Artist Interview: Gavin Glakas

Demeter - Gavin is preparing for a museum show at the Ratner Museum in Bethesda.

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
A bartender would be slinging martinis and the Beatles would have gotten back together while my work was on display at The Louvre, Met, Great Wall, Buckingham Palace, Mount Rushmore and the Moon.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Once we get to the point where we've stopped worrying about our immediate survival, we are able to start enjoying ourselves, and art is the enjoyment of life. Once cavemen stopped worrying about saber-toothed tigers, they started drawing. Once people have enough money left over to spend on something, they start buying paintings and going to concerts. Art is fantasy and reality all rolled into one.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I can't really expect anything or ask them to know anything. The work really does have to speak for itself. I've fallen in love with songs that I've heard in airports and paintings that I've seen on calendars. I just hope that what I create grabs people - I can't really ask for it to work the other way around. People aren't going to seek it out. They're too busy.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
I would submit to Monsieur Duchamp that if all of the art in the world were for sale for $100, under the proviso that it would not go up in value, the abstract-expressionist junk would be left on the floor when the sale was over and everything else would be up on people's walls. I think that most people are tired of having to be told why they should like something or why it is "good." The moment that someone walked into an art gallery and said, "That stinks," and someone else said, "No, it's good. Let me tell you why," was the moment that visual art deviated from music, literature, cinema and whatever other forms of art, and became stigmatized as pretentious. Also, I think those who were told in graduate school that art that resembles things is worthless and have spent their careers justifying their jobs, are almost ready to retire.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
Totally. Art is just someone trying to make a statement. Why could you do it in one medium and not in another?

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
Can I buy a piece? The answer is "yes."

Artist Interview: Jesse Boardman Kauppila

Jesse Kauppila has remastered Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music" so that it can be played on a record player or printed through a printing press.

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
I hate to say it, but a lot of my work really benefits from the white cube environment. My work often requires precise lighting conditions and little distraction to see subtle differences in the results of the often repetitive processes I use to create my work. Also, the white cube allows the viewer to see the subtlety of precise intentions.

Occasionally, I like to create work for abnormal locations and situations (bunkers, barns, fields, fountains). This allows me to build on what is already present, to riff on it, add to it, or spring from it. It's an interesting challenge and a lot of fun, however, I consider my more sophisticated projects to be better presented in the white cube because I like to build systems from the ground up and show everything I have done. The white cube provides the opportunity to see a stand alone project.

I also like to do performances in non-standard settings. I like to do conceptual work in these settings because I am able to show people that might not otherwise be interested in conceptual art what I am doing and win them over. This sort of "missionary" work is something that is really important to me, especially when done in rural settings.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
If there were a spectrum of apparatuses between expository writing (used to prove a point) and geometry (used to describe objects in space), I would say that modern art tends toward expository writing. An essayist (though not a novelist) establishes his/her thesis and sets out to prove it within a given piece of writing, the artist has no such luxury. I also don't believe that art is used to describe the world in the way that geometry is (at least modern art doesn't operate in that manner). What makes art unique is that artist establishes their own criteria, which they fulfill in the creation of their work. The viewers then use their own criteria for understanding the piece. It is this gap, the question of criteria for judging, which creates much of the confusion around contemporary art. I think most art is more interesting when you have some notion of what the artist is trying to do and then you can evaluate the artist against his or her criteria and against your own criteria.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I really like to make work that is accessible, period. I like making work that is accessible to different people with different backgrounds. A lot of my work relies on my knowledge of printmaking. I like it when printmakers see my work and “get it;” they know the technique on which I am basing my work. Similarly, I like stories and like it when people know the story on which I am basing my work. I am also interested in science and math and appreciate it when people understand those aspects of my work.

I guess I like a curious audience best - an audience that is able to understand my work on its own terms.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
I like retinal art - particularly retinal art that is conceptual. If I don't find work to be visually interesting, I rarely spend time to figure out the other aspects of the work.

That being said, different people react to different inputs. I like work that is interesting to the eye, the ear, the mind, etc... If an artwork provides more than just retinal points of entry, more people can open up to the work.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
I don't think there is room for movements. The most recent sort of notion of a movement was probably "relational aesthetics," which I thought did a particularly poor job of encapsulating what that sort of work was all about. With studio movements such as surrealists, dadaists, etc... you can see a real core of people controlling what the "movement" meant from the inside (often by expelling dissidents). Perhaps this is what enabled those movements to retain their aesthetic coherency. I don't think anybody can really exert that sort of control these days. This might be due to mobility these days: artists can't really develop together for long periods of time, because people are all over the place all the time now. I've regretted that I haven't been able to continue to work, uninterrupted, with many artists I have collaborated with.

