecture. This makes my work very different from the work of others. I felt very fortunate being able to incorporate what I was already doing into a new form of art and to become more expressive... free.

Organicirculo Marino, 2006, woodcut, 70 x 70 cm.

BS: Javier, can you tell us more about the process of xylography-- how you use it?

JA: I've discovered my own method in working with wood based in the need of satisfying my desire to express myself. I first do line drawings on 4mm Okumen wood. I then cut the pieces with a cutter. This requires experienced precision. Using the pieces, I superimpose the shapes using a stamping method. Transparent inks are used to create different values and sometimes colors.

BS: Javier, you are open to experimentation in your work. You now incorporate new techniques combined with xylography, such as lithography and more recently the matrix of a type of plastic called Arraglás, playing with new resources such as sanded circles, and the atmospheric scratched backgrounds. Why is experimentation important to you as an artist?

JA: For awhile, I have been incorporating a less perfect and uncontrolled style with the more controlled work done previously in an attempt to link the idea of understanding what can and cannot be controlled in our lives. I am also experimenting with stamping on fabrics with hair like fibers, such as corduroy, velvet, ...etc. This method of stamping black ink on black fabric or tone on tone, played with the way the light is reflected. The direction the hair is laid invites the viewer to reconstruct the images with his movements and imagination. The work appears minimal, but it seduces the viewer to discover what's hidden within. Some are very atmospherically trapping. This series was inspired by my dreams at night... the traces and tales of people who stay within my thoughts and dreams without physical presence in my life.

Organicirculo Omunculo, 2006, woodcut, 106 x 75 cm.

BS: Javier, aside from the use of the circle... is there any other form of symbolism in your work? Do certain colors mean different things to you? If so, tell us about the symbolism of your work.

JA: The organic forms are very personal. A section of an earlier design is often used to create an evolutionary continuity. This is done with the concept of earlier design being the seed to sprout a new design that grows and branches out to different directions. This forces some of the elements and shapes of my art to reappear-- though I try not to repeat images. I am very critical of my works and always wish to be surprised by them.

BS: What else has influenced your work? Do you find inspiration in the work of other artists?

JA: At first I looked for inspiration in other artists by reviewing their work in great depth. Some of those artists are-- Chillida, Saura, Tapies, Goya, Kupka, Pollock, Rothko, Egon Schiele and many others. I also looked for inspirations in form by architects like Zaha Hadid, Calatraba, Frank Gehry. All these artists have left a essence in me, which I incorporate into my work. But now I am also finding my inspirations in nature, fractals and everything else that I find surprising in life.

BS: Javier, I understand that you are an educator as well. Where have you taught? Can you tell us about that experience and how it influences your personal work?

JA: I have some teaching experience. I have been one of the instructors of master art prints at the CIEC Foundation (www.fundacionciec.com) in the city of La Coruna in Spain, where I've taught my technique in wood engraving. I have also taught classes at the University of Fine Arts in Madrid. I am currently doing research with a grant from the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain to make a doctoral thesis. However, teaching is not my primary intention. I wish to work in a field that leaves me time to create. Life puts the thought in our sight.

BS: What advice do you have for art students?

JA: The first and foremost important thing I want to say to them is to work hard towards achieving a goal. One should broaden his knowledge and mature in art by traveling and seeing and experiencing with his own skin, while staying open minded to different ways and cultures. An art student needs to come to the realization of all things within himself-- in his own time and own place.

Organicirculo Conexion Oculta, 2006, woodcut, 100 x 70 cm.

BS: Do you have any exhibits planned for 2008?

JA: This January I am exhibiting in the city of Móstotes near Madrid after having exhibited in Münster, Germany and London in recent months. In May and June I will exhibit with other Spanish graphic artists in the gallery Arthaus66 (www.arthaus66.com) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, and again in Münster Germany

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your work?

JA: My goal is to live an exciting and incredible life full of surprises. I feel fortunate to do art. Through art, my life has become very exciting and I've met many wonderful people. Art has made my life magical and brought me many surprises.

Javier Albar is a member of the www.myartspace.com community, login ID-- aranjuez. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Guy Sherwin

Guy Sherwin studied painting at Chelsea School of Art, London in the 1960s. His subsequent film works, often including serial forms and live, are characterized by an enduring concern with time and light as the fundamentals of cinema. Recent works include multi-screen projection and gallery installations. Guy has taught at Middlesex University, London, the University of Wolverhampton and at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Guy taught printing and processing at the London Filmmaker's Co-op (now LUX) during the mid-70s. His films have been exhibited internationally and have been included in several important exhibits concerning film-- 'Film as Film' Hayward Gallery 1979, 'Live in Your Head' Whitechapel Gallery 2000, 'Shoot Shoot Shoot' Tate Modern 2002, 'A Century of Artists' Film & Video' Tate Britain 2003/4.

Stills from The Train Films

Brian Sherwin: Guy, you studied painting at Chelsea School of Art in the 1960s. Care to reflect on your past? Who were your mentors at the time?

Guy Sherwin: Film was only beginning to happen at Chelsea when I was there, and this was largely through the enthusiasm of tutor Anne Rees-Mogg who was starting to make her own films. However some tutors didn't accept that film could be a fine art as it used 'time' (i.e. to them 'Fine Art' was about objects, and film wasn't an object). Other influences on my work were the formalist and material-based paintings that I was surrounded by, also the book 'Art & Visual Perception' by Rudolf Arnheim which demonstrates that you cannot trust what you see.

BS: Your film works often include live elements and serial forms. They are characterized by an enduring concern with light and time as the fundamentals of cinema. How did you make the jump from painting to film?