I am really interested in artists reworking and working within preexisting movements, riffing on them or whatever. I'm really interested in work like that, I find work that tries to do something new to be quite tedious often. It's the whole standing on top of giants thing. By basing your work in that of others you can go so much further.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
Recently I have been interested in the role of the gimic in my work and art in general - the role of humor; but one of the most pertinent questions for me is the role of tradition and its meaning. For a long time tradition and traditional art forms were really important to me. There seemed to be something really authentic there that I didn't find anywhere else. I wrote my thesis on tradition in contemporary Haida and Yoruba art, and my pursuit of printmaking was rooted in an interest in traditional printmaking.

That being said, the stuff that I'm interested in doing now isn't really all that traditional, but there is still a certain rigor and it is of traditional methods (perhaps its craftsmanship) that is really interesting and important to me. I try to maintain this rigor in whatever work I do, whether my work be traditional or not.

Artist Interview: Ben Cuevas

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
Ideally? At the Whitney or the Venice Biennale! I jest (sort of). I have a tendency to dream big, which is why I seek out out venues that afford artists ample space and an eager audience. As an emerging artist, having just graduated from Hampshire College this past May, I've been very lucky to exhibit at two art festivals (The Wassaic Project in NY and Smokefarm in WA), as well as in a solo show at Canal Gallery in Holyoke, MA. Canal Gallery was an ideal space for me in many ways. It is an enormous industrial warehouse with two floors of exhibition space, including a 40'x40' white box room. In general, I find the white box to be a very appealing place in which to install work for its endless possibilities and conceptual neutrality, as well as for allowing the focus to be entirely on the installation. However, I also enjoy the challenge that alternative spaces provide. Working within the architecture of any given space, or the varied terrain of the outdoors, can further enrich the concept in ways no white box can.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Art expands consciousness. It transforms the mundane into the profound, challenges ingrained thought processes, and transcends preconceived notions. Art is the impetus for growth.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
All I expect from my audience is an open mind. While craftsmanship is an integral part of my practice, I'd like to remind the viewer that much lies beneath the surface of the material.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
Duchamp is right on. Art should be more than something to look at. It should incite change. 

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
I think art movements are happening all the time, but the nature of them is constantly evolving. In a rapidly globalizing culture and an economy where emphasis increasingly is placed on the "niche market," art movements will be as pluralistic and varied as the infinite niches that exist within the human psyche.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
Do you have gallery representation? Not yet, but that's a major goal of mine. If someone would like to contact me about representing my work, they can email me at bencuevas@gmail.com

Artist Interview: Julie Hart

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
In a perfect situation, I would display my work in a few different galleries that could sell my work consistently. I think my art would appeal to a wide audience. I would also sell prints of my "Rescue Animals" series in gift shops to raise money for homeless animals.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Art gives us so many things. First, it gives us beauty and visual stimulation. Without art and design, the man made world would be very dull to look at. Secondly, it gives people a different way to use their mind than everyday tasks demand. While I was teaching art, I realized how much it differs from other subjects kids learn in school. They are free to explore their own ideas and have to problem-solve in a visual way. There is also no right or wrong answer. The only mandate is to please yourself or your audience. (Being satisfied with their own work was very hard for some kids because they wanted to please me and asked my opinion of their work all the time.) As for myself, art offers me an escape from my everyday tasks of a stay-at-home mom and a way to release my need to create. It allows me to explore my interests in a field where there is enormous room for developing a style and interests as an artist.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
Perhaps I am a bit jaded, but I do not expect much from my viewing public. I have done outdoor art fairs and generally received nice comments, but I learned not to expect anything. You never know who will buy and who will just talk. I would like people to know just how hard it is to be an accomplished artist, and how hard most artists work at their craft. I would like the general public to be more appreciative of artists. I would also like to spread the word that there is a lot of art out there - especially from emerging artists - that is affordable.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
I appreciate Duchamp's contribution to art history, but I like "retinal art." I like things that look nice or interesting. I want everything I create to be pleasing to the eye, regardless of the message. That said, the great thing about art is that there is room for many different styles.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
I'm sure 100 years from now an art historian will see movements. I see them when I look at magazines, although what I note are more like trends. One artist starts painting doughnuts - then soon you see paintings of doughnuts and other sweets everywhere. Will this be known as the Doughnut Period and be equated to America's obesity issue?