GS: I made a series of abstract relief paintings in which the colours on the forward surfaces were the same as the colours in the shadows, which made an ambiguous space. The viewers' movement, plus the quality of light, affected what you saw. This was one step towards working with time, and hence film.

Stills from Animal Studies

BS: Guy, you are featured in A History of Experimental Film and Video by A.L. Rees. In the book your SHORT FILM SERIES, which you undertook between 1976 and 1980, is explained in detail. Rees mentions that you returned to the series after almost twenty years, with studies of animals and insects. He goes on to mention that there is a link between your work and the surrealists. Care to go into further detail about this? What other influences have you had?

GS: I very much respect A.L.Rees' opinion but I'm not sure about this comment linking my work to surrealism. Admittedly there is a quirky humour in the Animal Studies but that's not the same thing. My main influence has been the work of the London Film-Makers' Co-op with which I have been closely involved, particularly the physical, material approach to film practice by artists such as Malcolm LeGrice, Annabel Nicolson, William Raban, Steve Farrer.

BS: Are you still working on the series? How many films are included in the series at this time?

GS: There's about 15 which I'm very happy to show and another 15 which I'm less happy to show. The Short Film Series is in principle an ongoing project, but in practice I made most of them in the late 70s and another batch in the late 90s. Part of me would like to be the kind of artist that just sticks to one thing and keeps producing one-shot films like this on a regular basis, but another part of me got in the way and wanted to try other things.

Man with Mirror. 1976/2006. Performance for super 8 film and hand-held screen.

BS: Your work seems to bend time in that you enhance work from the past with present day technology. You combine the old with the new. In that sense, you control time... you manipulate it... shape it into what you want it to be. With that said, why has the idea of 'time' had such a lasting impact on your progression as an artist? An example of this focus can be found in your piece Man With Mirror in which you interact with your former self.

GS: As I mentioned earlier 'time' was the first thing that intrigued me about film. Images that move in time. It may not be so obvious with video, but when you're working with cine-film there's something magical about winding a little strip of images backwards and forwards through a viewer, making some insignificant action, captured from the world of movement, move forwards or backwards or stand still.Aren't we all obsessed by time?

In Man with Mirror I interact with a film of myself that I made 30 years ago. In the film I'm holding a mirror painted white on the reverse side, and my movements with the mirror are echoed by my movements with an actual mirror in front of the audience. To get the feeling of it I had it recorded on video. I can see that it's full of strange illusions and time shocks. There's a version of it on Youtube. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXD7UMlAixg)

BS: Your Recent work often involves multi-screen projection and gallery installations. Are you working on any projects at this time?

GS: I've been finishing a book accompanied by a DVD. Its called 'Optical Sound Films' and is published by LUX - the main artists' film agency in this country (www.lux.org.uk). The title comes from the way sound is normally carried in 16mm film, as a thin band of fluctuating light. There are about 20 titles in all. The films were made either in the 70s or more recently. Each film included in the DVD is also illustrated in the book, along with a simple description of how it was made.

Mobius Loops. 2007. Performance for 3x or 5x 16mm projectors. Optical sound.

BS: Guy, you have maintained your research practice for over 30 years. What do you hope observers gain from the span of your work?

GS: Difficult question. I can answer in general terms. The materialist project that was very strong in the 70s but became marginalised in the 80s and 90s has come back but with a different emphasis. In the 70s 'materialist' film meant opposition to the illusory codes of mainstream cinema, but nowadays a materialist approach to film (by which I mean working with the physical substance of cine-film, not disguising its material essence, as most films do) has a particular impact as distinct from the easy illusionism of video which is now commonplace in the gallery.

BS: Guy, you have instructed classes at Middlesex University, the University of Wolverhampton and periodically at the San Francisco Art Institute. Many instructors have mentioned to me that the classroom can drain an artist of his or her creative energy. How do you balance the role of being a teacher and the work that you do as an artist?

GS: Students can be inspiring too! I consider myself lucky to be working in a field that relates directly to my own film practice.

BS: I understand that you taught printing and processing at the London Filmmaker's Co-op (now LUX) during the mid-70s. Can you share some of your experiences of the Co-op? What was it like working with experimental film in the 70s?

GS: Video hadn't arrived in the early 70s when I started to make films, so film was the important medium and I think we were all aware of its power - to make powerful material images screened to a captive, but aware, audience. Television was dull, Hollywood was duplicitous, the galleries were compromised (has anything changed?). It seemed a time when anything might happen and when the future of art was film. That idealism was not borne out by events.

BS: Have you worked with other experimental film cooperatives? For example, The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York City or Canyon Cinema in San Francisco?

GS: My films are distributed by both these organisations and I keep in touch, but I'm not directly involved.

Stills from Railings

BS: I find it interesting that for the longest time experimental film has been considered an 'underground' movement... yet the influence it has had on the commercial media is obvious. In other words, the influence is all around us yet many of the groundbreaking creators of experimental film are not as known compared to artists who work in other forms of art.One can observe how experimental film has shaped cinematography, visual effects and editing. Also, the genre of music video can be seen as a commercialization of many techniques of experimental film. Do you think the public is starting to acknowledge the founding creators of this form of art?

GS: Yes, I think that as video and film now have a strong showing in the galleries it's impossible for young curators and gallery owners to ignore the history of artists' films, which didn't start in the 90s as some still think (even the timeline in Tate Modern suggests that it started with Bill Viola and Gary Hill!) but has a long and illustrious history going back to the origin of film a century ago. I still find it extraordinary that that big white tome 'Art in Theory, 1900 to 1990' by Harrison and Wood barely mentions film. I can see that older art historians haven't time to catch up with films' huge history and it's easier not to mention it, but as I said the younger generation can no longer turn a blind eye.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your practice or experimental film in general.

GS: Another word about my practice. In the last few years my films have been shown mostly as performances, sometimes using several projectors at once. In some of these I work with my partner Lynn Loo and we adjust the projection and sound in a partly improvised way which brings film projection a little closer to improvised music. On occasions we've also worked with musicians. There's more information on these and my other works on www.luxonline.org.uk/artists.

You can learn more about Guy Sherwin by visiting the following site-- www.luxonline.org.uk. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Janet Biggs

Janet Biggs is among a substantial group of artists who turned to video and video installation in the early 1990s. Trained in painting and sculpture she has exhibited since 1987. Biggs is known for a body of work centering on the image of the horse. In her earlier video installations, Biggs has examined the way society constructs gender, often using the image of the horse as an emblem of female sexual sublimation and masculine power.

More recently Biggs has focused on themes ranging from the representation of desire and pleasure to issues of spectatorship and aging. She has broadened this inquiry into questions of power and control by drawing connections between social and pharmacological prescriptions on behavior. Her multiple-channel installations, condensed yet epic, have garnered her a strong critical reputation and numerous museum exhibitions, as well as a position that places her work in the lineage of post-feminist discourse. Janet Biggs is represented by Claire Oliver Gallery in New York City and Solomon Projects, Atlanta, Georgia.

Brian Sherwin: Janet, you studied at Rhode Island School of Design and Moore College of art. I'm always curious to know who instructed people I interview. Who were your instructors at RISD and Moore College? Have you stayed connected with those schools?

Janet Biggs: I've stayed connected with RISD and Moore through exhibitions at both schools and by participating as a visiting artist. Both schools helped shape my thought process and practice through access to inspiring professors and by fighting against professors who were limited and limiting. Some of my inspirations at Moore were Harry Anderson, Frieda Fehrenbacher, Jack Thompson, and Jerry Crimmins. At RISD, Bruce Chao inspired by giving practical information about how to survive as a professional artist while never allowing for creative complacency. I was lucky that both schools have active and aggressive visiting artist/critic programs and exhibition schedules. I was exposed to and influenced by a lot of artists/critics who were aggressively pushing their work and their careers such as Valie Export, Jody Pinto, Richard Artschwager, and Lucy Lippard.

BS: Janet, you were one of the artists who turned to video and video installation in the early 1990s. However, you originally focused on painting and sculpture. Can you tell us why you decided to focus on video and video installation? Perhaps you have a story or two about those early years?

JB: I've always been interested in the immersive experience. Even when I was producing paintings and sculpture, I would combine objects and/or images to make installations. At the time, my studio was small so I would make "commuter installation art"...lots of small elements making up a large-scale installation. Video seemed like a great economy of means. I could create something phenomenological out of projected light. The immersive nature of video installation has been satisfying enough to keep me working in the medium for the last ten years, but I didn't count on the amount of equipment (and it's rapid obsolescence) needed to present the work. My studio is now full of projectors, laser disk players, video tapes, DVD players, projections screens, and sound systems...and I'm thinking of going hi-def soon.

BS: How did your experience as a painter and sculptor enhance your video work?

JB: I wanted my work to engage the viewer through time and multiple perspectives, allowing the viewer an active role in the completion of the piece. The static, linear read of one meaning, one intent felt too limiting. I wanted to challenge ideas about authenticity and authorship, allowing the viewer an increased role.

Recently, I have been directing performances that combine multiple elements, environments, and disciplines such as video projections with live synchronized swimmers, musicians, and equestrians. Video installation and performance seem more akin to how we experience life.

My experience as a painter and sculptor did not prepare me for the intense experiences that can be had through the moving image and sound. The sensory envelopment of sound is now a key part of my work. When I first started making videos I concentrated on the visuals using only the inherent sound from the images. As my worked developed I discovered the incredible possibilities and power of sound. I still feel like I’m only scratching the surface of the possibilities of sound, but am excited by the exploration. I've created and recorded sounds, sampled sounds and music from others, collaborated with composers like Blake Fleming who played with the Mars Volta band and Steve White of the Blue Man Group.

In my performances, I've been able to mix live sounds on site. I've combined sounds of live actions such as a horse's hooves pounding the ground in front of the audience with the pounding percussive piano of Jose Luis Hernandez Estrada.

BS: Janet, you are known for a body of work centering on the image of the horse. You use the the horse as a symbol of female sublimation and masculine power. Can you go into further detail about the symbology behind this use? Perhaps you could share your motivation behind that choice?

JB: Originally, using the image of the horse was a way to access my own experiences with power, pleasure, and control. As a child most decisions were made for me by others, but I could get on the back of a 1200-lbs. animal and have it go wherever I wanted. Using the image of the horse was also a way for me to explore male and female roles and societies rigid choreography of those roles. As the work progressed I became more interested in subverting stereotypical images of the horse, and by extension stereotypical ideas about gender. I've been able to take multiple roles in both the production and reception of images due to my interest in theorist Judith Butler's ides about gender's relationship to masquerade. Video has so readily been linked to the objectification of women that it's interesting to subvert it into a new kind of seduction.

BS: More recently you have focused on themes ranging from the representation of desire and pleasure to issues of spectatorship and aging. Tell us why you have decided to explore these themes.