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
Not sure, but I know I don't want to be asked how long it takes me to complete a painting.

Artist Interview: Lori Surdut Weinberg

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?

I would ideally show my work in a well-known gallery in an international location. I have had shows in Philadelphia and Boston, and it's been a lot of fun. I would like my shows to attract a lot of people from various parts of the world and get as wide of an audience as possible. I have traveled throughout Europe, and I think my work would speak to that kind of audience. A metropolitan location would be ideal.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
I think art clarifies a point; it gets to the essence of an artist's vision and expression. It's about individualism and evoking an emotion in the viewer. It's a sort of mirror into the artist's soul and a visual way of connecting.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I always aim to evoke a mood through my work and to engage the viewer through my landscapes. Sometimes, I leave areas fuzzy or undefined in order to encourage the viewer to use his/her own imagination. I provide a focal point and leave the rest of the work loose. My work addresses the same issues the Impressionists were engaging.

Although I have worked a lot with oil pastels, and I like oil pastels, I have recently discovered water-soluble oils. You can move around the paint just like you can with regular oils, and you can do larger pieces. You don't have to put them under glass, which is nice. Oil pastels on the other hand are more intimate, and I started using turpentine with them. This was written up in Artist's Magazine, and it was very exciting to see my experiments in print. I teach at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) and what I have learned through teaching is that experimenting, mixing different media and exploring with your technique is how you get different and interesting results. You create your own way of painting, and you start to discover things.

Lately I have been working with water-based oils, and you can really manipulate them to look like watercolors or you can lay them on thick and move the paint around with a palette knife. My work is about building up texture and the contrast between smooth and rough gestures.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
Good question. I would agree with Duchamp. Art is about creating a relationship with the viewer, and the viewer doesn't have to see everything. If you want to get that specific, why not use a photograph? I am trained as an illustrator. I got my Bachelor's degree from RISD and a Master in Art Education from there as well. My mother was an art teacher, and I became her assistant. I enjoyed seeing the impact on students. Teaching is gratifying. As an artist I have had to be versatile. I have applied my experience and training to book illustration, greeting cards, creative art direction and teaching. To be honest, first, an artists works for himself/herself, and then, he/she makes art into a craft in order to make a living. The more versatile and skilled an artists is, the more marketable his/her work will be. You paint for your own enjoyment, but the thrill of selling something never gets old. Someone saw your work and wanted to have it in his/her home. 

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
Sure. There is abstract art, realism...But art is global these days. Between the computer and the internet, art has shifted. I think of a movement as people working together to create their own approach to painting, but the market dictates a lot too. It's interesting to see what gets promoted. For instance, people who don't know a lot about art will naturally rely on galleries for a sense of what is "good" art.

I see a lot of trends in my students. After decades of work on the computer, hand craft is making a come-back. Computer-based art looks very similar so students want to infuse their work with something different. They want to bring life back into their work, so they work with me. On the computer you can't stop that line. It just goes on forever, uniformly. Paradoxically, you can control more variety with your hand. There is a place for the computer, but when you put the two together, computer and hand craft - that is when you get an interesting result. But I am finding increasingly that people are missing drawing and work with scanning to marry it to computer generated work.

I teach greeting card design, children's book illustration, and I also coach/mentor undergraduates and graduate students who are applying to art school or want a career change. I help people find jobs. I also enjoy classroom teaching. Mentoring is a great journey. 

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
I guess I would ask what makes my art different. My response would be that my delicacy of hand, the softness of my work, how I see the world and make the ordinary into the extraordinary are some characteristics that stand out. I find beauty in the in everyday and I memorialize it in paint. Some of my favorite artists are Monet and Degas, as well as Bonnard and Vuillard. There is a lot of drawing in Degas's work. I am fortunate enough to see beauty in everything, and this is why it is important that I capture it in painting.

Artist Interview: Oliver Halsman Rosenberg

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
My 4th dimensional holographic spectral sound vibration installations would be visible in the sky, free for all to see and interact with.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Art expands possible views of what you are capable of creating.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I don't expect anything from my public. My work is for your grandparents and your grandchildren.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
I know Marcel liked chess better. Of course each of us cannot expect to feel the results of visual art if we are more prone to dancing or mini golf. Art exists for all just as a flower. 

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
Art produced in a pluralistic climate is its own movement.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
What does it feel like to surrender to divine inspiration? - There is no one there to experience it.

Artist Interview: Melissa Tenney

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
Galleries that have a defined grace of professionalism is key. There is nothing more useless than having a relationship with a gallery that does not efficiently promote the artist. The gallery must know the clientele and their desires for a successful long term relationship. Most people who have money are told what they should like rather than encouraged to explore their senses. This is where the artist and the purchaser loses out. An ideal setting would be clusterfuck of thoughts and feelings pushed out in any given medium,style. The artist would feel released from a life long sentence of slavery to a Dealer and the purchaser could become more in touch with the art and not just it’s financial value.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Art as a tool, in it’s most ancient uses comes as a possibility for survival and communication. That brings me to say that art is a result of being human.

Art in its first response is to hopefully relieve the artist of a most ensuing act of emotional and physical combustion. After that, if successful, it provokes thought, or the thought of the lack of thought.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
Personally, even after selling over 400 works, I never trust to expect anything from anyone. The people who buy my work are instantly possessed by its presence. It is something that naturally happens and still sends a rush though my heart to this day. To feel appreciated and loved, or connected with through the art you pour your life into is wordless, bountiful. Ultimately, you never know if you were a success until 20 years after you are dead. I paint because I am a painter and a romantic. I am a seeker of truth. “I” is many, and we are all seeking truth.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
I love it. Let's unplease the pleased. Let's invoke the senses, let's invoke the mind. Away with the puritanical ways. There’s nothing to be afraid of but freedom.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
Yes, there is always room for a revolution. However, we have been in a capitalistic and disembodying fog. We are making decisions or lack there of decisions today that will effect the next movement. I hope I live to see it.

Artist Interview: Liya Sheer

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
Ideally I would display my artwork in an art gallery event with a couple of other artists.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
In my opinion art creates feelings and emotions; stimulates the brain to think, explore, and question; allows the creator to express himself in a visual form, and the audience to read the painting and develop an intellectual connection with the artwork.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I would like them to wonder, question, and feel.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
I believe strongly in art that appeals to the mind rather than to the eye; however, in a tough and complicated world it is understandable for an audience to have a preference for pretty, perfect, calm pictures that would just be pleasing to the eye rather than art that requires effort to concentrate and exercise your brain. Some people prefer to have art that does not express any opinions or political views.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
Yes, always.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
"How do you develop ideas for your art work?"

Artist Interview: Rachel Thern

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
Wow, I feel like I should come up with a creative answer, like "on a wooded hillside, hung on the sides of trees", but I don't actually make site-specific work so really a plain wall without too much distraction is fine.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
This is a really interesting question - I like to think that art reminds us there are things not describable in words, hence the difficulty of writing an artist statement. If the purpose of an artist's art were easily put into words, the artist would have become a writer. But our senses take place before words, and emotions do, and our thoughts form in a preverbal way before we put them into words. So there's a whole range of stuff in internal and external reality that art is a direct expression and communication of; its purpose being is therefore very broad but also hard to pin down.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I don't ask anything except to take the time to look, and if it doesn't interest you, not even that. I put a lot into it, but that doesn't mean I'm necessarily owed anything.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
In my interpretation this was a rebellion against most previous art which had been focused predominantly on visual depiction as the be-all and end-all. Especially in the academic art where there was an emphasis on depicting certain things a correct way, and if you followed all the rules, you would get a certain result. For example, if you look at certain paintings in a museum the leaves on the trees are all painted a certain way regardless of how far away the tree is, and the painting has an overall sameness to it,  so it's a case where the artist will have a bag of tricks and if they use them right they'll get the desired result, the painting will look decent. And if they're a talented artist, all these visual tricks/methods will be well-integrated and will add up to more than the sum of the parts. But some of the point of modernity is that we're free to think of  the whole first, consider the whole work of art and its purpose, your own process and desired end result. We're freed from having to depend solely on recreating a preplanned visual experience. 