JB: As my experiences broadened I became interested in looking at identity within a larger realm, both through levels of societal participation and ideas of free will. I was the guardian for a relative of mine who was severely autistic and obsessive compulsive. She could not live independently, was non-verbal, and self-injurious without medication. In my past work I had been active in the deconstruction of stereotypes. With the responsibilities of guardianship I was confronted with questions of functionality. I was forced to look at structures of societal participation. My work became more about construction than deconstruction. I needed to imagine the experiences of others and tried to recreate some of these mental states in my installations. These installations were named after the drugs that are used to treat different psychoses. I combined seemingly unrelated actions, environments, and events to create a solipsistic visual landscape often using images of athletes as examples of isolation, obsession and compulsion.

BS: Can you tell us more about the philosophy behind your work? What is the message your strive to convey to viewers of your work?

JB: I seek to continually challenge myself and my audience.

BS: Are you influenced by world events? Have any specific events struck a cord in you, so to speak?

JB: There are certain films where I can completely loose myself…totally buy into the Hollywood dream machine. Blade Runner is one of those films. I have always been a fan of cyperpunk and science fiction. Philip K. Dick and Ridley Scott hit on themes that interest me…what makes us human such as empathy, relationships to animals, constructed memories, as well as hybridization, globalization, our role in climate change and genetic engineered, drug enhanced identity.





BS: Janet, can you tell us about some of your recent work? For example, Enemy of the Good and Airs Above the Ground... can you tell us about the process that goes into them? Do you 'map' the videos out in your head? Do you sketch out preliminary ideas?

JB: While some pieces are mapped in detail (especially the synchronized, multiple-channel installations) others come together more as a collage. Last year I traveled to the Citadel in South Carolina and filmed the cadets for a week, concentrating on the Summerall Guard's rifle drill team. This footage became part of a single-channel video titled "Performance of Desire'. The cadets relinquished their individuality to become part of the choreography of war, performing a silent drill that demanded precision and exact synchronization. I paired the Citadel footage with images of inverted, synchronized swimmers suspended in slow motion to explore the strenuous effort and dedication behind the appearance of youthful ease. The hyper-stylized gestures and affected costumes of the athletes belied the power, agility, and strength required to make every action graceful.

Unlike my video installations where I can control all elements, in my performances I lay down a loose framework to work within. If I’ve done my job well and brought the right people together in the right environment then the piece takes on a life of its own. One of the exciting things about performance is that my original thoughts will be interpreted by the performers setting up new moments of discovery for all of us.

My most recent performance took its title, "Enemy of the Good," from the Voltaire quote, "the perfect is the enemy of the good". It examined the driving desire to transcend constraints and the impossible search for perfection. With nods to Busby Berkeley’s lavish musicals, the photographs of Muybridge, and referencing Santaigo Calatrava’s soaring architecture and symbolic Olympic flame, the piece explored the isolation and obsession required to make something difficult appear effortless and transcendent.

The piece opened with William Martina’s live haunting cello solo against a background of large-scale, synchronized video projections of a spinning horse, tethered hawks, and harnessed sled dogs. The video images changed to ethereal, weightless swimmers as Venezuelan national rider, Andres Rodriguez walked into the foreground and picked up a trot on his grand prix champion horse. Concert pianist, Jose Luis Hernandez-Estrada bowed to the audience and took his place at the grand piano. The horse galloped around the piano and headed for a jump behind the cellist. The pianist dove into an intense piece that made playing the piano look like an extreme sport while the horse and rider jumped the fences blocking their path. The piece built to a crescendo as the soloist flew up and down the keys and the horse and rider soared over one of the video projection screens.

BS: What are you working on at this time?

JB: I recently came back from filming the motorcycle land speed trials on Utah's salt flats. I worked with Valerie Thompson who set two land speed records. I am now cutting the footage to become part of a performance that will combine the salt flats video footage with live speed skaters and bagpipers performing on ice.

BS: Janet, your work has been reviewed by ARTnews, Art in America, and several other publications... how do you handle exposure like that? Does it inspire you to go deeper with your work? Some of the artists I've interviewed have mentioned that they try to 'block out' this kind of success so that they can focus on their work instead of what is being said about them... what is your opinion?

JB: I don't avoid or "block out" responses to my work. The work isn't complete until it is out in the world. That kind of communication with an audience (including critics) allows for their active participation in the reception of the work and often presents challenges. Some interpretations I dismiss as not constructive to my studio practice, but others encourage an inventory of choices.

BS: You are represented by Clair Oliver Gallery in New York City and Solomon Projects in Atlanta. What exhibits will you be involved with in 2008?

JB: I will have a solo show at Solomon Projects, Atlanta in the spring and am working on a performance that will premiere next winter. A great video show that includes one of my installations and was curated by Andrea Inselmann at the Johnson Museum, Cornell University will travel to the Haggerty Museum at Marquette University in the fall.

BS: Janet, the Internet has allowed video artists to gain a lot of exposure with just a few clicks of the mouse. This is due in large to art networking sites like Perpetual Art Machine and Myartspace and social networking sites like Myspace that allow video artists to upload their videos with ease. One could say that this is a great time to be a video artist, what say you?

JB: Sites like Myartspace, PAM, and Lumen Eclipse are amazing resources for artists, curators, critics, and traditional gallerists. If not actual gate keepers, these sites maintain a level of criticality in the work they show and in their programming that keeps them vital. Few museums, even those with deep pockets and a commitment to collecting video, can rival the breath of some of these sites. That being said, I'm not a fan of more is better. Unlike most web 2.0 sites like YouTube and MySpace, where quantity doesn't always equal quality, the above mentioned sites maintain a focus. I don't believe that the medium is always the message and that just because it's a video and uploaded somewhere it's worth watching.

BS: Speaking of critics, exhibits, and the opportunity that the internet has created for artists... do you have any concerns? In many ways the advent of the Internet has shifted the foundation of the traditional art world... is this a good thing?