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
While everything looks pluralistic to us, there are probably a set of similarities among works made currently that will make people in the future think "that looks so 2010". A future art historian will make up terms for art with these characteristics, and if we're alive, we might be puzzled - artists don't always get to name their own movements, or they may not pick the name that sticks.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
You already asked all the hard questions so I wish you'd ask an easy one, like why I love oil pastels.  They can do a lot of things like oil paint or soft pastels. Since they don't dry, I can continue working on my different pieces at any rate I feel like, as time and mood allow.  Some people only remember cray-pas and are tempted to use oil pastels like crayons. Don't do this -  think of them as you would paint.

Artist Interview: Kreg Kelley

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
I think that an ideal space is a clean space. You don't want the art competing with the surroundings. White, tall walls like the National Gallery of Art are ideal. Being on Madison Avenue or Rodeo Drive doesn't hurt either!

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Art helps us to connect things. Each reaction is relative to the viewer and how it moves or connects them with the world.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I don't expect anything. I hope that they enjoy the work and it touches them on some level. The point of art is to make people happy--- and that is what I aim to do.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
I can see both sides of this statement---I agree that landscapes, portraits, and realism can be boring, and it has been done for centuries. He is encouraging abstraction (I believe) and to look at art in a different manner and I think that is admirable as it is the kind of work I do.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
Just as music changes over the years as does art. Would it be strong enough to be considered a movement like Dada, etc? I don't think so. I think we've seen the majority of what art is---we've given that word so much meaning that it ultimately transcends all forms of what art is. I think art will merely 'fit into categories'. Its tough to reinvent the wheel but who knows what the future will hold.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
You got me! :) Thank you for your time!

Artist Interview: Lori Anne Boocks

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
I’d love to show in a space with plenty of natural lighting. Large, uninterrupted walls. Lots of floor space to let the paintings invade that area, maybe even force the viewer to step over them in places. A space allowing me to explore what a painting can be and challenge viewers to re-think the “canvas-on-the-wall” mentality would be a dream come true. Other artists have done this of course, and I’d like to add my name to this list.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
For me, every piece of art is a potential mirror. We look at a work and if it engages us in some way, there’s the kind of viewer-art interaction that takes, say, a painting I made based on my feelings and experiences and invites you to react. Our experiences -- and how we experience the world -- are reflected upon the piece and the piece in return continues that dialogue or starts one I never imagined and will never be part of except as instigator. The viewer’s going to bring as much baggage (good or bad) to that moment of visual introspection as they want. And if we’re viewing the piece with another person… friend, stranger, relative… and we start talking about the piece out loud, well, the conversation can get even richer.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I think every artist hopes for a moment of the viewer’s time to see if engagement can happen. I would want viewer to know that I have them in mind while I’m making my work. In my head, I imagine people from all walks of life reacting to my paintings. Some may not like my stuff. Some may love it. Some are lukewarm. Throwing your art out into the world is a great unknown. A true risk.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
Hmmm. Does the eye make the art, or does the mind (or heart)? If I interpret it to mean he wanted us to stop making art that was purely visual, we would’ve missed out on some pretty amazing work. 

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
“They” say everything’s been done and we’re all stuck in appropriation mode. I’m not sure I buy that. Regardless of what I think, art critics and historians years from now will probably look back on our times and try to make sense of it all, connect those dots, and analyze trends. Finding and naming any movements will certainly make it easier for them to title the big books they tend to publish.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
I have a background in writing, and through that experience I learned that it’s not always the words themselves that give meaning and context. For me, it’s about the feelings that come from reading those words. So, while text is the framework upon which I build my paintings, it serves mainly to create emotion. The vigor of the writing, the lines of sentences, the dark charcoal marks… these are all the underpinnings that support color and paint stroke and texture. The title and a legible word or two may hint at the meaning of the painting for me as the creator of it, but in the end it’s all about what the viewer brings to the table.

Lori Anne Boocks

small boxes... some on fire
September 1 - September 25, 2010
First Friday Reception: 9/3, 6 - 8 pm
Artists' Reception: Saturday, 9/11, 4 - 6 pm

Studio Gallery - www.studiogallerydc.com

2108 R Street N.W. Washington, DC 20008 202.232.8734 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202.232.8734      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202.232.8734      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Artist Interview: Soline Krug

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?