JB: While I am really excited by the broadening of possibilities that have opened up for artists (as well as for musicians) through the internet, we are all still thinking within the box...this one just happens to be a flatscreen with broader access. The relationship of the arts and the internet is still in its infancy.

One concern of mine as I find more and more of my work uploaded by others is scale. Many of my pieces are intended to be presented at a certain scale. If an installation is meant to dwarf the viewer as they physically find a path through the images it will not be effective in small scale or as sequential images on a computer screen. Artist's intent needs to be respected.

Another is financial survival if all work becomes public domain.

BS: Janet, do you have any advice for emerging artists who are exploring video and video installation?

JB: Try painting so you won't be a threat to me in the future.

BS: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Janet.

JB: Thanks Brian.

You can learn more about Janet Biggs by visiting her website-- www.jbiggs.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Diana Baumbach

Diana grew up outside of Chicago with her muralist mother, businessman father, and sister Sarah. For many years, she studied ballet. She performed with Ballet Chicago and with the Bolshoi Ballet at the Vail International Dance Festival. Later, Diana decided to go to college and study fine art. She received her BFA in Printmaking and Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis. After taking some time off, she decided to pursue her MFA at Southern Illinois University. She recently finished her MFA in Printmaking and Drawing. Diana currently teaches studio foundations and digital media at the University of Wyoming. She also teaches printmaking at Laramie County Community College.

Brian Sherwin: Diana, your mother was a muralist-- do you credit her with your early interest in art? What else can you tell us about your early years as far as art is concerned?

Diana Baumbach: My mother and I actually have very different approaches and goals when it comes to artistic production. She never pushed me towards art as a child and for many years, fine art was just a hobby for me. Living with an artist as a child did, however, introduce me to the idea that the creative impulse could emerge in domestic spaces. That idea has been central to my recent work.

BS: Diana, you studied printmaking and drawing at Washington University and you continued your studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Can you tell us about your experience at these schools? Who were your mentors during those academic years?

DB: The printmaking program at Washington University was very conceptual and I used that time for creative experimentation. Most of what I made then bears little resemblance to what I do today. The graduate program at Southern Illinois University offered a unique experience to teach undergraduate students while also taking classes myself. There was a strong graduate community and I really enjoyed working with instructors Leslie Mutchler, Jason Urban and Chris Wildrick while there. While at Southern Illinois University, I made friendships and contacts that I value greatly.

BS: Diana, you also have experience as an educator. You have instructed art at Laramie County Community College and the University of Wyoming. What do you teach? Also, how do you balance your role as a teacher with your need to create your personal art? Is there ever a conflict?

DB: Primarily, I teach foundations level courses. At the University of Wyoming, I teach 2D design, color theory, and digital media. I'm very interested in working with younger students and guiding them through their own exploration of the elements and principles of design. Much of my work deals with formal elements, so I actually see an overlap between foundations studies and my own work. I am fortunate enough to be provided with a wonderful studio and a relatively light course load, which allows me the time and space necessary to make my own work.

BS: Allow me to ask some questions about your art. Your art deals with the intersection between fine art, design, and everyday life. Can you go into further detail about your art and your artistic process?

DB: Sure! I am inspired by the everyday objects around me just as much as I am by fine artists. I really value the thought that goes into the design of a cup or a chair. Much of my work references functional objects…blankets, paper towels, toilet paper, a doll house…but I make everything by hand using slow, repetitive techniques. The time that I invest belies our attitude towards our surroundings and the idea that we live in a disposable culture.

BS: Tell us more about how you mesh household patterns with printmaking techniques...

DB: To be honest, I do not use printmaking all that much in my work at this point. I am more interested in the concept of the multiple. In the past, it has been useful to use serigraphy to rapidly recreate patterns and allow for variations in color.

BS: Is there a philosophical reason for your use of patterns from household items such as printed fabrics, paper towels, napkins, and furniture? Is there a message that you desire to convey with this choice? For example, are you making a statement about consumerism?

DB: I am interested in using these objects as a point of entry and investigating them for their formal qualities. Most of my work can be appreciated simply on a formal level. I'm not trying to make any sweeping statements about our culture, but rather, to make people look a bit more closely at their surroundings…and hopefully help the viewer recognize that they are making aesthetic decisions about the world around them on a daily basis.

BS: Diana, can you tell us more about your artistic influences? Have you been inspired by a specific artist or art movement?

DB: Sure, I am inspired by the artists Andrea Zittel, Anu Tuominen, Thomas Demand and the architects Rocio Romero and Frank Lloyd Wright. I think there are some very interesting collaborations happening between designers and large companies like TARGET and Alessi. I also really love Scandinavian design, especially Marimekko fabrics.

BS: What are you working on at this time?

DB: I just finished up a few pieces for the faculty show here. They are a bit different…colorful! I'm also working on a grant for a new project called Shared Space. It's an alternative gallery that aims to bring challenging contemporary art and design to rural Wyoming.

BS: Diana, I understand that you established an alternative gallery space called Gallery Thirteen13. Can you tell us more about that project? What are your goals for Gallery Thirteen13?

DB: Gallery Thirteen13 was a project that took place in my home in Southern Illinois. It was essentially a reaction to living in a rural area where there were no art galleries. I decided to create my own exhibition space using an extra bedroom in my apartment. The project ended when I moved, but will hopefully be reincarnated as a new project, Shared Space. I have some very exciting exhibitions in the works which will involve new media, site specific installations, and a permanent collection, but funding is still pending.

BS: Tell us more about your opinion on alternative galleries. Several artists in St. Louis are starting to exhibit from their own homes instead of relying on a traditional gallery setting-- I remember reading about that several months ago --it seems to be a trend. What do you like about this direction that some artists are making in regards to taking exhibiting into their own hands?