A show in a respected, well-known gallery would be ideal for me. It would increase the visibility and the impact my work might have. Also, showing in a place like an Asperger’s association would mean a lot to me. I would think that my work would touch my audience, as it touched me and my family. I would want convert my work into an experience and ask other art forms to interact with it. I would also want butoh dancers to come and perform in the middle of my show.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Art brings emotion, interaction and connects with the viewer/public. Art is not understood on a descriptive level. This is what art does best: art is free from description. It does not need description to exist. Art is about evoking an interpretation: ie. letting the viewer/public have their own. Art is about complete liberty.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you
like them to know about your work?
I think I can expect the viewer to look at my work closely and look for answers, wish for something different, start a discussion about why and how.

I don’t know if I want the viewer to know so much. This is a little contradictory to the notion of interpretation that I bring up in question #2. I would rather witness a pure relationship between the viewer and my work. And maybe then, when they have had the chance to have their own story, I would tell mine.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
I have a lot of respect for Duchamp. He is an infinite source of inspiration for artists. But I see him more as a philosopher than as an artist since he is “missing,” even on purpose, the retinal component. But let’s face it, how could I blame him for wanting to bring art into a new dimension?

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
I am wondering if there has ever been “no pluralistic climate”. I think history is filtering a lot for us. So sure, history will do the job again and tell us what the art movement of the early 21st century were. I would mention street art as an example of a movement.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
You could have asked me what makes my art interesting. So let’s do some shameless self- promotion. I would answer that my work deals with the origins of the human being: the basic, everlasting dilemma between nature and society, the individual vs. the mass. Since I have been working on this subject, it seems to me as if this is the source of everything I see. There is still a lot to come because I had this kind of revelation only a few months ago. But I can promise that this is going to be an adventure to look forward to.

Artist Interview: Josh Atlas

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?

I want my work to be able to find its way into as many homes as possible. Because I aim to put a lot of my personality into my work, being in some one's home becomes a way to form a personal relationship. The work can spend time with the viewer. That allows the meaning/value to become something truly personal to them.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
I can't remember who to attribute the quote to, but I'm going to go with "Art is just an excuse for people to fall in love."

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
Because my work is based in comedy, I want to challenge the way the viewer internalizes the piece. Rather than simply remembering a description, I hope that they will come up with a joke that compliments the piece.   

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
Joyful agreement! Most art is still best viewed and experienced in physical space (as opposed to a digital form). If an artist is going to demand that a viewer needs to visit a specific location to see their work, then they owe it to the viewer to create a more full body experience.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
Yes. Perhaps more than ever. As people get more and more connected, a variety of visual forms will take hold with new and varied audiences. The artist does not need the traditional means of success (a solo show at MoMA) to reach a community that finds value and meaning in what you do. 

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
Do you have any upcoming exhibitions?

I will have work in the Wassaic Project Festival, in Wassaic, New York. The festival runs from August 13-15. More information can be found at www.wassaicproject.org

Artist Interview: Kathryn Trillas

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
In a home. My work is meant  for people.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
It provides eye candy or a voice.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
My audience already knows.  I had a small blank book at Artomatic, and people wrote about the feeling my paintings evoked. They did not write about the image, nor the execution, just their feelings while they looked at the work. They were the feelings I had when I was in their place. I had no statement for them to read.  Now, how can I improve on that?  I have a voice without words, images that convey just a feeling.   

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
Duchamp could draw better that I can, so he should know.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
There are still art movements today.  Robots seemed to be the popular theme of the last Artomatic.  All you have to do is get enough artist together, and you will find any number of movements. 

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
What drives me to create the images that I make?  I'm first drawn to a place for the beauty, peace, and sheer magnificence of it.  But it's later, while looking a the drawings & photos I take of these places that I notice the powerful geometric shapes - the lights and darks that define the shapes.  I like to solve problems, and use the block of trees, the movement in the clouds and water, as tools to express a place as I remember it.  I like a bit of logic, greenish trees, light skys, but also a little bit of improvisation, like a base coat of bronzed sienna to paint on.  If the end product happens to be a beautiful - a bit of eye candy - who am I to complain.  The viewer seems to get the message.

However, I never stop exploring different ways to say how I feel.

Artist Interview: Minimum Wage Art

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
I would display my work right where i sell it - at the farmer's market. My pieces are surrounded by ripe fruit and dahlias and homemade furniture. Over-friendly dogs step on my art and bugs land on the corners. My work is durable, so it works out well. It ages with the very things that inspired it.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and
descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space
in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us?
What does art do best?
Art shows us the things we're too busy to see. I realize this statement implies a sort of superiority of the artist over the non-artists. I am not denying the accusation in all its serious and intent. My head is big enough to allow me to admit that I see things better than people who are not artists.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you
like them to know about your work?
The one thing that I hope for from my audience is a need to have art of their own. I began Minimum Wage Art as a way for folks to go home with a piece of art that they appreciate without selling a kidney.I  think many aritsts conflate the price of their art with its worth. This is valuable information to the viewer when the audience is trying to understand the perspective of the artist, and those prices often hold just as much information as what medium was used and what the title may be. My pieces are worth very little to me; its the process of planning, creating, and then selling art that gets me all excited. Since I use salvaged materials for my art, my time is really the only vaulable thing that is being invested; that is why i only charge minimum wage for the time that went into each piece. My pieces are like kittens - I just want them all to have a good home. When someone feels like they have gotten a bargain on a piece of art that they enjoy, then I know I have done my job.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
Duchamp was brilliant and crazy.  He was also wrong.  Retinal art is doing perfectly well, and has been for the past 80-ish years - since he said that.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's
pluralistic climate?
Art movements are always welcome!  Of course, the thing about art movements is that you don't know there is one until it's already past. 

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please
feel free to answer it.
The one question I wish you had asked is how I have time to paint while being a full-time scientist.  My answer is that I don't sleep for one night during the week, and stay up the whole night painting.  I store up sketches from the week to inspire me during my frenzy and make sure that I have lots of sparkling water and blueberries to keep me going until dawn.

Artist Interview: Pam Rogers

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
Most often I find that showing my 2-D work and my sculpture together enhances the experience for the audience and myself, so finding a a space that lets both have enough breathing room is important to me.  That said, I am not fond of the traditional formal gallery format.  Ideally, if I had to define the perfect space it would be something similar to the covered courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery. It has an indoor and an outdoor feel and space to sit and walk and interact with the work. I would always want an audience to feel comfortable in the space while viewing my artwork.  I have displayed work in large warehouses finding intimate corners, spaces within spaces, and that has been successful.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Art can help us make sense of, or at least explore, what is happening in our culture and in the world around us. It allows for a personal journey within that exploration, while at the same time drawing in and on the experiences of many.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I do not have expectations of my viewers. I assume that they have expectations of me. I don't make work for others. I hope my viewing public relates to or can find something that resonates with their own life in my artwork, but I make work because I am an artist and feel that is what I need to do for myself. I have found that people often come to art with agendas, hopes and fears. I only hope that they can take away something that resonates with them, something that someday will emerge in a thought or conversation, prompting them to remember the work or their experience of my work.

My work starts randomly, but it is finished with intention.  It is, for the most part, narrative.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
The visual is only once aspect of art, and I have long felt that I need to engage the viewer on multiple sensory levels, smell being current favorite, to really experience the artwork. If Duchamp is suggesting that art has moved beyond the canvas or 2-D images, he is placing his own limitations on the definition of what constitutes art. I would  hope as artists explore and engage in multiple disciplinary art practices that they are not limited to 2-D art, but that it is not discounted simply because it is 2-D.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
Why not?

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
It would have been a question regarding my use of materials that directly relate to the narrative in my work.  I am currently making pigments out of plants and soil, rocks etc.. and using this in the work. Sometime I have directly embedded plant pigments into the work and created images based on those. I go back and forth between making the sculptural pieces and the work on paper- each informs and enhances the other and together they begin to make sense and create the narrative I am interested in.  I have a show opening at the Hillyer Art Space on Aug. 6th that will have both the sculpture and the work on paper in the same space, and that is exciting for me.  Often a gallery is interested in one or the other, but this is a great opportunity for me to show both.  I am excited to see how they work together in a fairly intimate space.

Artist Interview: Nishith

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
I never thought of an ideal situation before. I did love Artomatic. One thing I would like to see is if Artomatic can somehow group things. What I mean is that I draw cartoon style drawings. I would like to see my work in some type of setting where the other artwork is also in cartoon style.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Art soothes the soul. (Sounds cheesy....but it does...)

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I cannot expect anything really from my audience. Art is subjective. One person may appreciate my drawings, the next person may not care for them.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
If he is saying too much art is visual art, then i disagree. Again, everyone is entitled to an opinion. But, I don't agree with what I think he is saying.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
Art is always moving.