DB: I am very excited about the possibilities of alternative art display. The more I read, the more I realize that there are tons of similar projects popping up throughout the US. I feel there is a lot of energy in D.I.Y. projects that makes the traditional gallery system less and less of a necessity. Perhaps this impulse comes from the possibilities on the Internet. There are so many ways to get your work out there nowadays.

BS: Do you have any advice for artists who are interested in learning more about printmaking?

DB: I would encourage young printmakers to attend the print conferences (Southern Graphics Council and Mid-America Print Conference). It is an excellent was to get excited about printmaking and to meet like-minded people. Printmaking is so community oriented that it's important to connect with the larger print community. Also, I would encourage printmakers to participate in and/or organize print exchanges. It's a great way to connect with other printmakers and start a collection.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?

DB: Thank you for the opportunity to display my work on www.myartspace.com and for taking the time to interview me!

You can find Diana Baumbach on www.myartspace.com-- login ID, dbaumbac. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Evguenia Men

Evguenia Men is interested in the reaction of the human soul as it experiences both grief and joy. Evguenia views the human soul as an enormous secret world that becomes visible through perceiving and painting the essence of visible objects. She interprets human emotions by juxtaposing colors of her subjects. When in desperation she may see red as black, yellow as grey, or blue as brown. Objects are distorted, sugar is bitter, and peaches are tasteless. For example, Evguenia paints grief turning to joy by showing an open red and black mouth screaming out white pearls.

Brian Sherwin: Evguenia, you were born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Can you tell us about your youth and your early experiences with art?

Evguenia Men: I grew up in a very artistic city. Every weekend my parents used to take me to see a theater play, or a ballet, or an exhibition at Hermitage or other museums. At home I had a huge collection of art books and literature of various genres, so I literally lived in an imaginary world. I didn’t like being outside, partially because weather in Saint Petersburg is usually quite miserable, so I can say I preferred living "inside".

BS: Evguenia, where did you study art? Can you tell us about your academic experience? Who were your mentors?

EM: I graduated from Junior Art School in Saint Petersburg when I was sixteen (I studied there for four years). At that time there were many special schools for gifted children, they all were almost free of charge but one needed to pass entry exams to be accepted by a particular college. Our teachers were from the famous Saint- Petersburg Academy of Arts, and the education was very "classical", i.e. traditional and academic. Back then I didn’t like those strict rules and "boring" subjects we had to draw and paint. I hated those still-life sets with dusty bottles and pieces of grey clothes surrounding them. We were not allowed to express ourselves artistically freely. Let’s say, I could not paint my bright "fantasy world" I was living in. Now looking back though, I am really grateful to my teachers for the strictness, because all those "classical" rules now live in my blood and my consciousness, and technically it helps enormously. Also we spent a lot of time in museums studying art history, observing and discussing paintings which I liked very much.

Later after graduating from the University I spent three years studying cinematography as a student of the Department of Film Directing (St. Petersburg Institute of Cinema and Television). I’ve written several screenplays, shot a few short films as a director but finally decided that the film industry requires too much discipline and organization, and if one is not a natural ‘crew organizer’ it can just kill one’s creativity.

BS: You have a master degree in chemistry from St. Petersburg State University. How did the study of chemistry influence your work? Do you use any of your knowledge of chemistry while working with art materials?

EM: At first, when I switched completely to arts and painting I had thoughts that I wasted my time studying chemistry. Later, after realizing that different paints I use for my pieces are based on a wide variety of solvents, I discovered virtually limitless possibilities for experimenting with physical qualities of paint.

All my mixed-media works are based on chemical experiments. I use mixtures of acrylics, watercolors, enamel and oil to make rich backgrounds of my works. Sometimes I use thick mixture, sometimes go with more "creamy" texture. It always depends on the mood of painting I am working on.

It’s very important to know which solvent evaporates faster or slower, because this process has a great influence on a final product. Every time I find something new to apply on a canvas surface, it’s quite amazing and often unexpected, but clearly has a component of practical chemistry.

BS: You have lived in the US and Australia. I understand that you enjoy traveling. How have those experiences influenced you as an artist?

EM: I used to travel a lot. I’ve visited many countries in Europe, lived in the States for three years and also in Japan. Now living in subtropical Brisbane in Australia allows me to paint outdoors all year long because of perfect climate conditions, and I travel much less now. Actually, to me all this travel experience has opened one simple but deep mystery-- that the human soul is always the human soul, and one has to deal with the same "myself being" with the same inner problems and joys everywhere regardless of outside cultural diversity.

BS: Evguenia, your art deals with themes of love, jealousy, hatred, desperation, passion and joy-- you have mentioned that you paint the human soul --can you go into further detail about your work and the message that you strive to convey?

EM: What I meant by this expression is that I cry, laugh or feel a joy through my art. I can give you an example. I painted ‘Pearls Are Running Free’ (image above) when I was having a terrible depression and pain. My painting process was the only remedy to escape suffering. So I got into the world of images and squeezed my feelings into oil.

Pearls are beautiful things, but they also represent a mysterious act of painful creation by a living creature. When a grain of sand gets inserted into a shell, the mollusk suffers and tries to get rid of pain by surrounding it with layers of nacre. The result of suffering is beauty. The difference between the words "pain" and "paint" is just a single letter.

BS: When you say that you paint the 'human soul' are you referring to the spiritual side of life? Is there a degree of spirituality to your work?