Artist Interview: Eileen Williams

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
The ideal situation for displaying my work would be a solo showing at a venue that has great exposure and where the atmosphere is that of a relaxed setting. I believe we should share art with others - from curious children to art loving adults.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Art is universal. It needs no language to communicate. Art gives us the opportunity to explore the minds of others, and at its best, it awakens our senses at different levels.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
As an artist, I take pleasure when my art work evokes conversation, stimulates the imagination and engages people to feel something. I would like those viewing my pieces to know that they are one of a kind, created from the heart and as an extension of myself and my love for art.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
The beauty of art is in the eye of the beholder. Marcel Duchamp's statement, "Enough with retinal art" seems to leave no room for a personal view toward an art piece. What may be unfulfilling to one person, may give visual pleasure to someone else. On the flip side, if given a choice to attend a retinal art showing, (ie. a normal, traditional, unimaginative art show), my personal preference would be a non-retinal art showing. I love to view art that is different and outside of the box.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
In this ever changing world, there is always room for art movements. Although, "there is nothing new under the sun," art movements can bring what we may not have been exposed to and even an awareness about its existence to the forefront.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
If I could add a question related to my my art, I would ask: If you could never be paid for the art you create, would you still create? My answer would be yes, I would still create art. My relationship to my art is like a magnet to metal. Creating art is a huge part of who I am. As artists in these economic times, we are not always selling our pieces, but the love of our craft compels us to create.

Artist Interview: Natalya Andreyeva

Natalya Andreyeva, Cherry Blossoms 2

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?

Ideal? It is all relative. Gallery is always a great option, but settings similar to Artomatic attract larger and more diverse audiences. I have done many outdoor shows, and while the outcome was good, it is hard on the artist to create, set up, promote and move outdoor equipment.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?

Your question is written in a complicated manner, but, anyway - for me - the art has to awaken an emotion, a question, a thought. If it does not, it is not memorable. It is pointless.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?

I am an abstract impressionist, but I do love all sorts of collage work. My recent project on the Evolution of the DC Metro is dear to my heart http://www.natyartist.com/Go_DC_Metro.html
I want my viewers to have a deeper understanding of currently "taken for granted" elements in city life and evolution and history in general through the collaged imagery of past and present America.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement? again, it is all relative.
In this economy, even retail art is soaring. I do think that schools and college programs should emphasize art education and appreciation of creativity. At the same time, when it comes to retail art (or sale of artwork) it all has to be accessible and affordable. I am not suggesting that artists should "sell out" and price their works according to IKEA's business plan, but I would encourage them to have a realistic approach in pricing art work.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's pluralistic climate?
Sure, but what is an art movement? A specific style, group, project? There is room for anything and anyone in America (I speak as as an immigrant from Ukraine). The challenge is - will it be sustainable?

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.

Hmm...I would prefer to hear from the viewer about my art or art process. So, if you have a question in mind - ask away!

Artist Interview: Denise Philipbar

1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?

Ideally, I would display my work in several large galleries with someone else having to do the installation, marketing and sales. I'm happy to give them the commission. Marketing/sales is not my strong point, and they are my least favorite tasks as an artist.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us? What does art do best?
Art takes both of those apparatuses and combines them. My paintings explain and describe my own experiences to viewers in may ways. They also place my ideas in space, whether or not that space exists outside of the paintings, allowing them to take on a dimension they wouldn't have in my imagination. If anything, my work allows me to inform myself of my thoughts in ways I couldn't have imagined them without the medium in which I work.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you like them to know about your work?
I have no expectations from the audience/fans/viewing public. Expectations of others only leads to disappointment in them. I'd rather place the expectations on myself. I know my capabilities. I would like them to know that my work is in transition. Having the intense experience of several critiques per week from professional artists working in the contemporary art scene, as well as viewing art with a group of informed, highly creative and imaginative people, can't help but have an enormous effect on what I will do in the next weeks, months and years. I'm excited to see where my work is taking me. It's an unfolding, and it's energizing.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
Duchamp was working in a time of great technological change that continues into our time, and on some levels, I agree with his statement. Art that massages the visual alone has its limits. However, art that captures the mind has no limits. This can be done in subtle ways. Duchamp lacked such subtlety. I'm trying to learn the art of capturing the mind. Time will tell if I succeed.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's
pluralistic climate?
I think the key to the question is movements. The patricidal nature of the art world, for the last century and then some, is diminishing. We don't have to replace the old with the new continually. In our time, they can live side by side. Art is becoming speciated and that is good.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please feel free to answer it.
I can't think of one now. Ask me in a year.