EM: The spiritual world is an invisible but very real place to me. In other words, it’s something you know existence of, but can’t see, touch or even explain. How can one explain the process of creating? I think music is another good example. It’s a mysterious complex of thoughts, intuition, feelings of images and sounds. It is always something uncertain that nobody can explain by verbal means. What is really fascinating about art is uncertainty and mystery.

BS: Evguenia, you use a lot of symbolism within the context of your work. Can you tell us about this symbology? Perhaps you could explain the meaning behind certain colors that you use?

EM: I use symbolic meanings of colors that come from Orthodox Christian iconography: red represents suffering; blue – Heaven, sky; dark blue and purple – mystery; gold – Royalty, nobleness etc…I add some contemporary and personal interpretations as well, like for example red in my works represents blood and passions; black – the unknown, mystical; blue – happiness and so on.

BS: So would you say that the essence of your work is about conflict-- about how two opposing forces can mesh together to form a whole? Are you trying to create a sense of stability in the unstable, so to speak?

EM: I don’t try to create a sense of stability. What stability could there possibly be if there is a constant struggle between good and evil inside a human heart? It is always dynamic. On the contrary, I try to show how strong this battle inside our hearts is, and how constant this struggle is.

BS: You mention that art is a confession... are you trying to redeem yourself through your work? Can you go into further detail about this?

EM: It’s very simple. I paint what I feel, what I am thinking about at this very moment, and what I am fighting within myself.

BS: In your opinion, what does art need to have an authentic voice? What does a painting need to be truthful-- and if needed --honest in its brutality?

EM: In my opinion, an artist has to be honest with himself. Never try to imitate someone or to be popular, or to be someone else. I think one’s honesty to oneself is the way to be authentic. About brutality…? If someone paints an ocean of blood it might look too straightforward and even kitschy (in a bad sense). A strong message about death may not look brutal at all, at least at first sight. I mean, you don’t have to copy horrible images of everyday reality to deliver a strong message.


A good example is Picasso’s "Guernica ". I’ve never seen any other painting which describes horrors of war so deeply and strongly. But in order to paint something like this you have to be as talented and profound as him. So finally everything comes to the possession of talent, which nobody can define or describe. You can only feel its presence. And again it is what links oneself to the invisible.

BS: Tell us more about the philosophy behind your work...

EM: The fact that I often paint plain everyday objects is kind of my life philosophy. I find that every humdrum object may have a mysterious meaning. It’s like ancient Greeks described the ‘human-animal-plant-stone-earth’ ladder as a set of interconnected steps. It’s similar to subjects chosen by H. C. Andersen for his fairy tales. If you can find meaningfulness in simple and ordinary things which you can see and touch every day, you can be a truly happy person, because then you live in a fairy tale each day of your life.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?

EM: First and foremost, painting makes me happy and gives a clear definition of what is really important in my life and what is not.

You can learn more about Evguenia Men by visiting her website-- www.evmmen.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Derek Ogbourne

Critics have noted that there is no room for comfort in the work that Derek Ogbourne has created. Derek captures the sadness of mortality and the fragility of our existence within the context of his work. He explores our collective fears and weaknesses by creating scenarios that are at times alarming-- scenarios that are charged with a darkly surreal energy that captures our morbid fascinations. Derek is represented by Carter Presents and Galerie Brigitte Schenk.

Untitled Photograph, 24in x 12in, 2007

Brian Sherwin: Derek, you studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. Who were your instructors during those years? Would you like to share any of your experiences at the school with our readers? Also, where else did you study?

Derek Ogbourne: At the Slade we weren’t instructed as such, mostly we were left alone to do what we pleased. My assigned tutor was the performance artist Stuart Brisley, he did a then, well known performance where he sat in a bath full of offal. I had come from a small provincial art school and the Slade, to begin with, threw me off my pedestal.

By the second year I felt more comfortable in London and the Slade. I then enjoyed my time there so much I carried on and did my M.A as well. On second thoughts, I wish I had done my M.A somewhere else or waited a few years until I really needed the discipline to kick me up the arse.

BS: It is my understanding that from 1983 until 1989 your main focus was painting. Can you recall the themes you were exploring at that time? Have those themes remained consistent in the work that you create today in other mediums?

DO: I painted large human sized canvases with organic subject matter, the process was very physical, I had no plan and the paintings evolved into forms that I recognized as part of my subconscious, colour was very much present. I think the organic was an attempt to get in the inside, the very physical process of painting them was the external component, me. I have inherited similar concerns today with my Museum of Optography and with my video works that have been characteristically physical in nature.

Diving for Pearls, oil on canvas, 6ft x 5ft, 1998

BS: Derek, why did you change the direction of your work by making the leap from painting to installation and video art? Was it a sudden change in direction?Also, would you say that your experience as a painter has been a direct influence on your work in other mediums? If so, can you go into detail about that?

DO: To me, it wasn’t a great leap, I was following my line of enquiry in a logical and natural way. I became dissatisfied with creating illusion on a flat surface, I wanted to walk or fly into the space that my paintings portrayed, also I believed the process had its limitations.

My sculptures, on the other hand were interactive, tactile and concrete, no ambiguity. The element of time entered the work with my performance pieces, the process of interaction with the world became more important than icons of the still. Video was an extension of my use of technology in my performances.

Yes, the core language is the same. As a student, I kind of worked my way through the history of art picking things up here and there. My very earliest favorite were the heroic sea paintings by Winslow Homer, they were monumental and cinematic before cinema. Edvard Munch was also a favourite. My influences are very broad and too diverse to mention but you can see strong links from cinema and science.

Still from 'Death and the Monument' 2008

BS: What are you working on at this time?

DO: I’m working on 3 main things: Death and the Monument a near feature film I’ve been working on for around 4 years. To be mega brief: Its about a man that edits out and collects the film frames that follow disaster, See: www.derekogbourne.net/modules/articles/article.php?id=10. I am building The Museum of Optography in miniature for the Museum of Optometrists in London and a virtual Museum for Goggle earth. I am also producing a series of organic drawings that are a cross between rotting retinas and cartographic maps.

Rotten, pencil on paper 59in x 85in (detail), 2007

BS: Can you tell us about your process? How does your work come into being? Perhaps you could select one of your more recent works and describe the early stages of that piece. Place us inside your head, so to speak.

DO: This is a difficult question. All I can give you is some metaphorical answers in the hope that you will get an idea: In a way it’s often like returning to see an old friend where both of you have very gradually changed, or it is like voluntarily getting lost in the wilderness and then eventually realizing you have your compass in your pocket. One of my needs is to be more effective in putting across my ideas even if this means changing the medium. I don’t see a lot of difference between making a film and making an installation, it’s all the same root language.

The Museum of Optography, my show at Brigitte Schenk Gallery, was a return to the organic and of my earlier concerns but with the element of small fractions of time on a micro level, the border between life and death. The physicality of my video pieces relates to trauma connected with a time years ago when I was thumped in the eye in the street, quiet out of the blue, this made me fear (for a week or so) walking across the road. A singular event that has spawned a whole body of work, especially the video pieces.

Struggle, video still, 1997

BS: Derek, now that we know a little about how you think... where can we see your work? I know that you are currently represented by Galerie Brigitte Schenk and Carter Presents. What exhibits do you have planned with them in 2008? Will you be involved with any art fairs? Also, where can we see your art online?

DO: The galleries I’m with usually decide on the fairs they participate in, the last one was Miami Art fair in December 07.

This year, I am going to do a piece in The British Optical Association Museum and a solo at Area 53 Gallery, Vienna, Austria, they have has asked me for their representation. I am also looking to publish the second volume of The Shutter of Death, Museum of Optography entitled Encyclopedia of Optography. The publisher Re/Search is very interested and I am hoping they will publish it, if not, I will be on the hunt for a good publisher.

www.derekogbourne.net/modules/articles/article.php?id=16

www.college-optometrists.org/index.aspx/pcms/site.college.What_We_Do.museyeum.museyeum_home/

My website is www.derekogbourne.net

Museum of Optography, 2007
BS: Speaking of art fairs, what is your opinion about them? I've noticed that there is some debate over how they may change how brick and mortar galleries function. Critics have suggested that in the future galleries will grow to depend on art fairs in order to thrive. Others have mentioned that art fairs, due to the amount of work exhibited, may change how art is viewed by the public in both positive and negative ways. What is your opinion?

DO: To begin with I hate art fairs, why? Because the art fair is more and more about a short and intense media event in a time where art is increasingly about celebrity and surface, rather than art of depth and integrity, all the vulgarity to do with the art world is condensed into the corporate fair. Very often the art that is produced is specifically for the fair or more sellable examples of an artist’s work.

If your work is sexy, colourful, large, slick and maybe mildly controversial then this is perfect for the art fair. In a way you can’t blame the galleries, the corner shop art gallery cannot rely solely on passers by to bring the money in. I think galleries are already fair hopping in order to survive.

Still from 'Gravity and Others' 2002

BS: Derek, I'd like to close this interview with a few question pertaining to your involvement in the academic side of art. You have taught and lectured at several institutions-- including, Goldsmiths College, Cavendish College, Wimbledon School of Art... at what point did you know that you wanted to be an educator as well as a working artist?

DO: It was the natural thing to do, work as an art tutor. I’ve had loads of crap jobs like working in Pizza Hut and packing bibles, before teaching. I wouldn’t recommend it if you want to make a living, especially in London. I love giving talks on my work, in a way it’s like thinking out loud. Many students find it difficult to talk about their work, I did to begin with, but the more you do and the more you live with your work the more natural enthusiasm you have.

BS: How did you find balance between being an instructor and creating your personal art? Does one conflict with the other? Have you ever felt that your academic pursuits held you back-- or did those experiences enhance your personal work?

DO: This is very difficult. Energy is too dispersed. On the positive side with teaching it does enable me to re-evaluate my own position and practice as an artist, I do learn all the time.

BS: It often seems that art students allow the medium they choose to define their direction-- for example, a painter will remain a painter because that is what a painter does. Would you say that artists, especially students, need to instead focus on defining the medium within the context of a greater direction that goes beyond the confines of any single medium?

DO: Yes, I agree limiting yourself is never a good policy if you want to go forwards as an artist, however there is a place for the obsessive attachment to one form or idea. The trauma due to my wack to the eye is a good example. I used to (when I was a student) try and define art all the time, I had a new definition every week. Now I don’t discourage the practice because we should always be evaluating what we do.

Untitled Photograph, 24in x 12in, 2007

BS: What other advice do you have for art students?

DO: To begin with don’t be fussy about the shows you are asked to be in, although still aim for bigger and better shows. The more exhibitions you are in the more likely you will be offered venues that are more prestigious and you will get a better deal.

Don’t teach if you think you’ll make a good living. Put two fingers up to your tutor at the end of your studies and go your own way. Following your parents, a teacher can be one of the most influential people in your life, so trying to rid yourself of paternal influence will turn out to be futile because nurture and nature will creep in later with vengeance.

I find the hardest thing to achieve is objective distance from your work. This takes time and you can never fully achieve it.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about art in general?

DO: My father always says to me "Get a proper job" even after 28 years. But I’m afraid I love it, perpetual play time!

You can learn more about Derek Ogbourne by visiting his website-- www.derekogbourne.net. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin